Aleksander Sochaczewski – a Painter-Sybirak and the Siberian Collection

Abstract

As a young student at the Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts, Aleksander Sochaczewski (1843–1923) became involved in the patriotic movement, which led to his arrest in 1862. After his return to Europe, he devoted his work to documenting the tragedy of Polish exiles by creating the Siberian Collection – a collection of paintings created throughout his life, currently held in its entirety in the Museum of the 10th Pavilion of the Warsaw Citadel. The collection consists of paintings (portraits and genre scenes), oil sketches and drawings depicting the life of Polish exiles to Siberia, whom Sochaczewski remembered during his own 22-years-long exile to a salt mine in Usolye-Sibirskoye. He presented his works in Western Europe in an attempt, as he said himself, to show “the civilised world at least some of the sufferings endured out of love towards a nation that refuses to die.” In 1913, Sochaczewski moved his entire Collection to an exhibition in Lviv at his own expense. Once it was closed, he donated it to the city in exchange for a life pension. Sochaczewski died in 1923 in Austria.