The exhibition was created to commemorate the 120th anniversary of the publication of November Night, which Stanisław Wyspiański wrote after a short visit to the Royal Łazienki Museum. The exhibition explores the writer’s aesthetic and literary inspirations and the stage history of the famous drama. The exhibits on display include, among other things, photographs, theatre posters, as well as costumes, props and fragments of stage decorations.

The exhibition is open from Tuesday to Wednesday from 09.00 to 16.00, from Thursday to Saturday from 10.00 to 18.00, and on Sunday from 10.00 to 16.00. Last entry 30 minutes before closing. Admission: 30 zlotys – normal ticket, 15 zlotys – reduced ticket, 20 zlotys – adults with a Large Family Card, free entry on Friday.

Tickets can be purchased at the ticket office and from the ticket machine at the Officer Cadets School, and online - BUY TICKET.

November Night and the Royal Łazienki Museum

Stanisław Wyspiański wrote November Night after a visit to the Royal Łazienki, which took place during his only stay in Warsaw in late January and early February 1898. It was the unique topography of the royal residence (historic gardens, classicist architecture) and its history that marked the content of the famous work. In it, the writer raised the subject of the anti-Russian uprising that broke out on the night of 29-30 November 1830 at the School of the Cadets at the Royal Łazienki. Hence, for the most part, the drama is set on the grounds of the royal residence: in the School of the Cadets (the present day Officer Cadets School), the Palace on the Isle, the Theatre on the Isle (Amphitheatre) and by Jan III Sobieski Monument. Historical events are intertwined with Greek and Roman mythology, and the protagonists are both figures from the pages of history and Olympic deities of the Łazienki statues that are brought to life as well as creatures from their surroundings, such as the Satyrs and Eumenides.

‘Iconosphere of Wyspiański’ – what will we see at the exhibition?

The themes of the exhibition focus on both the 19th-century history of the Royal Łazienki and the poetic, visual and theatrical imagination of Stanisław Wyspiański. Visitors can learn about the writer’s artistic inspirations, the relationship between the Royal Łazienki and November Night and the stage history of the drama.

The exhibition opens with the genesis of the work. Among other things, original 19th-century prints of two of the most important studies on the November Uprising from the collection of the National Library are presented to visitors. These were the basic historical readings that Stanisław Wyspiański drew on when creating his drama. The next part of the exhibition presents the writer’s aesthetic inspirations, which included Łazienki-inspired works of art such as the sculptures of Pallas Athena and Ares from the Palace on the Isle, Homer’s ‘Iliad’, the musical dramas of Richard Wagner or the painting Isle of the Dead by Arnold Böcklin (a reference to the work by Max Klinger and Jacek Malczewski on display from January 2025).

As for the creation of the figure of Athena, apart from the Łazienki sculpture, Stanisław Wyspiański was probably also inspired by her image originating from Gustav Klimt. A reproduction of the Pallas Athena work, used as a poster for the first exhibition of the Vienna Secession, found its way onto the cover of the Ver Sacrum magazine, in which Stanisław Wyspiański published. The magazine is on display at the Royal Łazienki Museum.

An important part of the exhibition is the stage history of the November Night from 1908-2022. The exhibits to be seen are Stanisław Wyspiański’s drawings made for November Night and his theatrical models, among others. Visitors can also see photographs, theatre posters, costumes, props and fragments of decorations, as well as documents describing work on particular stage adaptations, i.e. directors’ sketches and set designers’ designs. Most of these objects come from the theatre’s storerooms, which are not normally accessible to the public; so undoubtedly they are an attraction.

The exhibition also recalls theatrical productions of November Night on major Polish stages, starting with the premiere on 28 November 1908, i.e. one year after Stanisław Wyspiański’s death, but made on his instructions and directed by Ludwik Solski at the Municipal Theatre in Kraków. The stage adaptations of the following three prominent post-war directors were highlighted in particular: Kazimierz Dejmek (in 1956 at the New Theatre in Łódź with the stage scenery by Andrzej Stopka; in 1960 transferred to the Polish Theatre in Warsaw), Andrzej Wajda (played in 1974 at the Old Theatre in Kraków with costumes by Krystyna Zachwatowicz, in 1978 recorded in the Royal Łazienki Park and on the streets of Warsaw for Polish Television) and Jerzy Grzegorzewski (featuring decorations by Andrzej Majewski at the National Theatre following its reconstruction, in two versions in November 1997 and 2000). In these works, the audience can see how the Royal Łazienki were depicted in individual plays, what metamorphoses they underwent and what symbolic meaning was given to them by theatre directors.

In addition, the exhibition will feature excerpts from music tracks from selected stage adaptations of November Night. It is also worth noting that the drama is an opera, or more precisely a libretto of a musical drama in the style of Richard Wagner.

‘Iconosphere of Wyspiański’ – events accompanying the exhibition

The exhibition is accompanied by events for different age groups, including guided tours of the exhibition, lectures, workshops, walks, theatre meetings, animations and museum lessons for primary schools, secondary schools and adult groups, as well as the creative space ‘What is played here? The theatrical world of Stanisław Wyspiański’ at the Old Guardhouse. 

‘Iconosphere of Wyspiański’ – a rich collection of exhibits

The exhibits presented at the exhibition were loaned from the Wien Museum and Polish institutions such as: the Academy of Fine Arts in Katowice, the Institute of Art of the Polish Academy of Sciences, the National Museum in Kraków, the National Museum in Szczecin, the National Museum in Warsaw, the National Museum in Wrocław, the Grand Theatre – National Opera, the National Theatre in Warsaw, the Main Library of Warsaw University of Technology, the National Library, the Manggha Museum of Japanese Art and Technology – Andrzej Wajda Archive, the Museum of Krakow, the Helena Modrzejewska National Old Theatre in Kraków/Museum, Juliusz Słowacki Theatre in Kraków, Zbigniew Raszewski Theatre Institute. in Warsaw and the Polish Classics Theatre.

Exhibition curators: Professor Hernik Spalińska, Ph.D., from the Institute of Art of the Polish Academy of Sciences, Dr Joanna Szumańska; Rafał Węgrzyniak, theatre historian and critic who died in February 2024, an outstanding expert on the work of Stanisław Wyspiański. The exhibition was co-financed by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage.