Władysław Teodor Benda (1873–1948), painter, scenographist, and illustrator, was born in Poznań and died in New York. Many of Benda’s works were destroyed in a fire in the Polish library and museum of the Polish National Alliance College in Cambridge Springs, Pennsylvania, in 1931. However, nearly 100 posters and over 10 of Benda’s pastels, gouaches, watercolors and drawings are preserved in the PMA. They present a variety of themes: nature, portraits of women, and historical subjects (the most numerous of his works). Posters relating to World War I constitute a large collection. Two masks by Benda of the face of Helena Modrzejewska (Modjeska), a relative of the artist, are also in the collection. The PMA is attempting to gather material from his period as a successful commercial artist in the 1920’s–1940’s.
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Jeanne Hathaway says:
July 11, 2020 at 8:36 pmI discovered a Benda work titled Krakowiak in a lodge built in the 1930’s by entrepreneur last name of King. I was fascinated by it because it looked original by the condition of the back although it had been reframed since the 1930’s. It is hanging in a guest suite in Gateway Lodge in Land O Lakes, northern WI. Do you know where the original work is? If copies of this joyful Polish National Dance scene are able to be reprinted somewhere, I would like to get one.
It epitomizes the joy and energy of a people in a time of innocence. Thank you!