Adam Gorczyński ( ; 1805 – 24 May 1876) was a Polish writer and poet of the Romantic era, author of popular novels in the style of gawęda szlachecka and Old Polish silvae rerum, a painter of the Polish Romantic era, an artist of Polish landscapes, co-founder of the Kraków Society of Friends of Fine Arts, politically engaged in Polish affairs in Galicia, a social activist, and owner of estates in Brzeźnica and Marcyporęba. He used the literary pseudonym "Jadam of Zator". In the 21st century, he became the patron of cultural initiatives in his hometown of Brzeźnica.
Early life
He was born in 1805 in Tarnów as the son of the ennobled lawyer Józef Kalasanty Gorczyński (of his own coat of arms) and Katarzyna Łojowska. In 1818, Józef Kalasanty purchased Brzeźnica, Nowe Dwory, and part of Marcyporęba. Adam's sister Elżbieta was the grandmother of General Józef Haller.
Adam Gorczyński completed his gymnasium education in Tarnów and then studied philosophy in Lviv. During this time, he established contacts with Ossolineum and became close to a group of Lviv intellectuals – , , and – who were advocates of emphasizing the connections between Polish culture and the history of Slavdom. The cultural and literary atmosphere that the young Gorczyński absorbed during this time was reflected in his later literary works.
From 1821, he pursued "chamber studies" in Vienna, which prepared estate managers for large landownership and officials for the Austrian crown lands. Upon his return from Vienna, where he also studied painting, he married and took over the management of the estate in Nowe Dwory. After his father's death in 1830, he permanently moved to Brzeźnica, which he inherited together with part of the nearby Marcyporęba. As a significant landowner in Galicia, he had the right to vote in the estate owners' curia. He died in 1876 and was buried in the cemetery next to the parish church in Marcyporęba.
Literary work Adam Gorczyński was a creator of the Polish Romantic era, associated with emigrant literature and Slavophilia, whose development coincided with the period from 1815 (the confirmation of the partitions of Poland by the Congress of Vienna) to 1863 (the fall of the January Uprising). During this time, the paths of European Romanticism were shaped by social changes, and Polish political events defined its distinct national-patriotic character. These characteristics appeared in Polish art until the regaining of independence in 1918, and even until the Warsaw Uprising in 1944.
Gorczyński's literary work was characterized by the affirmation of native customs, familiar landscapes, and ancient legends, with its main features being patriotism, regionalism, historicism, and populism. From 1835 to 1845, he was one of the most widely read Polish writers. He first published poetic works in Rozmaitości Lwowskie in 1819. He wrote 21 dramatic works that were performed in theaters in Kraków, Lviv, Warsaw, and Poznań. His son Bronisław published collections of his poems and play texts after the writer's death. Gorczyński printed them earlier in various periodicals such as Sławianin, Rozmaitości, Przyjaciel Ludu, Czas, and Biblioteka Warszawska.
Characteristic of Gorczyński's work were stories akin to gawęda szlachecka. This genre mimicked oral tales, seemingly casual, filled with elaborate digressions and commentary. The themes of these works focused on vignettes from the everyday lives of the old middle-class nobility, and their composition resembled genre scenes. This was a consequence of the similarity the author saw between literature and painting. Among the most popular stories were: Zamek Libusza; Kto się w opiekę poda Panu Swemu; Niedźwiedzica; Górnice; Kwestia o Wilczy Dołek; Żaki; Kapitalik; Syn Chrzestny; Hełm Jaksy; Wróżba Maruchy; Pan Królowej ruskiej; Zwierciadełko; Skała św. Onufrego, czyli kronika szlacheckiego dworku; Kasperek; Straszny strzelec. Some of these stories were translated into Czech and German.
Powieści Jadama in the form of legends and fairy tales from near Kraków were published in 1838. In 1842, he published in Lviv a collection Opowieści i legendy Jadama z Ziemi Zatorskiej, the extensive review of which was published in the monthly , and which became a reading material in 1852 in a Polish high school in Cieszyn. In this collection, he included legends concerning Zakrzów, as well as Nowe Dwory, of which he was the owner. In the same year, he printed Silva Rerum Jadama in the literary form of silva rerum, which was a continuation of Opowieści. He was also the author of two novels of manners – Farmazon (1844) and Zeno (1845).
Gorczyński's books belonged to popular Romanticism, intended for a wide audience. Their content was medieval stories, which the writer developed and embellished with his own imagination. Some of them (e.g., Balice, Zmesta, Hełm Jaksy) were based on fragments of chronicles by Jan Długosz and Marcin Bielski. The action of Gorczyński's historical tales often took place in romantic-gothic scenery, such as dungeons and castles, mysterious caves and abandoned chapels (the story Balice). His illustrated legend Pogoń Tatarów, located in Czorsztyn Castle, was published in 1847.
He used the pseudonym "Jadam of Zator", emphasizing his affiliation with a specific region, with its own culture and history. This kind of literary mystification, often used in Romanticism, was intended to authenticate the presented works as stories heard from common folk. The basis for these works were legends recorded by Gorczyński during his national wanderings, often with friends – Wincenty Pol, Jan Nepomucen Głowacki, and . After the tragic events of the Galician Peasant Uprising, he clearly changed the message of his publications towards organic work.
He translated the poems of the Czech poet Václav Hanka. He also engaged in translating the poetry of German romantics Friedrich Schiller and Johann Goethe. He also translated William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, which relied on well-known sentimental conventions supplemented with elements of hagiography and gawęda szlachecka. The translation of Romeo and Juliet was not performed in the 19th century. Gorczyński's catalog of works is found in the . In the extensive monograph Outline of the History of Polish Literature from 1860, dramas authored by him were highly praised: In them (the dramas), uncommon talent shines, there are scenes of wondrous beauty, which he masterfully renders, capturing the spirit of the age brilliantly, yet also alongside this there are flat, unremarkable chambers.
At the beginning of the 1860s, he ceased his literary activity. A quarter of a century after his death, he was described as a novelist and playwright, once quite renowned, whose works were favorably received because they appeared during a great literary drought in the country and because they seemed to be based on local legends, which were highly valued at the time.
Karol Estreicher quotes Adam Gorczyński's words from their meeting in Kraków in 1852: I write in moments free from agricultural tasks. (...) Amidst so many literary coryphaeuses, a humble foot soldier cannot advance, and I live out my days peacefully in the countryside, as good God has ordained for me. In a contemporary Polish literature textbook for school use, it was stated in 1866 that he wrote several good novels, among which "Farmazon" (1844) stands out. "Silva rerum" (1842) is a collection of tales of barren content, but beautifully written in language.
Kraków's in a posthumous tribute in 1876 wrote: Adam Gorczyński belonged to the slim ranks of writers who sought to enliven literary activity amidst the most enduring censorship and complete indifference to books. Józef Ignacy Kraszewski wrote about his novels: One can recognize exceptional talent, and above all, a fair understanding of the past and an understanding of its spirit without prejudice.
Romanticism initiated a modern national ideology and decisively influenced the adopted worldview and political positions in Poland. The selection of stories and poetry by Adam Gorczyński was published in 2014. A source-based analysis of Gorczyński's works in terms of local history based on the discovered parish archive in Stryszów, where his family were patrons, was published in 2021. In the consciousness of later generations, "Jadam of Zator" primarily emerged as a bard of the native areas and a lover of folk legends. He is recognized as a creator on the border between Romanticism and Positivism.
On (in the landscape reserve above the Rudawa canyon in near Kraków), there exists a fragment of his archaic verse, carved in 1854 at the behest of Professor Łepkowski, and at the expense of Count Skórzewski, renewed in 2016: The poetic apotheosis Chleb was republished in 1918. Gorczyński's poem W grudniu! from 1884 was presented in 2020 as an example of a work helpful in educating contemporary students and healthcare workers. It was also noted that poetry of this kind enriches medical professionals and may protect them from occupational burnout.
Paintings
The ideological content of Adam Gorczyński's paintings also belonged to Polish Romanticism, in which realistic tendencies dominated, objectively representing reality. During this period, the birth of landscape painting as a separate subject in art occurred. Artists began to paint landscapes as they truly saw them. The characteristic features of this type of landscape were the approach to the subject, attention to detail, delicate lines, uniform texture, and expressive use of color.
Gorczyński studied painting in Vienna under the landscape painter Franz Steinfeld (1787–1868), and also in Kraków under Jan Nepomucen Głowacki (1802–1847), who was named in 2016 by the as the "father of Polish landscape". They shared a fascination with the landscapes of Podhale and the Tatra Mountains. Gorczyński authored several hundred paintings in the style of Polish Romanticism, which, like his literary works, had a clear patriotic and independence character in the context of the political situation in partitioned Poland. He depicted society against the backdrop of local landscapes and historical monuments. The most common theme of his paintings were landscapes of his native land.
From his Viennese master, Steinfeld, he adopted an artistic form that originated directly from the 18th-century Alpine painting school, characterized by picturesque scenes, precise framing, and delicate colors. Light was the dominant element of his compositions. These principles corresponded with the assumptions of Polish Biedermeier, promoted by Głowacki – Gorczyński's friend and second mentor. Gorczyński himself was convinced of the correspondence between literature and painting, especially literary landscapes, about which he wrote in three essays: O Janie Nepomucenie Głowackim, artyście krakowskim, i o krajobrazie w obecnym czasie (1862), Obrazki rodzajowe (1855), and Pejzaż (Urywek z myśli o sztuce) (1853).