Artist, weaver, pedagogue
Wanda Bibrowicz was born on June 3, 1878, in Grodzisk Wielkopolski. Her father, Stanisław Bibrowicz, was the owner of the last Polish-held brewery and estate in Grodzisk Wielkopolski. Her mother, Maria Bibrowicz (née Tadrzyńska), came from the Polish nobility. Wanda had three siblings: a brother, Wacław (born 1874, a neurologist); a sister, Jadwiga (born 1876); and her younger sister, Helena, who was also artistically talented. All the children received a thorough education.
After completing high school in Grodzisk Wielkopolski, Wanda went to Wroclaw for her studies. Records of Wroclaw residents indicate that Wanda’s parents moved to Wrocław during their children’s university years.
In 1896, she passed the entrance exam for the Royal School of Art and Applied Crafts and began studying in the portrait painting studio led by Professor Max Wislicenus. In 1898, she completed the pedagogical program, which qualified her to teach drawing. She continued her studies in the painting studio.
Among the very diligent students was a young Polish woman – Wanda Bibrowicz, who, with her modesty and restraint, was the best and most talented. She was regarded as a highly educated, independent, and proud individual.
From 1903 to 1916, the headmaster of the Royal Academy of Art and Applied Crafts was the exceptionally talented architect Hans Poelzig, who was the first to organize Applied Art Workshops alongside pure art. For this reason, design historians later referred to this school as a precursor to the Bauhaus (1919–1933). In this favorable environment, in 1904, a studio for artistic textiles was established, organized from the ground up by Wanda Bibrowicz, who was then an assistant to Max Wislicenus. Her exceptional talent and organizational skills enabled her to quickly begin working with students based on her own curriculum. Together with Professor Wislicenus, she adopted the principle that “the artist is a weaver, and the weaver is an artist.” This principle helped her clearly define the direction of her pedagogical work. In the Academy’s studio, textiles were created to furnish prestigious interiors designed by a team of professors. The textiles for the Lwówek Town Hall and the Royal overnment Building in Wrocław were produced by Wanda Bibrowicz, based on designs by Max Wislicenus.
Her own designs and creations had a distinctive and consistent style, characterized by a planar treatment of surfaces through the careful arrangement of colorful patches.
Miss Bibrowicz, in addition to her craftsmanship, was a designer of great talent. Her works were saturated with color… She is Polish by birth, endowed with the lightness and temperament essential for creative work.
A distinctive feature of her works is their narrative quality, particularly evident in the textiles she created during her stay in Szklarska Poręba. In 1911, despite her artistic and professional successes, she resigned from her position at the Academy. She moved to Szklarska Poręba to establish a modern weaving workshop with an exhibition gallery, called the Silesian Artistic Weaving Workshop. The facility was located on what is now Jedności Narodowej Street.
The ten-year period of creative work in Szklarska Poręba was highly productive. Some of her most outstanding works were created there, including “St. Francis”, “St. Jerome”, “Peace”, “Fairy Tale”, “Praying Women”, “Christmas”, and her greatest life achievement, a series of tapestries for the meeting hall of the Ratzeburg Town Hall. The dates inscribed on the individual Ratzeburg pieces indicate that nine tapestries were created at the Silesian Artistic Weaving Workshop in Szklarska Poręba. The remaining three, depicting the coats of arms of distinguished families, were completed during her Dresden period at workshops in Pillnitz.
Carl Hauptman, a writer (brother of the Nobel laureate Gerhart), was an enthusiast of Wanda Bibrowicz’s works and often visited her studio, drawing inspiration for his poetry there.
One can gaze into her tapestries just as one can gaze into the depth of frescoes.
Thirty years later, in 1953, the president of the Ratzeburg district sent the artist a letter of thanks for the effort she had put into creating works that had been included in the priceless heritage of Ratzeburg.
After World War I, Saxony saw the dynamic development of the textile industry, and there was also growing interest in artistic weaving. Wanda Bibrowicz was offered the opportunity to open an artistic weaving workshop and establish a crafts school in Dresden.
In October 1919, Wanda moved with her mother and sister Helena to Pillnitz. In early 1920, she set up the Weaving Workshops in the bachelor wing of the Pillnitz Castle, which operated until the start of World War II. Thanks to her many years of experience, she quickly created a working atmosphere similar to that of the Silesian Workshops. She hired several weavers and trained young apprentices to meet the growing orders for public buildings, such as town halls, conference rooms, and representative spaces.
Between 1920 and 1930, together with Max Wislicenus, she embarked on a series of artistic travels that left a mark on her work. In addition to trips to France, Denmark, Switzerland, Austria, Italy, and the Czech Republic, she also visited her homeland frequently, especially to Poznań and Krakow. In 1931, as an outstanding artist and recognized craftswoman, she was appointed to a managerial position at the Weaving Workshop in the State School of Masters of Artistic Crafts in Dresden. There, she introduced the teaching of designing practical textiles based on the then-dominant Art Deco style. She was a beloved professor, able to inspire students and guide them in their creative pursuits.
Unfortunately, the satisfaction that the artist gained from her academic work was overshadowed by the atmosphere of Nazi Germany, which was not conducive to the flourishing of creative thought. Starting in 1933, when Hitler came to power, difficult years began for independent art, as the Bauhaus was abolished and the Royal Academy of Art in Wroclaw was closed. At the beginning of World War II, Wanda was over sixty, but she did not cease her passion. Internally disciplined and determined, she continued to create until the surrender of Germany in 1945. Works from this period include “Liczyrzepa”, referencing Silesian memories from a happier period of her life, “Return”, “Singing Forest”, “Gazelles”, “Falcons”, “The Good Shepherd”, “Gloria of Music”, “Sheep”, and “Owls in the Mist.”
With the end of the war, the thriving weaving workshop in Pillnitz ceased to exist. The authorities of the German Democratic Republic showed no interest in resuming work at the famous workshops or in the creative output of the artists. The postwar period brought bitterness and disappointment. Wanda felt lonely, as the war had devastated and separated families and many friends. Despite her depression and old age, she resumed her creative work and, at the age of seventy, created a tapestry titled “Christmas”, which was probably her last work.
In 1949 (after the death of Else Wislicenus in 1948), Wanda and Max married. Their marriage lasted only five years, during which time they focused on organizing and conserving the works saved from the turmoil of World War II. In August 1951, at Pillnitz Castle, Wanda Bibrowicz and Max Wislicenus jointly organized an exhibition of their works, saved from the war’s destruction. That same year, Wanda was awarded the title of professor by the government of the German Democratic Republic for her long-standing pedagogical and artistic work, as well as a lifelong honorary pension, which provided them with modest means of support.
She died on July 3, 1954, in Pillnitz, in the presence of her husband Max Wislicenus. She was buried in Hosterwitz near Dresden.
Max lived for three more years and died in 1957.
Wanda Bibrowicz–Wislicenus donated her artistic legacy from the Dresden period to the German state as a memorial to the weaving workshops at Pillnitz Castle. Her works are housed in the museum collections of Pillnitz Castle, the Chemnitz Museum, the National Museum in Warsaw, in Wroclaw, the Central Museum of Textiles in Łódź, and the Regional Museum in Jelenia Góra. She completed over 100 works, of which 46 have been preserved in good condition to this day.