Painter
Róża Farbisz-Kijankowa was born on August 27, 1903, in Dzików, into a peasant family. Her mother was Rozalia Słomka, and Jan Farbisz was her father. The artist’s mother was the daughter of Jan Słomka, a social and economic activist in Galicia, who served for about 40 years as the mayor of the village of Dzików near Tarnobrzeg—an estate of Count Tarnowski. Słomka became renowned for his work entitled “Memoirs of a Peasant: From Serfdom to the Present Day,” which described the life of this social class. It was published in 1912, and even before World War I, an English edition had been released.
In the times described by Jan Słomka, Dzików differed from the typical image of a Polish village, as Count Tarnowski cared about the education and development of his fellow residents. The Farbisz family is the best example of this. Despite the large family (Róża had nine siblings), the level of education among its members was high. The eldest brother, Tadeusz Farbisz, was a church painter employed by the Dominican Monastery to create sacred paintings. One of her sisters, Maria Farbiszówna, at the request of the Count, was sent by Professor Lutosławski to Switzerland to receive a proper education. She spent her entire life in Geneva.
After completing primary school, Róża attended the Teacher Training Seminar, and later, following the suggestion of her teachers, she began studying painting, as art had been her main area of interest.
Róża’s son, Jaromir Kijanka, recalls that the family lived extremely modestly. As an example, he mentions that during her time at the seminar,
4 of her sisters and Róża herself shared a single pair of sandals, which they would take turns wearing to church.
The family’s need for financial support determined that, after the matura exam, Róża began working as a primary school teacher on September 1, 1926, in the village of Kierz in Lublin County. After a year of work, she transferred to a school in Bełżyce, where she worked until 1928. (After 1955, both villages became part of the newly established Bełżyce County.)
At that time, she met Stanisław Kijanka, a veterinary surgeon who was completing his internship near her place of work. This acquaintance resulted in their marriage on April 12, 1930, at St Paul’s Parish in Lublin.
The newly married couple decided to move to Vilnius to fulfil Róża’s dream of pursuing paintings studies. First, in the 1931/32, Róża completed a drawing and painting course at the Vilnius Society of Fine Artists, and then she began her studies at the Faculty of Fine Arts at the University of Stefan Batory in Vilnius.
Farbisz-Kijankowa teachers included, among others, Professor Bronisław Jamontt—one of the most important figures as well as a major authority and personality of the Vilnius artistic community, a landscape painter and illustrator; Ludomir Ślendziński—a painter and sculptor, a leading representative of the New Classicism; and Jerzy Hoppen—founder of the graphic “Vilnius School.”
She completed her five-year art studies in 1939. During her studies, she passed an exam that qualified her to teach drawing in secondary schools, comprehensive schools, and teacher seminars.
At that time, she also established numerous artistic and social contacts. Róża’s extraordinary beauty greatly helped her. Everyone who knew her recalls her beauty with admiration.
The Vilnius University and the excellent studio of Professor Jamontt shaped her artistically. But also, as Irena Klisowska wrote, Vilnius itself—with its atmosphere, old architecture, monuments, and the warmth of those raised there—left a distinct mark on the specific personality of Mrs Róża. She remained in the memory of many as a true lady of the artistic community of Jelenia Góra. [1]
Before Farbisz-Kijankowa arrived in Jelenia Góra, she pursued her passion in Vilnius. Despite the birth of her first son, Mirosław (who would later become an economist), she intensively devoted herself to painting. Róża Farbisz-Kijankowa perfected her artistic skills. She loved easel painting, landscape, still life, and she also had a fascination with portraits. Her paintings, usually created from nature, are peculiar records of her travels, both near and far, capturing the atmosphere of places in the footsteps of her experiences, emotions, and admirations.
Her creative activity earned recognition within the local community. In 1940, she participated in the Exhibition of Vilnius Artists in Vilnius.
Marriage provided her with financial stability and a peaceful life. Every year, she traveled with her husband to Sopot for vacations, where she rested and created paintings inspired by the coastal towns. The return from the seaside in 1939 came as a surprise to her and her family. A return to a home unprepared for the war, without any food supplies. At that time, as family members recall, she needed to sell off her valuables to survive the difficult time.
The family survived the years of occupation while repeatedly struggling with extremely difficult financial conditions. Her husband lost the right to practice his profession for helping Jews. In 1942, the second son, Jaromir (who would later become a lawyer), was born. Today, he recalls that the epitome of this situation was the gift from Róża’s husband that he gave to her to celebrate son’s birth, a sugar cube.
Nevertheless, Farbisz-Kijankowa did not stop her creative work. She intensively painted and created new paintings. Many of her works she donated to the Archive of Stefan Batory University, where they are kept today, including a series of woodcuts depicting pre-war Vilnius. One of these works (a winter landscape of Vilnius) was donated to the Nicolaus Copernicus University Museum in Toruń at the request of Professor Jamontt, who, like many Vilnius artist-educators after the war, settled and worked in Toruń.
After the end of World War II, the artist refused to accept Russian citizenship and left Vilnius with her family as part of the general reparation. She settled in Wieruszów, then for a short time in Wrocław, and in 1946, she arrived in Jelenia Góra. Farbisz-Kijankowa was one of the first female artists to join the Jelenia Góra branch of the Association of Polish Visual Artists (located then at 3 Chopin Street). She lived in a house at 12/4 Armii Krajowej (Home Army) Street.
At first, Farbisz-Kijankowa did not take up professional work, as her husband became the director of the municipal slaughterhouse in Jelenia Góra, providing the family with a relatively high financial status. She devoted her time to raising her sons, managing the household, and pursuing her artistic work. As early as 1948, she took part in one of the first exhibitions organised by the ZPAP Wrocław District. She focused mainly on easel painting, and the dominant themes of her paintings remained still lives, flowers, and landscapes.
The peaceful life in Jelenia Góra was interrupted by the sudden death of her husband in 1955. After the trauma associated with it, Róża Farbisz-Kijankowa was forced to return to the teaching profession. She began working as a drawing teacher at Primary School No. 2 on Armii Czerwonej (the Red Army) Street. She also worked temporarily at a school in Łagiewniki near Dzierżoniów, where her sisters were teachers and organised schooling in those areas. Her older son, Mirosław, started a family and lived in Jelenia Góra until he died in 2010. His descendants include: Tomasz Kijanka, a sea captain, who also resides permanently in Jelenia Góra, and Wojciech Kijanka, who lives in Canada. Younger son—Jaromir Kijanka—left the family house in 1960, trying to stabilise his career in several institutions. He settled permanently in Sieradz, where he ran a lawyer’s office for 34 years. He is now retired.
Róża Farbisz-Kijankowa ended her teaching career in 1972, retiring from work. Teaching was a very important part of her life. She could skilfully connect her work as an artist and teacher. Farbisz-Kijankowa made a meaningful mark on the artistic landscape. As her son Jaromir Kijanka recalls, she loved painting, and she lived solely for it. Even when she was seriously ill and stayed in the hospital ward of the Wysoka Łąka Sanatorium in Kowary, she did not stop creating. Having a room with a balcony with a view of the mountains, she was painting many landscapes of the Karkonosze. Farbisz-Kijankowa gave them away to doctors and nurses in gratitude for their care. She was a good person and a true artist. Painting, which was the meaning of her life, helped ease the pain of passing.
Farbisz-Kijankowa passed away on July 30, 1983, in Kowary, after a three-year battle with cancer. She was buried in Jelenia Góra, at the old cemetery on Sudecka Street.
She was an important figure in the contemporary painting of this region, and her work constitutes a significant part of the postwar culture and art of Lower Silesia.
Her work was aptly characterised by Irena Klisowska, exhibitions curator and director of the BWA in Jelenia Góra during the 1970s and 1980s, who wrote: “The authenticity of her paintings was extraordinary. It lay in the expressive coherence of the person, the work, the life, and the art. Róża Farbisz-Kijankowa’s painting is the signum of perhaps the last generation for whom painting still meant painting with its rules, laws, and transgressions.”
In her earlier postwar paintings (landscapes from the area around Ustka), her palette was subdued. She avoided harsh contrasts. Twenty years later, her use of colour became richer, her contours stronger, and her tones more vivid (landscapes from the areas around Karpacz, Zakopane, Kudowa). And yet, always the same lines. The colour in all her paintings shares a common trait: relief created by sweeping brushstrokes, a kind of surface quality defined by the thickness of the paint. This reveals the artist’s deep awareness of her art. She did not seek out dramatic subjects or subtexts. Her dramatic nature was a result of the spontaneity of her painting and the freshness of her perspective. Alongside the brush, she used a palette knife, respecting the peculiarity of that tool, its gesture, and the movement of the hand. The temperament of the painter is visible in her works until the very end. Recalling her paintings evokes a constant reflection that the artist’s maintained a deep faith in the connection between art and nature, as well as a great respect for the culture of colour and the entire tradition of “pictorialism.” As I. Klisowska also emphasises, based on her conversations with the artist, she retained the memory of a woman:
of remarkable cheerfulness, which had an undeniable influence on her entire work. [2]
The reproductions of her paintings, made available by her son Jaromir Kijanka for this publication, show the main themes of her works. They are: still lives, landscapes, people, and images of places. All of the works are signed, most dated, but rarely titled. The majority were created in the 1970s. These paintings also showcase the richness of the subjects she explored, the variety of her painting expression, and her sensitivity to the changes in the visual arts, all while remaining to her own preferences. (Illustrations: still lives, landscapes, people, and images of places).