Objects

In this desolate and, for that reason alone, unique composition (whose original title was "Wołczeck - cemetery 1916"; for the purposes of the Legion's portfolio, it was re-titled "Cemetery of Heroes"), a leafless tree elegantly leans its crown over the grave crosses. It is reminiscent of the 1904 lithograph "Burial" (from an album of lithographs published in Paris together with Ludwik Cylkow (1877-1934)). Here, birches standing along the cemetery wall seem to lament, in a typically Young Poland mood, the funeral procession disappearing on the horizon. Both prints are also linked by the way of framing – lowering the horizon line, similar to modernist Japanisation. | The tall crosses visible on the lithograph "Cemetery of Heroes" probably stand on Uniate graves, where Russian cavalrymen were probably buried – hence the lances nailed diagonally to the crosses. Much smaller, also wooden crosses on the graves of legionaries can be seen on another depiction of the same cemetery – Henryk Szczygliński's painting "Spring. A fragment of the cemetery in Wołczeck" (1916, oil on canvas). The cemetery in Wołczeck near Kostiuchnówka was the most frequent motif taken up by legionary artists when it came to the necropolises of their fallen comrades. Graves of legionaries appeared there next to the graves of the local population and the graves of soldiers of other armies, including Poles serving in Russian, Austrian and German units. | AT