Jan Wałach Museum in Istebna

A highlander from Istebna who studied in Kraków under Mehoffer and Fałat and later in Paris won a bronze medal at an exhibition in Paris in 1937, then spent the last decades of his life working in near obscurity. Jan Wałach (1884–1979), a master of the woodcut, left behind his studio in the hamlet of Andziołówka, which is now a biographical museum. It is an intimate place where you can see the art of the Silesian Beskids exactly where it was made.

Who was Jan Wałach?

He was born on 8 August 1884 in Andziołówka. After school in Istebna and secondary school in Cieszyn, he trained at the woodcraft school in Zakopane (1902–1904) and from 1904 to 1908 studied at the Kraków Academy of Fine Arts under Józef Mehoffer, Julian Fałat, Ferdynand Ruszczyc and Jan Stanisławski. He completed his studies in Paris at the Académie Julian and in Fernand Cormon's studio (1908–1910). During the First World War he served in the Austro-Hungarian 100th Infantry Regiment, where he was appointed regimental painter and medallist; his painting of the Battle of Gorlice of 1915 made him widely known.

He became most famous for his drawings and woodcuts of highlanders, architecture and scenes of Beskid village life. He exhibited in Warsaw, Kraków and Katowice, and abroad in Paris, London, Amsterdam, Chicago and Hamburg. He designed stained-glass windows for churches in Chybie, Goleszów and Jedlicze, and carved crucifixes for the narthex of Christ the King Cathedral in Katowice and for the garrison church in Radom. After the Second World War he worked alone in his studio, and his death on 30 June 1979 went almost unnoticed. A wider audience rediscovered him only through a major retrospective in 1999.

What to see in the museum

• The 1922 studio: a wooden building on a high stone base with an unusually tall roof, designed to hold large paintings.
• The 1865 cottage, built of logs, with a characteristic detail known locally as a "koza" in the gable wall.
• Paintings, prints, sculptures and woodblocks by the artist.
• The "deskal" on the barn: in August 2023 the artist Arkadiusz Andrejkow painted a large portrait of Wałach on the boards of the neighbouring barn, on the eve of his birthday.

Did you know?

Until her death in 2015, the museum was run by the artist's daughter, Barbara Wałach. Wałach himself is buried in the cemetery behind the Church of the Good Shepherd in Istebna, whose interior he also decorated.

Tripto tip

The museum is seasonal: according to information from 2023 it opened from May to October, Wednesday to Sunday, but confirm the hours and prices before you go. Allow about an hour for the visit. Combine the visit with the Church of the Good Shepherd and the artist's grave.