Jan Eustache Kossakowski, Aristocratic, nicknamed "Korvin" (06.05.900-14.03.1979), landlord of the Wojtkuszki near Wilkomierz (now Ukmerge) in Lithuania. Son of well-known patron and collector of the arts and a prominent heraldry - Count Casimir Stanislaus Kossakowski and Sophie Bower de Saint Clair.
Outstanding Polish doctor, pediatric surgeon, scientist. Painter and sculptor highlighted in many art exhibitions at home and abroad (including Warsaw, Krakow, Poznan, Turin, Tokyo)
He was a descendant of a French family of the Dukes de Laval, Polish landowners and clan Bower de Saint Clair. His mother, Sophie Bower de Saint Clair was the granddaughter of a friend of Goethe and co-founder of German Romanticism called "Sturm und Drang", Friedrich Klingherta. Thus in the fifth generation she was the descendant of the Princess Sophie Frédérique Augusta of Anhalt-Zerbst, known as the Empress Catherine II .
Princess Alexandra Laval, grandmother of Jan Kossakowski conducted in St. Petersburg a famous artistic salon frequented by Pushkin, Lermontov, Mme de Stael. It was in the Palace of Lavals, where Prince Trubetskoi was arrested on charges of conspiracy (Decembrists). Trubeckoj was married to the youngest sister of Alexandra - Catherine. This dramatic and at the same time incredibly romantic history, lead the couple to Siberia. Alfred de Vigny dedicated them his famous poem, "Wanda". Alfred de Vigny is known in the family Laval-Kossakowski also by the rich correspondence that the famous French writer was maintaining with Alexandra. Another of her outstanding correspondents was Honore Balzac.
Stanislaw Kazimierz Kossakowski, Jan's father was a prominent heraldry, art collector, and first of all all an outstanding photographer. In the late nineteenth century he led tin the Wojtkuski Palace a unique atelier, which collected over 6 thousands daguerreotypes – all of them survived to our times andnow stored in the National Museum of Kaunas in Lithuania.
After his father's (1905) and his mother's (1911) and the only own sister Jadwiga (1912) deaths, Jan Eustache grew up with his half-brother Michael Stanislaus in Nidokach in Lithuania. As a volunteer, he took part in the war 1918/20 (polish-bolschevik war) as a soldier in V Lancers Polish Troop In the years 1920 - 1928 he completed his medical studies at the University of Warsaw. In 1924 he married his fellow student Stanislawa Rynkowska.
From his father he inherited the goods in the heart of Russia, who were lost during the October Revolution and the wealth Wojtkuszki in Lithuania. As J. E. refused to give up Polish citizenship, property was parceled out and became the property of the State of Lithuania. After the land reform in Lithuania in 1922, it remained only the palace with a park and a small amount of land (100 hectares). Already during the First World War the palace was ransacked and looted, and during World War II provided the Polish soldiers interned there, and later Jewish ghetto. After the war, the palace fell into complete ruin. In the 60's it was dismantled brick, leaving only stripped tower.
Drafted in 1939, Jan Eustache took part in the battles of Terespol. He acted as a military doctor in a field hospital in Kovel, where he was imprisoned by the Soviet authorities, and then led to a hospital for prisoners of war in Białokrynica to be passed later on to the Nazi camp in Małoszewice. After returning to Warsaw in 1940, he was arrested by the Gestapo and imprisoned in Pawiak for several weeks. After his release he joined the Children's Hospital of Copernicus Street. During the German occupation he organized (with Professor Luis Hirszfeld) support for seriously ill Jewish children. Many of them were hidden in his hospital-department issuing the cards with falses names and identity. He taught at the University of the so-called „secret”. During the Warsaw Uprising he carried help in the hospital on the Śliska street (he was awarded the Cross of Valour).
In 1950 he was appointed the first professor of pediatric surgery at the Medical Academy in Warsaw. In 1966, he was the founder of the Polish Ass. of the Paediatric Surgeons. He raised a number of excellent doctors (20-hundred of his students became professors). He was a member of numerous scientific societies at home and abroad. He highlighted a number of state awards and social institutions, though he was never a member of the ruling party. In 1984, students J. E. Kossakowski founded in the central church of Holy Savior in Warsaw a bronze plaque in his memory with the inscription "Creator of the Polish Pediatric Surgery". In 1992 Polish Paediatric Surgeons have established a Kossakowski's Order "What you sow, So you reap". They called his name a street in Warsaw
The last ten years of his life he devoted to the art. He created his own style of small paintings using Caran d'Ache colored pencils on photographic paper coated with varnish. He was also the author of a small polychrome sculptures of sacred, which has repeatedly won recognition for art lovers, p.eg prize at the Festival of Arts in Turin in 1976. His work is in the collections of the National Museum in Warsaw. The award was presented in Poland and abroad, most recently by, among others the monographic exhibition at the Museum of the Archdiocese of Warsaw.
Unicorn among hospital beds
Artist’s workshops
Professor created his own original plastic technique. On the mat side of small-sized photographic paper, he used to paint with special Swiss coloured pencils of the company ‘Caran d’Ache’ and cover the already completed work with a thick layer of varnish whose chemical composition remains unknown until today. As Professor’s daughter, well—known art historian Zofia Kossakowska-Szanajca remembers, ‘My father himself invented this technique of painting. It was against all accepted rules. His small paintings are painted on the other side of photographic paper with ‘carandache’ coloured pencils dipped in water, which gives a wonderful and intensive colour. Outlines are made in black ink. Gold and silver-plated parts were painted in paints used on radiators. They were bought in soap shops or shops with industrial paints. After it was finished, each painting was covered with some varnish also bought in a soap shop. At the time of his illness, my father created probably dozens of such paintings. He offered them to his visitors, doctors, family. Some of my father’s works were displayed among other things in the National Museum in Warsaw which, to his great joy and satisfaction, bought his 8 compositions to its collection. My father’s paintings were presented also at a few other expositions including international ones.’
Jan Kossakowski not only showed his output at various expositions, but he also received prestigious awards for them. Among others in 1965 at Esposizione Internazionale del Medico Artista in Turin in Italy, he was awarded with two prizes of „Premio Carlo Erba” – golden medal for „Madonna” – polychrome sculpture in wood and silver medal for a three-part ceramic composition.
Sacred motifs and Napoleon
Many portraits of Madonna, scenes from the Saint Family’s life and passion representations are accompanied by various representations of Saint George in armour or on a horse fighting against the dragon, as well as characteristic figures of Cesar Napoleon at the head of his army. Decorativeness and nitpicking of the painting’s detail, typical for the naive art, also visible in professor Jan Kossakowski’s works, here gain another dimension. Of course, it enriches artistic creation and at the same time it defines distance which the author establishes towards his art. One cannot see any religious humility typical for folk art, one can rather feel will to come closer to God’s majesty and represent him in the surrounding of joyful and colourful details of our life. Professor’s humorous attitude to solemn scenes is particularly visible in his paintings representing academic and family life (PhD promotions, group operations, name’s day celebrations etc.). Overwhelmed by his illness, Professor Jan Kossakowski in his last years could barely use his left hand, however he never lost his kind, full of discreet humour, cheerful attitude towards God’s world on our earth.
Unicorn among hospital beds
Among art interests of the surgeon Jan Kossakowski, apart from Saint Family, Madonna, the Crucified Jesus, knights and mythical creatures, we also come across the figure of a unicorn. Interestingly, which symbolism this figure in the artist’s creation refers to, as it has many meanings in the language of emblems. In China, unicorn was considered as a symbol of mildness, kindness, wisdom and longevity. In Christianity, it represents Jesus Christ, whereas a popular legend perceives unicorn as an incarnation of purity and innocence. In the Middle Ages, one believed that unicorn’s horn was an effective antidote to all kinds of poisons, however the animal was so shy that no hunter managed to hunt it. It is said that only a virgin was able to lure and tame a unicorn.
From an article by Jarosław Kossakowski