On 23 June, we celebrate Father’s Day – on this occasion, we would like to present you with profiles of Stanisław Moniuszko’s father and the composer himself as a father… of ten children!

Do you know that…

…Stanisław Moniuszko was very close to his father? Evidence of their close relationship can be found in our Pictures section.

Father

Czesław Moniuszko, Stanisław’s father, was a renowned illustrator – he left behind a collection of sketches documenting the private life of the Moniuszko family. These are group portraits – such as the drawing W rodzinnym gronie [In the family circle], in which we can see, among others, little Stanisław with his father at the piano, as well as intimate scenes of family life in Ubiel and later in Minsk.

The author devoted a lot of attention to children in his sketches, as can be seen in the pages of his notebook. He portrayed his son and nephew, among others. Some of these drawings contain comments, such as the portrait of three grandchildren with a rhyming digression on the imperfections of the representation, or the sketch of little Stanisław talking to his cousin Edmund, accompanied by an extensive description by the author, from which we learn that “the young men lived in good harmony.”

Son

The PBM collection also contains numerous examples of Stanisław Moniuszko’s paternal concern for his children. This is expressed in another form, namely in the composer’s correspondence with his children – our collection includes letters to his daughter Elżbieta and his son Stanisław. A touching memento of the family’s name day tradition is Moniuszko’s name day gift to his daughter Zofia. Moniuszko’s respect for his father is evidenced by the dedication on the title page of the song Lirnik wioskowy.

*Tip

To find more drawings by Czesław Moniuszko and other fascinating documents of the Moniuszko family life, simply go to the Pictures section and select the topic of S. Moniuszko’s relatives and loved ones.