It is not known exactly where Włodzimierz Tetmajer met Anna Mikołajczykówna. There are several versions of this story. According to one of them, he met her in Krakow, according to others, he met her thanks to her uncle, Maciej Czepc, the mayor of Bronowice Małe. However, it is known that the meeting took place in the spring of 1890. Was it love at first sight? Possible. Anna was 16 years old then and had six siblings. The oldest was 23 years old, the youngest just one year old. The Mikołajczyk family was poor, but this did not discourage Tetmajer.
Włodzimierz Tetmajer and Anna Mikołajczykówna got married quickly. A scandal broke out in Krakow
The painter quickly decided to propose. He asked Anna for her father’s hand in marriage, Anna agreed, and the first announcements were made on the last Sunday of July 1890. The ceremony took place on August 11, 1890 in St. Mary’s Church in Kraków, and only a few guests attended the wedding.
The wedding procession passed through Krakow in the summer of 1890; and the news spread throughout the city: Włodzio Tetmajer had married a peasant girl. We, today’s people, no longer feel the horror that this fact must have felt in Krakow at that time. A young and full of future painter, a great and beautiful young man from a ‘good family’ – with a peasant girl!
– wrote Tadeusz Boy-Żeleński in “Plotka o Wedding Wyspiański”. The Krakow elites were downright outraged. The union was considered a misalliance, the society was shaking its heads. Moreover, not only the Krakow high society was surprised by this union. Tetmajer’s parents were also categorically opposed. The father dreamed of his son becoming a lawyer. When he chose the career of a painter, he was counting on at least a rich marriage. Both Włodzimierz’s father and mother did not come to the wedding. Adolf Tetmajer did not get rid of the grudge against his son until the end of his life and never wanted to see his daughter-in-law in person.
The beginnings of family life were not easy. “They went through terrible poverty”
The beginnings of the Tetmajers’ family life were not easy, not only because of family feuds.
Tetmajer’s marriage began with very difficult financial conditions. […] My wife’s parents had many children and only a few farms. The young people went through terrible poverty, they lived in a corner with their parents, almost in one room with livestock.
– Boy recalled.
Tetmajer was a painter, patiently making a name for himself, and Anna traded in dairy products and vegetables. Thanks to their perseverance, the couple’s financial situation finally improved significantly. They built their own small manor house, where Lucjan Rydel and his wife Jadwiga, Anna’s sister, lived 10 years later, and the Tetmajers moved to a larger estate. The poet’s wedding was hailed as the most famous in Poland, and it was all thanks to Stanisław Wyspiański and “Wesele”. Anna gave birth to nine children, and at home they often adopted great names, from… Charles de Gaulle. However, not all guests were welcome.
It quickly became fashionable to come to visit the “Tetmajers”. Not only friends and artists, but also people from society came to Bronowice. Although the Tetmajers did not mind the visits, the crowds could be tiring. Visits reminiscent of visits to the zoo could irritate Tetmajer, who, together with his family, would run away from them into the rye. However, this had its advantages, because for some time the Tetmajers were persona non grata in Krakow. Włodzimierz Tetmajer died in 1923, three years after the death of his son, Jan Kazimierz. Anna died in 1954, having survived two wars, exile to Siberia and the transformation, due to which she lost part of her fortune.
Source: Gazeta
Bruce is a talented author and journalist with a passion for entertainment . He currently works as a writer at the 247 News Agency, where he has established himself as a respected voice in the industry.
