Bronisław Gembarzewski: Distinguished Director of the National Museum in Warsaw

Abstract

Bronisław Gembarzewski (1872–1941) studied painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Saint Petersburg and the Conservatoire national des arts et métiers in Paris in 1892–96. In 1913, he became the chair of the Society for the Protection of Monuments of the Past in Warsaw; he also took part in activities of the Imperial Russian Military Historical Society in Saint Petersburg. In March 1916, he was appointed director of the municipal Museum of Fine Arts in Warsaw (the future National Museum). He worked there until 1936, simultaneously heading the Army Museum in Warsaw from 1920. Gembarzewski’s activity represents a crucial and still insufficiently researched period of the NMW’s history, marked by the organization and arrangement of its collection and the construction of a new museum building. This paper recalls Bronisław Gembarzewski’s activity, achievements and merits while explaining various irregularities and ambiguities concerning his legacy, above all based on documents kept in the NMW’s Archive.