National Museum

Kraków


Three permanent exhibitions – the Gallery of 20th-Century Polish Painting, the Gallery of Decorative Art, and Polish Arms and National Colours – are housed in this main branch of the National Museum in Kraków, 500m west of the Old Town down ul Piłsudskiego. The most notable collection is the painting gallery, which houses an extensive collection of Polish painting (and some sculpture) covering the period from 1890 until the present day.

There are several stained-glass designs (including the ones for Wawel Cathedral) by Stanisław Wyspiański, and an impressive selection of paintings by Witkacy (Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz). Jacek Malczewski and Olga Boznańska are also well represented. Of the postwar artists, take particular note of the works by Tadeusz Kantor, Jerzy Nowosielski and Władysław Hasior. Through most of 2019, the museum is also home to Leonardo Da Vinci's masterpiece, Woman with an Ermine.