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„Gliwickie Metamorfozy” |
Wilhelm
von Blandowski
–
21.01.1822–18.12.1878 |
Małgorzata
Malanowicz
Translation:
Iweta i Witold Kulczyccy
Gliwice 2005 |
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www.gliwiczanie.pl |
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gliwickie_metamorfozy@op.pl |
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William
Blandowski, self-portrait, 1860
Image
source: National Gallery of Victoria |
Wilhelm von Blandowski came from the old, germanised, family of Bledowski
(Błędowski) of the Wieniawa coat of arms. He was born in Gliwice as the
youngest of the eleven children of Feliks von Blandowski – the high
rank officer of the Prussian army, and his wife Leopoldyna neé Woyrsch. |
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In
the years 1839-40 Wilhelm von Blandowski attended the Catholic junior
secondary school in the Kozielska street in Gliwice and from 1841 to 1843
he continued his education in the Mining School in Tarnowskie Góry. Then
he worked in the Königsgrube mine in Chorzów. |
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He decided to leave the country
probably because of the turbulent times of the 1848 revolution. In 1849 he
left for Australia together with the government geologists in order to
research the natural history and to work out the botanical classification,
as well as the geographical study of this country. He found gold near
Castlemaine, (Victoria), then invented and improved the water pump. Over
the years 1854 and1857 he organised an expedition in order to study the
natural history of the area where the rivers Darling and Murray merged,
which resulted in gathering 17400 interesting specimens for the National
Museum. He is also renown for his research on Blandowskius and Blandowskiella
fish species. One could find him among the founders of the Victoria
philosophic society.
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In 1860 Wilhelm von Blandowski came back to Gliwice. He died in the
Hospital for the Neurotically Ill in Bolesławiec. |
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Below
there is a summary of an article by an excellent Gliwice
photographer, Mr Jerzy Lewczyński
(for full text see 10th volume of the
Annal of the Gliwice Museum 1995 r.) |
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„
... It happened that in my beloved city of Gliwice I came
across a wonderful character of the 19th century
researcher and a photographer.
The way of Wilhelm von Blandowski to photography is full of
mystery and it would certainly remain a subject of research
and investigation for a long time. To understand his effort
and achievements we have to realise the condition of the
then photography. The life of my hero fell in the time of
the photography invention (1839). I assume that Wilhelm von
Blandowski
preparing to leave for Australia in 1849 must have
been aware of this invention. The spontaneous development of
photography in the 19th century can be probably
compared to the development of the television in the 1960s. |
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The first creation of a photography was the so-called
daguerreotype. The complicated technological process
resulted in receiving a silver-plated plate glistening with
the image of the photographed person. The subsequent
technique named talbotype after its inventor, the Englishman
Fox Talbot, gave the paper negative which, converted into a
positive, resulted in slightly blurred figures’
outlines – the effect caused by the paper
negative structure.
Directly
after Talbot, in 1851 another Englishman, F.S. Archer,
invented the so-called colodion method producing a glass
negative. However such way was hard to realise because of
the film in the camera had to be wet. The photographer had
to carry with him a big, heavy laboratory enabling him to
coat the glass film with the colodion emulsion in the
darkness. The pictures from Australia by Blandowski are
probably colodions or the other dry negative method, maybe
prepared on the spot. |
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The pictures were gathered in the
album titled „ Australia in 142 photographic prints”
published in 1862 by the Gliwice Gustaw Neumann printing
house. The album can be found now in the Staatsbibliotek in
Berlin. It proves the versatility of the W. Blandowski
interests. The album consists mostly of the 6,5 x 7 cm
pictures, several on each page. The first one, being rather
a drawing is a vignette mentioning William Blandowski with a
list of object photographed by an author: geology, geography,
palaeontology, Aborigines, animals and plants. |
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The
subsequent photographs illustrate the views and landscapes
of the areas researched, tropical forests, stones, rocks,
waterfalls, trees and the seashore. In one of the pictures
we can see the explorers’ camp with people and horses,
the others show us the life of Aborigines. The pictures are
surprisingly sharp which indicates the employment of quite
sensitive emulsion. On the faces one can easily see the
tattoos and other details. All charts are signed in English,
as follows: „engraving from photograph” or
„engraving from sketch”. |
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The printing industry knows the
method of covering a wooden block with the photographic emulsion in order
to cut out the outline of the object, according to the picture. Maybe that
was the method of the author, or maybe he was accompanied by a draughtsman.
Wilhelm von Blandowski was certainly a pioneer in different disciplines
and was first to employ photography for scientific purposes. He was in
Australia in the period from 1849 to 1860 and came back to Gliwice with a
substantial photographic experience. The rapid development of this
discipline seemed to be promising prospect for earning money. It is here
where my fascination in the Blandowski’s Gliwice photography begins.
On
his arrival, the photographer probably bought a house or an
atelier in the Bankowa street No 7 and there he commenced
his work. It is a fascinating experience to study the picture
nuances of Blandowski photographs, such as the
faces of people, their looks, appearances and accessories. |
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Looking at his pictures one can admire the unique group of
the Gliwice townspeople, workers, craftsmen, as well as the
poor. There is a moving photograph of the fair with those
then popular carts and wheelbarrows used to transport the
goods. The boys in caps and girls in jackets and wide
dresses with aprons.
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In
the photographic albums by Wilhelm Blandowski one can
encounter the first advertisement pictures illustrating the
Gliwice farming industry and breeding, namely the cattle
from the Szałsza estate. Some pictures witness the mid 19th
century industry, the Gliwice foundry, the wire factory, oil
factory and other unknown object. There are also some
pictures of the Christian and Jewish cemeteries. A real
peculiarity is constituted by the set of pictures of the
then evidently famous Konntny family. The people
photographed by Blandowski include both the rich townspeople,
as well as the Gliwice shoemakers, musicians, chimney sweeps,
soldiers, waiters, milk distributors and beggars. There is a
beautiful picture of a Silesian woman wearing a scarf on her
shoulders, holding the rosary and the umbrella with the
former silhouette of the All Saints Church in the background. |
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Some of the pictures are signed with a name and surname of a
person on the photograph, sometimes even with his place of
residence. It is amazing to learn the places from where
those people came to the Blandowski atelier. Odessa, Hungary,
Warsaw, Katowice, Strzelce, Zabrze, Stare Tarnowice,
Zawadzkie, Głogów, Ujazd, Jastrzębie, Gogolin, Chorzów
and many other locations. |
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The
history of photography mention the names of the great 19th
century portrait artists, masters such as: an Englishman
David Octavius Hill, a Frenchman Hippolit Bayard, Nadar and
others. Some portraits by Wilhelm Blandowski can be well
compared to those now classic photographic compositions. The
world of the Gliwice townspeople wasn’t maybe so
extraordinary as those of Paris or London but certainly it
rewarded Blandowski with great artistic satisfaction. The
photography history handbooks do not mention his works. |
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The
future should change this! |
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