Ludwik Solski (20 January 1855 - 19 December 1954), born Ludwik Napoleon Karol Sosnowski, was a Polish stage actor and

theatre director A theatre director or stage director is a professional in the theatre field who oversees and orchestrates the mounting of a theatre production such as a play, opera, dance, drama, musical theatre performance, etc. by unifying various endeavors a ...

. From his stage debut in 1876 until his death (his last performance took place six months after his 99th birthday) he played in nearly a thousand

roles A role (also rôle or social role) is a set of connected behaviors, rights, obligations, beliefs, and norms as conceptualized by people in a social situation. It is an expected or free or continuously changing behavior and may have a given indiv ...

. He was married to the Polish actress and director

Irena Solska Karolina "Irena" Flora Solska (née Poświk; 27 October 1877 — 8 March 1958) was a Polish actress and stage director. She was a member of the Young Poland modernist artistic movement. Solska made her debut under the name of ''Irena Górska'', ...

nee Poświk. Between 1905 and 1913 he was the

director-general A director general or director-general (plural: ''directors general'', ''directors-general'', ''director generals'' or ''director-generals'' ) or general director is a senior executive officer, often the chief executive officer, within a governmen ...

of the

municipal theatre A municipal theatre is a theatre Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors or actresses, to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific ...

Kraków Kraków (), or Cracow, is the second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city dates back to the seventh century. Kraków was the official capital of Poland until 1596 ...

. He worked in various Polish theatres in the period 1918-1939 and returned to Kraków in 1944. During the bombing of Warsaw in September 1939, Solski's entire apartment in a tenement house at Aleje Jerozolimskie 31 was destroyed. In the apartment there were numerous works of art, including paintings by

Józef Mehoffer Józef Mehoffer (19 March 1869 – 8 July 1946) was a Polish painter and decorative artist, one of the leading artists of the Young Poland movement and one of the most revered Polish artists of his time. Life Mehoffer was born in Ropczyce, ...

Julian Fałat Julian Fałat, (30 July 1853 in Tuligłowy near Lwów – 9 July 1929 in Bystra Śląska) was one of the most prolific Polish painters of watercolor and one of the country's foremost landscape painters as well as one of the leading Polish im ...

and

Piotr Stachiewicz Piotr Stachiewicz (29 October 1858, , (now Ukraine) - 14 April 1938, Kraków) was a Polish painter and illustrator. Biography From 1877 to 1883, he studied at the Jan Matejko Academy of Fine Arts, Kraków Academy of Fine Arts with Władysław Ł ...

, and 12 paintings by

Stanisław Wyspiański Stanisław Mateusz Ignacy Wyspiański (; 15 January 1869 – 28 November 1907) was a Polish playwright, painter and poet, as well as interior and furniture designer. A patriotic writer, he created a series of symbolic, national dramas withi ...

. After the fall of the

Warsaw Uprising The Warsaw Uprising ( pl, powstanie warszawskie; german: Warschauer Aufstand) was a major World War II operation by the Polish underground resistance to liberate Warsaw from German occupation. It occurred in the summer of 1944, and it was led ...

, Ludwik Solski was to be evacuated together with the Infant Jesus Hospital ( pl, Szpital Kliniczny Dzieciątka Jezus), where he was staying. Zygmunt Augustyński, a pre-war journalist and one of the main activists of the RGO, enabled him to leave the hospital at Mokotowska 55 street. The way in Mokotowska Street the artist marched by foot with his wife and maid, in the company of Augustyński, who thanks to his knowledge of

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) ** Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

, was supposed to protect them from the insistence of German patrols. Upon reaching the destination, 89-year-old Solski, having climbed onto a truck via improvised stairs, turned to Augustyński and said: "Mr. Zygmunt, it was the most difficult role in my life".Wojna i okupacja. W Radzie Głównej Opiekuńczej i Delegaturze Rządu RP., :Przybysz K., Z gazetą przez życie: Zygmunt Augustyński 1890–1959, Warszawa: Muzeum Historii Polskiego Ruchu Ludowego, 2019, pp. 71–72 Since 1954 he has been the patron of the Academy for the Dramatic Arts in

References

External links

Biography

* * 1855 births 1954 deaths Polish male stage actors Polish theatre directors Recipients of the Order of the Builders of People's Poland Recipients of the Order of the Banner of Work 19th-century Polish male actors 20th-century Polish male actors Commanders of the Order of Polonia Restituta Grand Crosses of the Order of Polonia Restituta Golden Laurel of the Polish Academy of Literature {{poland-actor-stub