Love and Duty. The 1863 January Uprising

The January Uprising was the largest and longest-lasting insurrection for independence during the partitions of Poland. Bringing together Poles, Lithuanians, Belarusians and Ukrainians in resistance to Russian rule, it left an enduring mark on collective memory.

Paintings, prints and drawings by artists including Artur Grottger, Maksymilian Gierymski and Jacek Malczewski were shown alongside photographs, civilian dress and uniforms, weapons, patriotic jewellery and personal possessions. Loans from museums in Poland, Lithuania and Ukraine brought different material witnesses into relation.

The exhibition sought both to preserve knowledge of the uprising and to engage the historical imagination, attending to the individual and collective emotions that accompanied it.