Chopin among artists and scholars. Artistic Culture and Education in Warsaw in the years 1800-1830 3101-DWCHOPIN-OG

Fryderyk Chopin's (1810-1849) connections with the University of Warsaw are very special: not only did he study there, first at the Lycée (1824-6) and then at the University itself (1826-9), but it was also his home from 1817-27. In 1830, while living in one of the wings of the Krasiński Palace, opposite Krakowskie Przedmieście, he mentions, in a letter, his evening concert and the inauguration of the academic year on 22nd September. He not only graduated from the University (of which the Main School of Music was an integral part) but he was involved in University life, having befriended many students and professors whom he used to meet on an almost daily basis. Judging from Chopin's letters to Jan Białobłocki and Tytus Woyciechowski, 1824-9 may well have been the happiest years of his life. These letters describe the changes in the University's Botanic Gardens, the taste of the vegetables that were grown there, and he mentions by name some of the professors: such as P. F. Jarocki, F. Skarbek, K. Brodziński, and students at the Department of Fine Arts as well as the public exhibitions organised by the Department every two years. Until recently, Chopin's University studies have been somewhat overlooked by scholars. The Bicentenary of Chopin's birth provides an outstanding opportunity to approach some of these aspects of his life among the University's scholars and artists.
Chopin's letters give a clear picture of his early days at the University and his very serious attitude towards his studies. In one of these letters dated 2 October 1826, he writes: "Know by this, my dear friend, that I no longer go to the Lycée, since it would be folly to be forced to sit there six hours a day [...] when one can learn something quite different over this year. So, finally, I attend Elsner's class on strict counterpoint 6 hours a week; I attend lectures by Brodziński, Bentkowski and others where the topics are in any way connected with music". Thanks to new investigations concerning both iconographical sources and as yet unpublished documents from Chopin's time, such as P. F. Jarocki's Chronicle of the Kazimierz Palace in the last 34 years, it has been possible to identify precisely Chopin's family apartment in one of the wings of the Kazimierz Palace, the auditoria in which Fryderyk listened to lectures by the aforementioned professors and the contents of their teachings. It is also possible to discuss Fryderyk's attachment to the visual arts given the fact that he attended drawing classes and that almost until the end of his life he produced interesting caricatures, sketches and drawings. This course will show in a new light the artistic culture of Warsaw in the first three decades of the 19th century, the very Chopin's places in that city, the learned society in which he grew up , as well as the School of Fine Arts, the University Museum and the art exhibitions organized at the University every two years. since 1819.