Description:

Signatures of Polish Pianist Ignacy Jan Paderewski and Polish Actress Helena Modjeska

This unusual document contains the autographs of the two most famous Polish people in the United States in the 1890s—composer Ignacy Jan Paderewski and actress Helena Modjeska, who introduced Paderewski to the world and then to the United States. She includes the sentiment in Polish and English that "Our nation is not lost while our art lives."

IGNACY JAN PADEREWSKI, Autograph Music Signed, with Signed Inscription by Helena Modrzejewska Modjeska, January 12, 1892, Detroit, Michigan. 1 p., 5.375" x 8.5". Some toning; very good.

Complete Transcript
(Sonata)
Allegro molto moderato

[Two measures of music]
I J Paderewski

Detroit – 12/1 1892
[Two lines in Polish]!
Helena Modrzejewska Modjeska
which means: Our nation is not lost while our art lives.

Historical Background
Although the Kingdom of Poland dates to the middle of the tenth century, the national borders have expanded and contracted for centuries. Between 1772 and 1795, a series of partitions apportioned Poland among several of its more powerful neighbors—the Kingdom of Prussia, the Russian Empire, and the Austrian Habsburg Monarchy—until it disappeared from the map. For the next 123 years, the Polish language and culture persisted without a nation. At the end of World War I, the Treaty of Versailles recreated an independent Polish state in 1919, but in 1939, Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union invaded and partitioned Poland, again erasing it from the map until 1945.

Ignacy Jan Paderewski (1860-1941) was born to Polish parents in the Russian Empire (now Ukraine) and displayed an early interest in music. He studied at the Warsaw Conservatory from 1872 to 1878, then became a piano tutor there. A chance meeting with famed Polish actress and naturalized American citizen Helena Modrzejewska led to his career as a virtuoso pianist. She arranged for a public concern in Krakow that provided the funds for his additional study in Vienna. His first wife died shortly after the birth of their severely disabled son Alfred (1880-1901). He married Helena von Rosen (1856-1934) in 1899, but they had no children together. Paderewski made his concert debut in Vienna in 1887 and soon gained popularity across Europe, followed by a successful American tour in 1891. Over the next five decades, he toured the United States more than thirty times. He composed extensively and wrote an opera. In 1896, he donated $10,000 to underwrite the triennial Paderewski Prize for American composers, which was awarded from 1901 to 1948 and then converted to awarding commissions to composers. In 1913, he settled in California. During World War I, he became an active member of the Polish National Committee in Paris, formed the Polish Relief Fund in London, and influenced President Woodrow Wilson's call for an independent Poland. Throughout 1919, Paderewski served as the Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs for the newly independent Poland, signing the Treaty of Versailles on behalf of his nation. After criticism of his relations with Western nations, Paderewski resigned in December 1919 but continued to represent Poland abroad in 1920. He returned to his musical performances in 1922 and toured the United States. After the invasion and partition of Poland by Germany and the Soviet Union in 1939, Paderewski returned to public life to become head of the National Council of Poland, a Polish government-in-exile, in London. He died in New York City.

Helena Modrzejewska / Helena Modjeska (1840-1909) was born in Krakow, Poland, as Jadwiga Benda and was primarily raised by her great aunt. She married her former guardian, actor and director Gustave Sinnmayer, though she later discovered he was still married to his first wife. She had two children and then began her acting career in 1862. She left Sinnmayer in 1865 and became successful on the stage in Warsaw from 1868 to 1876. In 1868, she married Polish nobleman and newspaper editor Karol Bozenta Chiapowski. In 1876, they emigrated to the United States, where her husband adopted the stage name Count Bozenta, and Modrzejewska simplified her name to Modjeska, names easier for English-speaking audiences to pronounce. In the United States, they purchased a ranch in California, accompanied by other Polish artistic and literary notables. After their utopian experiment failed, Modjeska returned to the stage and the Shakespearean roles she had performed in Poland. After two years on the stage in America, she spent three years performing abroad, mainly in London, to improve her English. In 1883, she obtained American citizenship and produced the first play by Henrik Ibsen staged in the United States. In the 1880s and 1890s, she became the leading Shakespearean actress on the American stage. A stroke in 1897 forced her to leave the stage temporarily but she soon returned. Her autobiography was published posthumously in 1910. She is regarded as the greatest actress of the Polish theatre.

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

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