Focusing on the young age experiences of Józef Czapski, the author considers the role played in his personal and artistic formation by the Kapists Group – the Committee of Parisian Aid for Students Leaving for Painting Studies in France. Works on the Kapists omit the fact that Józef Czapski’s sister, Maria, an expert on Adam Mickiewicz’s poetry, was connected with the group. We know from the artist’s biography that before leaving for Paris the Czapski siblings founded in Krakow an informal society of friends avidly reading the mystical works of Adam Mickiewicz. They met regularly to speak about the Bard’s writings. The author asks the question to what extent Józef Czapski, when building the myth of the youthful expedition of the Kapists in his essays, recreates the Filomat myth of a community of young people as an important stage in an artist’s formation. She considers the question if the Vilnius and Paris experiences are just facts or perhaps, being a deliberate continuation, they become a cultural phenomenon.
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