Girl with a Dog

The portrait of a teenage girl holding a dog in her arms was first made by Stanisław Horno-Popławski in 1935 in plaster, which was then covered with patina. For its next incarnation, in bronze, the artist received an award at the First Polish Sculpture Salon in Warsaw in 1937. Placed in Brühl Palace, the work was lost. In 1957, the artist made a cast, which after 65 years, was put up in Sopot’s North Park. The naturally presented figure of a girl hugging a dog perfectly conveys the tender mood of this scene. The sculptor perfectly balanced the composition, in which the dog’s dynamic jump is stabilised by its owner’s firm grip. The theme of the work reflects the artist’s special attitude to nature and his love of animals.

Stanisław Horno-Popławski, one of the most important Polish sculptors, was born in 1902 in the Caucasus as a grandson of an exile after the January Uprising. He was educated at the Warsaw School of Fine Arts. His artistic career began in 1926, and in 1932 he became a lecturer and professor at the Faculty of Fine Arts at Stefan Bathory University in Vilnius (now Vilnius University). He moved many times during his life. After spending World War II in an Oflag prisoner-of-war camp, he became a professor at the School of Fine Arts in Białystok. Then he took the chair of sculpture at the Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń and then moved to Gdańsk. During the reconstruction of the Old Town in Gdańsk, he was the principal designer of the sculptural decoration of the reconstructed townhouses. From 1949–1970, he ran a sculpture studio and was the dean of the Sculpture Department at the State Higher School of Fine Arts in Gdańsk. For years associated with Sopot, with a five-year interim spent in Bydgoszcz. Stanisław Horno-Popławski died in 1997.

Dofinansowano ze środków programu własnego Centrum Rzeźby Polskiej w Orońsku pn. Rzeźba w przestrzeni publicznej dla Niepodległej – 2022 pochodzących z budżetu Ministra Kultury i Dziedzictwa Narodowego.

Nazwa zadania: „Stanisław Horno-Popławski (1902-1997) w 120. rocznicę urodzin i Hornianki”.

Author: Stanisław Horno-Popławski (1902- 1997)
Date: 1935 / 1957
Material: gypsum