Painting Collection

The present painting collection of the Castle Museum in Malbork was completely created from scratch along with his appointment. Thus, she is only an ideological heir of the castle’s old collection of paintings, either completely lost or dispersed after World War II. The first purchases of paintings took place in 1961. In the following 1960s and 1970s, the collection grew quite intensively, mainly through purchases from private hands, state-owned Desa and ministerial communications. Starting from the 90s of the last century, auction houses also became the source of acquiring objects, and the profile of the collection of paintings was more precisely focused on the iconography and history of the order and the castle. Currently, the collection consists of 182 objects and is varied both in terms of subject matter, technique and painting surfaces. Oil painting on canvas from northern Europe (Germany, the Netherlands) dominates. Thematically, the largest group consists of, next to the portrait, landscapes and views of towns and fortified castles, including the Malbork Castle. In addition, the collection also includes a few historical, battle, religious and mythological scenes. The flagship work of the collection is an oil sketch for the Battle of Grunwald by Jan Matejko from 1872, donated to the Museum in 1982 by the decision of the Ministry of Culture and Art. Staying with the Teutonic themes, it is worth mentioning the painting by Jan Suchodolski, The Offering of Swords at Grunwald from around 1849 and the late 19th century canvas by Wilhelm August Stryjowski, Ulrich von Jungingen’s Last Easter in Malbork.