Statue of Adam Mickiewicz – fragment from 1949
The cast shows the bust of an elderly man with lush hair. He has a cloak hung on his left arm, the right one bent at the elbow with a hand resting on his chest. It is a thin plaster cast, covered with a patina in a dark brown color. It is an element of the reconstruction of the neoclassical work of Cyprian Godebski located in Krakowskie Przedmieście Street in Warsaw, dismantled by the Germans in 1944. In 1949, on the 150th anniversary of Adam Mickiewicz's birth, the General Committee of the Mickiewicz Year was established, and with it the Committee for the Reconstruction of the Monument. After fervent discussions, it was decided not to build a new one, but to reconstruct the destroyed statue. The remaining parts, photographs of the first model in a scale of 1:5, and a mock-up made by Godebski found in the National Museum (a statue in a scale of 1:5), served as help in the creation of the new sculpture. To ensure the faithful reflection, the reconstruction was supervised by a specially appointed Committee of Experts, composed of: prof. Stanisław Lorentz, Prof. Tadeusz Breyer, Prof. Jan Zachwatowicz, Aleksander Żurakowski and the rector of the Academy of Fine Arts, Franciszek Strynkiewicz. Work on the plaster cast of the figure lasted from May to August 1949. The following collaborators were: Józef Trenarowski, Józef Chojnowski and Edward Hoszowski. As there was no foundry in Poland capable of casting the entire statue, the figure was divided into 18 parts and distributed among six domestic companies. On December 24, 1949, the statue was placed on a renovated pedestal. On January 28, 1950, the monument was unveiled by President Bolesław Bierut.
It is 63 cm tall, 74 cm wide and 51 cm deep.