Krystyna Dąbrowska was a sculptor and painter who studied from 1925 in Poznań, at the State School of Decorative Arts, and at the Warszawa Academy of Fine Arts. Granted a scholarship, she spent three years in Italy, 1935-38, during which time she turned to watercolor painting and was instrumental in founding “Kapitol”, an Organization of Polish Female Artists. Due to the success of her bronze sculpture Sailor at the national exhibition, “Sport in Art”, it was submitted to the art competitions of the Berlin Olympics. The motifs of her sculptures included sports and religion, but she also created decorative architectural elements and paintings. Between 1941-43, she worked in a sugar factory and was active in resistance groups. In Warszawa, Dąbrowska helped as a nurse in the “Warsaw Uprising” from January 1944. She was heavily wounded and died in an enemy hospital. She saw the majority of her work destroyed in World War II, but her Olympic sculpture survived the war in her family’s collection and was restored on the 70th anniversary of her death. In the catalog, the sculpture is called Skipper (Zeglarz). In fact, all Polish sources give the title as Sailor (Marynarz).
Poland