All discussions about Theosophical influences on Lithuania’s leading painter mention his mentor, Polish symbolist Kazimierz Stabrowski. What kind of Theosophist was Stabrowski?
by Massimo Introvigne*
*A paper presented at the international conference “Sonata Soundscapes of M.K. Čiurlionis. Landscape and Sound: ‘Sonata of the Summer,’” Druskininkai, Lithuania, June 30–July 1, 2023.
Article 2 of 2. Read article 1.
In the first part of this lecture, I distinguished between three categories of artists who had connections with the Theosophical Society: those simply influenced by it, such as Kandinsky; “passive” members who rarely mentioned that they were Theosophists in public, a category that includes Mondrian; and “active” members who actively promoted the Society and even proselytized on its behalf, such as Delville and Harris.
Among these three categories, Stabrowski certainly belonged to the active members. The problem, however, is that —thanks in particular to the studies of Karolina Maria Kotkowska (Hess)—we are much more well-informed about Stabrowski’s relations with the Theosophical Society from 1908 on than in the years 1904–1905 when he was teaching Čiurlionis.
As Kotkowska reported, Stabrowski’s Warsaw Theosophical lodge “Alba,” named after Russian Theosophist Anna A. “Alba” Kamiensky (1867–1953), was officially registered as part of the Russian Theosophical Society in 1908. One year earlier, in 1907, Stabrowski had been registered as a member of the Society as part of its London branch.
From 1910, Stabrowski started a campaign asking the international Theosophical Society to recognize an autonomous Polish branch rather than considering the Polish Theosophists as members of the Russian branch. In 1912, Stabrowski legally incorporated a “Warsaw Theosophical Society.”
However, the Adyar authorities still refused to recognize an autonomous Polish branch as Poland was part of the Russian Empire (this would happen only in 1923 in independent Poland, thanks to the efforts of Wanda Dynowska,1888–1971). It is possible that the lack of success in securing recognition of a Polish branch was one of the factors persuading Stabrowski to leave the Theosophical Society and join Anthroposophy in 1913. Of course, all these events occurred after Čiurlionis’ death.
However, there is some evidence that Stabrowski already regarded himself as a Theosophist before receiving his card as a member of the Theosophical Society in 1907. Most scholars of Stabrowski agree that informal Theosophical gatherings led by the painter, which would later become the official meetings of the Lodge Alba of the Theosophical Society in 1908, were taking place in 1905. They had probably started earlier, sometimes after Stabrowski in 1902 moved from Krakow to Warsaw just after marrying sculptor Julia Janiszewska (1869–1941).
Kotkowska and her colleague Małgorzata Alicja Biały (Dulska), who have studied in depth Stabrowski’s relations with Theosophy, have called the attention on the cover the artist designed for the 1904 book “Fatum” by Hanna Krzemieniecka (pen name of Janina Furs-Żyrkiewicz, 1866–1930), herself a member of the earlier Polish Theosophical circle. They write that, “The figure in the image, emerging from a dark background, is probably a metaphorical representation of fate; a sign above her face—a hexagram composed of white and black triangle, is the same as the one used in the official symbol of the Theosophical Society.”
Kotkowska and Andrzej Kasperek have recently suggested that Stabrowski might have heard of Blavatsky and developed an interest in Theosophy already in the 19th century, either (or both) when he studied in Saint Petersburg from 1887 or when he traveled to the Middle East in 1892.
They also insist that in the late 19th century there was an influential milieu of artists and writers interested in the occult in Poland, as evidenced by the tour of medium Eusapia Palladino (1854–1918) in 1893. There were also three Poles who had joined the Theosophical Society abroad: philosopher Wincenty Lutosławski (1863–1954) in 1887; pioneer of vegetarianism Konstanty Moes-Oskragiełło (1850–1910) in 1892; and homeopathic doctor Józef Piotr Drzewiecki (1860–1907) in 1893. Another seven Poles joined the Turin, Italy, lodge in 1904 and 1905.
According to Vida Mažrimienė, while attending Stabrowski’s informal Theosophical gatherings, Čiurlionis read Rudolf Steiner’s treatise “Theosophy” (1904), which Steiner wrote when he was still a member of the Theosophical Society, and “Thought-Forms,” which shows that these books were circulating in the Warsaw circle.
Coming back to the three kind of art styles that were influenced by Theosophy (didactic, symbolist, and abstract), Stabrowski was and remained a symbolist. We cannot find in Stabrowski’s work the full-fledged passage to abstract art (on which “Thought-Forms” was influential) that we see in the careers of Kupka and Harris. Critics have however seen in some of the Polish artist’s paintings a shift to abstract imagery that is not complete but moves out of a purely figurative approach. Čiurlionis went much further, and one may wonder what (if anything) he took from “Thought-Forms.”
The question remains: is the fact that Stabrowski as many other artists was a member of the Theosophical Society a mere curiosity? Or did a “Theosophical art,” as Mondrian once claimed, exist, as something Stabrowski might have in some way passed to Čiurlionis?
One of the most important treatments of this topic is found in the writings of Lawren Harris. He claimed that Blavatsky inaugurated a new aesthetic, where art should no longer try to preach a religion or spirituality, as some Christian art did, either directly or indirectly, i.e., through symbols. A real “Theosophical art,” Harris concluded, should rather induce its audience to experience a higher plane of being through beauty. Although this effect may be obtained through different forms of art, Harris claimed that in this stage of human evolution abstract art is more effective.
American sociologist Howard S. Becker, in his important contribution to sociology of art, argues that art is a social construction produced by “worlds of art” where the artist is never alone, and the work of art is co-produced by many other agents. The Theosophical Society, through his special interest in art, functioned as one such agent, and contributed to the creation of one (or more) peculiar “world(s) of art.”
Becker’s theory may perhaps also be used as a framework to study the (non-exclusive) place of Stabrowski’s Theosophy in the creation of the “world of art” in which Čiurlionis operated.
