Grocholska Anna (born 1931)

Anna Grocholska was born on September 1, 1931, in Falenty near Warsaw, as the fifth child of Adam Remigiusz Grocholski and Barbara from the Czetwertyński family. After her, four more children were born into the Grocholski family. Her father, a professional officer, became famous for his bravery during the Nazi occupation (among other things, he commanded the “Wachlarz”, was wounded during the Warsaw Uprising). In his free time, he devoted himself to painting and with great talent created pen drawings. A.R. Grocholski died in 1965 at the age of 77. Her mother (died in 1970, aged 70), endowed with great artistic talent, as evidenced by the beautiful watercolors she left behind, could not develop it, devoting all her time and energy primarily to raising ten children.

Anna, after graduating from the Sisters of the Immaculate Conception High School in Wałbrzych in 1951, began her studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw, initially in the studio of Prof. Stanisław Czajkowski, later in the sculpture studio of Prof. Franciszek Strynkiewicz. She obtained her diploma in 1957 and consciously decided to devote herself to sacred art. In 1958, she created a bas-relief (patinated plaster) “St. Anthony’s Sermon to the Fish” in the church of St. Anthony in Pruszków, and in 1959, large bas-reliefs (stone – Brenna) depicting St. Martin on horseback with a beggar and St. Martin the bishop in the church of St. Martin in Warsaw. In 1963-1964 (thanks to a scholarship she received) she stayed in France, where she visited Romanesque cathedrals and churches. From that time on, Anna Grocholska’s master became Gistlebertus – a 12th-century sculptor, the author of all the sculptures in the cathedral in Autun. The artist attended lectures at the Paris Catholic Institute, including lectures by Fr. De Lubac, Fr. Chenu, Liegere. She was also a member of the Cercle St. Jean, founded by Fr. Jean Danielou. Father Danielou, a participant in the ongoing works of the Second Vatican Council, systematically introduced and explained the council’s issues to the meeting participants. After returning to Poland, Anna Grocholska designed chapel interiors: the chapel of Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński in Warsaw (Marsa Street), the chapel in the Sisters of the Immaculate Conception’s house in Warsaw (Idzikowskiego Street, this chapel was later partially changed), an underground chapel for the Redemptorists in Warsaw’s New Town. She also undertook conservation work (palaces in Radzyń and Lubartów, the post-Camaldolese church in Bielany, Warsaw, the monument of Our Lady in Prudnik). From 1977 to 1981, she executed the polychrome of the wooden church in Stara Miłosna, for which she received the Brother Albert Award in the field of painting. From 1980 to 1983, she worked on the Stations of the Cross in the church of St. Joseph in Kielce at Szydłówek (limestone bas-reliefs). For this work, she received the Brother Albert Award in the field of sculpture. From 1987 to 1989, she painted the Stations of the Cross in the motherhouse of the “gray” Ursuline sisters in Pniewy. In 1985, she began work on the Stations of the Cross for the Marian Fathers’ Congregation. The Stations of the Cross are located in Góra Kalwaria near Warsaw in a park near the Church of the Last Supper, where the founder of the Congregation, the Venerable Servant of God Stanisław Papczyński, rests. Among the masters to whom she owes her intellectual and spiritual formation, Anna Grocholska lists her parents, the Sisters of the Immaculate Conception from high school in Wałbrzych, and in particular Fr. Antoni Marylski. Thanks to him, she was able to meet all the outstanding people of the Church in Poland and beyond its borders.

Anna Grocholska lives in Warsaw.