Koniuszewska Jadwiga

Born in 1904 in Lviv, daughter of Kazimierz and Kazimiera.

In 1922, she graduated from the Klementyna Hoffmanowa Girls' High School in Warsaw. She then studied at the Municipal School of Decorative Arts and Painting (1924-1926).

In 1927-1937, she studied at the Warsaw School of Fine Arts (from 1932, the Academy of Fine Arts), learning under the guidance of Miłosz Kotarbiński, Leonard Pękalski, and Felicjan Kowarski. There, she met Janina Kłopocka, with whom she became friends.

In 1936-1937, she assisted Janina Kłopocka in the work on the fresco cycle "Polish Ritual Year" for the Polish House in Zakrzewo (Złotowszczyzna, then within the borders of the Third Reich), run by the Union of Poles in Germany. She supported herself with tutoring and also received a scholarship. At the same time, in 1935-1939, she worked as a draftswoman at the Ethnographic Museum in Warsaw. She often accompanied ethnographers working in the Beskid Śląski region and created several hundred drawings documenting the mountain craft of the locals there, some of which were published. She also painted portraits, landscapes, and scenes from the life of the highlanders.

She contacted the editorial team of "Zadruga" according to Wacyk's account (probably together with J. Kłopocka), shortly after the first issue of the magazine appeared (November 1937) and thus at the end of 1937, joining the Zadruga circle. Her Zadruga name is not known.

During the occupation, she resided in Warsaw, living with Kłopocka and several other Zadruga members (Ludwik Gościński, Stanisław Grzanka, Jan Stachniuk) at 14 Dąbrowiecka Street on Saska Kępa, where she ran a communal kitchen. The group sustained itself, among other things, by producing moonshine under the direction of Damazy Tilgner, who also lived on Saska Kępa at the time.

As a result of the war, a large part of her artistic work was destroyed, including drawings created for the Ethnographic Museum. Due to serious damage to the villa on Dąbrowiecka Street, she temporarily moved to the Tilgner apartment.

After 1945, she settled in Gdynia. There are no detailed records of her life during this period.

She died in 1951 in Kocborowo near Stargard Gdański (now a district of that city).

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