Poland 10 Zlotych 2013 Cyprian Norwid

Cyprian Norwid, original and versatile poet, prose writer, playwright, sculptor, graphic artist and painter; born in Lasków-Głuchy. This outstanding thinker of second-generation Romantic writers, deeply concerned with the fortunes of his homeland, sought to make an impact on his countrymen both in his enslaved country and abroad. Norwid developed an unmistakable, ironic and allusive writing style. His concepts of art and philosophy – on the one hand – and society and civilisation – on the other hand – rank among the most interesting and intellectually independent in the history of Polish culture. Before embarking on a tour of Europe in 1842, Norwid wandered the Mazovian countryside together with ethnographer Oskar Kolberg. In 1846, while in Berlin, Norwid was denounced by Prussian police to the Russian embassy and imprisoned for his refusal to collaborate with the Russian intelligence service. Upon release from prison, he started considering himself a political émigré. He went to Belgium, and later to Italy. After a period in Paris (1848), he travelled to the United States (1853), to return to Europe only a year and a half later. He then stayed in Paris for most of his time in exile, living in poverty, and died alone at the Saint Casimir Home there.