Celina z Treterów Dominikowska (1830–1908?) i jej aktywność literacko-artystyczna. Biografia nienapisana...

Abstract

This article introduces Celina Dominikowska, née Treter (1830–1908?), a figure largely overlooked today despite her significant contribution to the cultural history of nineteenth-century Poland. A diarist, painter, amateur artist, collector, and social and patriotic activist, Dominikowska regarded the recording of reality in various forms as both a daily practice and a means of self-expression and preserving memory. Raised in a family deeply rooted in archival and literary traditions, she developed a remarkably diverse range of creative and documentary activities. She kept diaries, notebooks, sketchbooks, and a herbarium; wrote poetry and translations; produced visual artworks; and collected objects associated with the national past. A particularly important place in her biography is occupied by her involvement in the January Uprising and by the creation of a private museum in Orelec, where her patriotic commitments found lasting expression. Drawing on archival and source-based research, this article examines Dominikowska’s multifaceted literary, artistic, and collecting practices, reconstructing the life and work of a woman who tirelessly sought forms through which to document herself, her experiences, and the world around her.