KrakowInformer.com

 Jan Matejko

Jan Matejko self portrait 1892

Jan Matejko, arguably the most acknowledged Polish painter – and certainly the most famous Polish historical painter, was born in Krakow on July 24^th (or 30^th) 1838, and died in Krakow on November 1^st, 1893. Virtually all of his relatively short life was connected to Cracow and the city counts him as one of its greatest inhabitants, having named after him one of its grandest squares and the Academy of Fine Arts – of which Matejko was both student and director, and after he died, the tolling of the Sigismund Bell told all Krakow about it. Some of Matejko's most famous paintings are owned and exhibited permanently by the Krakow National Museum, while those that are in private hands reach astronomical prices when put up on auctions.

The Life of Jan Matejko

Although successful in his professional life, Jan Matejko did not have a happy personal life. As the ninth of eleven children in his family, Matejko did not have too much parental attention – allegedly, no one even noticed the future painter's broken nose, and it continued to be crooked for the rest of Matejko's life. He found a more homey atmosphere in one of his friends' families, but there he'd fall in love with the wrong girl – Teodora Giebułtowska. Finally, when Matejko sold some of his first great works – Stanczyk and Kazanie Skargi – he married her, but his chosen one turned out to be a mentally unstable, egoistic despot who would finish off in an asylum. Matejko's kids supposedly took after their mother.

Matejko's Art

Matejko's 'Copernicus talking with God'

Although the painter was always interested in historical art, the turning point of Matejko's education was his scholarship in Munich in 1858, where he encountered the works of Paul Delaroche and Karl von Piloty. He adopted Delaroche's method of picking a moment from a historical event and presenting it in a dramatical fashion. Although Matejko was very thorough about picturing even the smallest historical details, he often changed the course of events (or even the “cast”) to make his art more appealing to emotions. In fact, the widely known Matejko's paintings still have a huge influence on how the Polish see their history. Among Matejko's paintings are the portraits of Polish kings, Bitwa pod Grunwaldem (the Battle of Grunwald of 1410) (1878), Hołd Pruski (the Prussian Homage of 1525) (1880-1882), Bitwa pod Raclawicami (the Battle of Raclawice of 1794) and Konstytucja 3 Maja 1791 (The Polish Constitution of May 3^rd, 1791) (1891).

Matejko's Art in Krakow

Although Jan Matejko was so closely linked to Krakow, some of his most famous paintings are in other cities, mostly in Warsaw. Krakow, however, has Poland's biggest collection of the artist's work and personal objects. Matejko's House was turned museum and is currently a division of the National Museum in Krakow. Matejko's historical paintings, like the Prussian Homage, the Battle of Raclawice and Wernyhora, are to be seen in the Sukiennice Museum, his painting of Copernicus is at the Collegium Maius of the Jagiellonian University, and the Polonia 1863 is exhibited at the Czartoryski Museum.