Jan Matejko, Sketch of a Male Head

16.0 x 10.0cm - pencil, paper signed p.d.: J M.



Provenance:

- Collection of Beata and Wincenty Kirchmayer - daughter of the artist and her husband.

- Collection of Adam Kirchmayer (1864-1935) - brother of Wincenty Kirchmayer.

- The collection of Adam Kirchmayer's heirs.

The Kirchmayers were a well-known and influential Kraków merchant and banker family. The daughter of Jan Matejko in 1892 married Wincenty Józef Marian Kirchmayer (1866-1908), with whom she had three children. Beata Kirchmayerowa was a modern and enterprising woman, together with her brother-in-law Adam Kirchmayer in 1894 they bought shares in the "Tile Stove Factory in Dębniki near Kraków of Józef Niedźwiecki and Company", and in 1898, after the death of Józef Niedźwiecki, they became its sole owners. The factory was known not only for making tiled stoves. Beata Matejkówna, together with Adam Kirchmayer, worked with outstanding sculptors, including Konstanty Laszczka, Tadeusz Błotnicki, and Jan Szczepkowski. The company's products were awarded at numerous exhibitions; nevertheless, majolica production ceased around 1910, and the factory was closed in 1919.



Jan Matejko (Krakow 1838 - Krakow 1893) - the most outstanding Polish historical painter; he began his painting studies under W. Łuszczkiewicz and W. K. Stattler at the Krakow School of Fine Arts (1852-1858). He then studied at the Munich Academy under H. Anschütz (1859) and for two months at the Vienna Academy under C. Ruben (1860). After his studies he lived and worked in Cracow. In 1873 he took over as director of the School of Fine Arts there, holding this position until his death. He traveled extensively - he made numerous trips to Paris (in 1865-1880), Vienna (1866-1888), in 1872 he was in Constantinople, and a year later in Prague and Budapest, he also visited Italy (1878-1879 and 1883). He was a member of numerous academies and art societies, including the Académie des Beaux-Arts (1873) and the French Institute (1874) in Paris, the Berlin Academy of Art (1874), the Raphael Academy in Urbino (1878) and the Künstlersgenossenschaft in Vienna (1888). He became a member of the Scientific Society of Cracow in 1864, and received an honorary doctorate of philosophy from Jagiellonian University in 1887. He was the creator of great and well-known canvases, including the Sermon of Skarga, Rejtan, the Union of Lublin, Batory at Pskov, the Battle of Grunwald, the Prussian Homage and Kosciuszko at Raclawice. He also painted portraits and, less frequently, religious or genre scenes. Drawing played an important role in his work - the artist produced, among other things, the album Ubiory w Polsce od 1200 do 1795 and the drawing series Poczet królów i książąt polskich. In 1889-1891, together with a team of students, he worked on the polychrome of St. Mary's Church in Cracow. The painter's family home, on Florianska Street in Krakow, has housed a museum dedicated to him since 1898 - the Matejko House (a branch of the MNK).