Dimensions: 52 x 45 cm
Signed in composition with bound monogram: 'JM'
Recto: sketch for the painting 'Union of Lublin', signed in composition: 'to Unja Lubels[illegible]', verso: sketch for a historical painting, probably for the painting 'Batory at Pskov'
described in ink on label on both sides: 'Studya do historycznych obrazów | Jana Matejki | ze zbiorów Maryana Gorzkowskiego'.
Provenance
collection of Marian Gorzkowski
collection of Eugeniusz and Lina Borzęcki, Cracow
collection of the heirs of Eugeniusz and Lina Borzęcki, Cracow
Biography
In 1852- 1858 he studied at the School of Fine Arts in Cracow under W. K. Stattler and W. Luszczkiewicz. He continued his studies in Munich in 1859- 1860 under H. Anschütz and at the Academy in Vienna under C. Ruben (1860). From 1873 he was director of the Academy of Fine Arts in Cracow, and in 1887 he became associate professor of h.c. Jagiellonian University. He received many awards and honors, including a gold medal in Paris in 1865 and a first-class gold medal at the World Exhibition in Vienna in 1867. He traveled extensively, including to Paris, Vienna, Turkey, Hungary and Italy. Since the mid-1850s, he mainly created paintings of his native history, preceded by thorough historical and monumental studies. His paintings are mostly huge compositions of great expressive power, characterized by a combination of realistic observation and documentary accuracy of details with dynamic compositional arrangements of the whole picture. His paintings imbued with deep patriotism, showed the Polish public visions of the past and played a major role in strengthening national consciousness. Matejko produced one of the greatest works of Polish monumental painting - a polychrome painting in St. Mary's Church in Krakow - as well as a series of drawings, "Poczet królów i książąt polskich."
