Piotr Stachiewicz (1858–1938), Mr. Zagłoba

Heliogravure (visible plate impression), 25 x 19 cm, inside the passe-partout;
the artist’s inscription on the plate at the bottom left: “GOD KNEW WHY HE CREATED BEES TO MAKE A HIVE.”
Below the composition, the mark of the artistic lithography studio “Meisenbach Riffarth & Co.”

Piotr Stachiewicz (born October 29, 1858, in Nowosiółki Gościnne; died April 14, 1938, in Kraków) – Polish painter and illustrator. From 1877 to 1883, he studied at the Kraków School of Fine Arts under Jan Matejko, Władysław Łuszczkiewicz, and Florian Cynk. He continued his studies in Munich from 1882 to 1885.From 1885 onward, he lived in Kraków, creating religious, historical, and genre paintings, as well as portraits. He is particularly known for his portraits of a woman in Kraków traditional dress, for which “Beautiful Zośka”—Zofia Paluchowa—posed for him. Stachiewicz created the mosaic decorations for the Jesuit Church. He gained popularity, among other things, through his 1893 series of paintings “Queen of Heaven: Legends of the Virgin Mary,” from which he also produced prints that were later sold in large quantities[4]. From 1889, he was a member of the Society of Friends of the Fine Arts, serving as its vice president from 1900 to 1913. From 1912 to 1918, he taught at the Adrian Baraniecki Higher Courses for Women (where he also served as director and supervisor of the art department).

His favorite subjects in painting were the Virgin Mary with the Infant Jesus, scenes from the lives of the people of Kraków, and the persecution of early Christians; hence, he created illustrations for Henryk Sienkiewicz’s novel *Quo Vadis*[6], as well as for the poetry of Adam Mickiewicz and Maria Konopnicka, and illustrations for advertisements. In 1892, he painted the work “The Death of a Miner,” which was honored with an award from the Probus Barczewski Academy of Arts and Sciences. Between 1893 and 1895, he created a series of twelve paintings—now lost—depicting the Wieliczka Salt Mine and the work of its miners. He initiated the founding of the Kraków-based biweekly “Świat,” and in 1931, together with Włodzimierz Tetmajer, he published an album of color reproductions. Before 1923, he served as honorary president of the Association of Polish Visual Artists in Kraków.

Georg Meisenbach was a German engraver and the inventor of the autotype. In 1883, Meisenbach & Co. merged with Heinrich Riffarth & Co. to form Meisenbach Riffarth & Company, a well-known European graphic arts firm.

Heliogravure (Greek helio + gravure) — a type of intaglio printing technique, similar to aquatint, involving the photographic transfer of an image onto a metal plate (usually copper) and etching it using a photosensitive emulsion so that the brightest areas create the shallowest recesses. Invented in 1879, printing is done on a special hand press. Heliogravure, which was widespread in the 19th century, was later supplanted by rotogravure, as heliogravure is an expensive and very time-consuming method. Heliogravure is used only when it is necessary to produce a small number of very high-quality copies.