Jan Matejko, HISTORICAL SCENE

19.7 x 29.9cm - pencil, paper signed p.d.: J.M.

On the back a sticker informing about uv glass.



The drawing depicts a scene set against a background of Gothic architecture. The most important figure is the centrally placed horseman - probably the king, who is accompanied by numerous figures also riding horses, probably constituting an army. The entire procession is bid farewell by a group of clergy and laity on the right, led by a bishop supported on a pastoral. The whole picture, despite the dense pencil strokes, is very legible and shows the mastery with which Matejko notated his compositions. It is likely that the presented sketch is one of the versions of the composition - not realized - for the Departure of Henryk the Pious from Legnica.

Jan Matejko (Krakow 1838 - Krakow 1893) - the most prominent Polish historical painter; he began his studies in painting under W. Łuszczkiewicz and W. K. Stattler at the School of Fine Arts in Krakow (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).