Jan Matejko

Jan Matejko (born June 24, 1838, Kraków, Republic of Cracow [now in Poland]—died November 1, 1893, Kraków) was a Polish painter, one of the most renowned in Polish history, who is known for his monumental Romantic canvases. He was one of the foremost artists of the 19th century working in the popular history painting genre. His best-known works, such as Stańczyk and The Battle of Grunwald, depict notable events in Poland’s military and political history.

Jan Matejko was born to Franciszek Ksawery Matejko and Joanna Karolina Matejko (née Rossberg), and he was the 9th of 11 children. Franciszek was a Czech tutor and music teacher who moved to Poland for work. He settled in the Free City of Kraków—part of the territory initially given to Austria during the 1795 Partition of Poland—to teach music and conduct church choirs. Joanna was half-German, half-Polish. Though Jan Matejko was only one-quarter Polish by blood, his family adopted a Polish identity; Polish-language books and portraits of Poland’s historical figures adorned the walls of his childhood home. Matejko’s mother died in 1846, after which he was cared for by his aunt, Anna Zamojska.

Matejko was interested in Polish history from an early age. Among his earliest artworks were reproductions of illustrations he had seen in the book Śpiewy historyczne (1816; “Historical Songs”) by Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz. He also experienced Polish history firsthand. Though Kraków was technically a territory controlled by Austria, Russia, and Prussia during Matejko’s childhood, the city was afforded a special level of autonomy following the 1815 Congress of Vienna and was left relatively untouched by the ruling powers throughout the subsequent 15 years. This allowed the region to become a stronghold for Polish patriotism. In 1846 a pro-independence uprising took place. This revolt, called the Kraków Uprising, led to the city being fully annexed by Austria. In 1848 two of Matejko’s older brothers followed the Polish general Józef Bem into battle in the Hungarian Revolution of that year (Hungary was also part of the Austrian Empire at the time). One brother died in battle, and the other was exiled to France. These historical events greatly influenced Matejko’s political leanings, and thus, his painting.

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In 1852, at age 14, Matejko, at the urging of his eldest brother—a historian at the Jagiellonian Library of the University of Kraków—enrolled at Kraków’s School of Fine Arts, where he studied until 1858. While in school, Matejko began to exhibit his paintings at the Society of Friends of the Fine Arts. In 1859 he left his hometown to study history painting under Hermann Anschütz in Munich. Matejko returned to Kraków in 1860 and released an illustrated album of Polish clothing and costumes, Ubiory w Polsce: 1200–1795. The goal of the project was to promote a Polish national identity through historical knowledge. This patriotic program would underpin his career’s work; Matejko’s paintings of Poland’s major historical triumphs were intended to revitalize pro-independence and nationalist sentiment.

In 1862 Matejko painted Stańczyk, one of his most renowned works. Stańczyk was a real historical figure: a 16th-century jester at the court of Sigismund the Old. In the painting, he is presented as despondent, with Matejko’s own facial features, having learned of Poland’s wartime loss of Smolensk to Moscow in 1514. Smolensk was a city of strategically vital importance, and it was then in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, at that time in personal union with Poland. The solitary, downcast jester against the background of an aristocratic ball brings to life the contrast between Poland’s defeat and the country’s oblivious rulers. Stańczyk was one of a series of three historical oil paintings conceived about the time of the failed January Uprising of 1863–64. The other two, Skarga’s Sermon (1864) and Rejtan, or the Fall of Poland (1866), won gold medals at the Paris Salon in 1865 and World Exhibition in Paris in 1867, respectively. Both of these paintings depict warnings against the eventual dissolution of the Polish state. The former dramatizes a Jesuit preacher’s sermon against the dangers of factionalism; the latter records a nobleman’s historic protest against the partition of Poland. These successes made Matejko an internationally acclaimed artist.

In 1873 Matejko was appointed director of Kraków’s School of Fine Arts. Among his pupils were Jacek Malczewski, Stanisław Wyspiański, and Józef Mehoffer—all three of whom became prominent representatives of the modernist Young Poland movement. He continued to paint a number of historical tableaux throughout the next two decades, never abandoning his strong sense of national identity. Other notable paintings illustrating important episodes from Polish history include The Hanging of the Sigismund Bell (1874), The Battle of Grunwald (1878), and Prussian Homage (1882). In total, Matejko painted 320 oil paintings throughout his career. Though his most famous are historical in nature, he also painted portraits, mostly of relatives and friends; many of these paintings are on display at the Jan Matejko House as part of the National Museum complex in Kraków. Matejko also produced thousands of drawings and watercolors. Beyond painting, Matejko was an advocate for the restoration of many of Kraków’s oldest buildings throughout his lifetime.