Jan Matejko
Polish national history painter
Jan Alojzy Matejko was a Polish painter, a leading 19th-century exponent of history painting, known for depicting nodal events from Polish history. His works include large scale oil paintings such as Rejtan (1866), the Union of Lublin (1869), the Astronomer Copernicus, or Conversations with God (1873), or the Battle of Grunwald (1878). He was the author of numerous portraits, a gallery of Polish monarchs in book form, and murals in St. Mary's Basilica, Kraków. He is considered by many as the most celebrated Polish painter, and sometimes as the "national painter" of Poland. Matejko was among the notable people to receive an unsolicited letter from the German philosopher, Friedrich Nietzsche, as the latter tipped, in January 1889, into his psychotic breakdown while in Turin. Matejko spent most of his life in Kraków. His teachers at the Kraków Academy of Fine Arts included Wojciech Korneli Stattler and Władysław Łuszczkiewicz. Later, he became director of the institution, which in time was renamed the Jan Matejko Academy of Fine Arts. A number of his students became prominent artists in their own right, including Maurycy Gottlieb, Jacek Malczewski, Józef Mehoffer and Stanisław Wyspiański. He is regarded as "the Father of the Młoda Polska" Arts and Crafts movement in Poland.
Relationship Network
Master student
- Wojciech Korneli Stattler Master
- Władysław Łuszczkiewicz Master
- Maurycy Gottlieb Student
- Józef Mehoffer Student
- Aleksander Mroczkowski Student
- Antoni Gramatyka Student
- Antoni Piotrowski Student
- Edward Okuń Student
- Jan Styka Student
- Karl Witkowski Student
- Leopold Loeffler Master
- Ludwik Stasiak Student
- Maurycy Trębacz Student
- Tadeusz Popiel Student
- Władysław Wankie Student
Fellow student
Influenced
Artworks by this artist (135 total)
- Blind Veit Stoss with his granddaughter 1865
- Defeat at Legnica, from the series “History of Civilization in Poland” 1888
- Maćko Borkowic, sketch 1873
- Male semi-nude 1859
- Self-portrait 1892
- Death of Sigismund Augustus in Knyszyn in 1572 1886
- Battle of Grunwald 1878
- Head of an Old Man with a Grey Beard 1858
- Stańczyk 1862
- Devil with a bird’s head 1890
- John I Albert 1920
- Portrait of Józef Szujski 1888
- Studium bruku ulicznego do obrazu „Uchwalenie Konstytucji 3 maja” 1890 - 1891
- Angel’s head (portrait of Helena’s daughter) 1889
- Bust of the devil with an open mouth 1890
- Studium do obrazu ‘Biskup Iwo Odrowąż poświęca kamień węgielny pod kościół w Iwoniczu’ 1887
- Portrait of Paris Maurizio 1859
- Spalenie Malcherowej
- Portrait of artist’s three children, Tadeusz, Helena and Beata 1870
- Portrait of Łukasz Dobrzański 1873