Dimensions: 18.2 x 12.5 cm (clear passe-partout)
signed with bound monogram p.d.: 'JM.'
signed p.g.: 'Judith the Queen of Bohemia | I wife of Vlad. Herman'
Origins
Agra Art auction house, June 2021
private collection, Poland
Exhibited
Work exhibited at the Tarnowski Castle in Tarnobrzeg.
Matejko the unknown: works from the Lviv National Art Gallery and private collections, Royal Castle in Warsaw, March 5-June 2, 2024
Literature
Matejko the unknown: works from the Lviv National Art Gallery and private collections, ed. by Mariusz Klarecki, exhibition catalog, Royal Castle in Warsaw, Warsaw 2024, item 40 (il.), p. 134
Biography
From 1852 to 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 with H. Anschütz and at the Academy in Vienna with 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."
