Jan Matejko (1838 Kraków - 1893 Kraków), Joan of Arc, ca. 1886

Origins
pre-war collection in Warsaw and its heirs
DESA Unicum, June 2012
private collection, Poland

Biography
In 1852- 1858 he studied at the School of Fine Arts in Cracow under W. K. Stattler and W. Łuszczkiewicz. 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 called "Poczet królów i książąt polskich."