Juliusz Kossak, PIOTR WYSOCKI, 1888

31,0 x 25,0cm - watercolor, gouache, paper signed l.d.: Juliusz Kossak | 1888



The hour of revenge has come. Today to die or to prevail is needed! Let us go, and let your breasts be Thermopylae for your enemies - with these words on November 29, 1830, Second Lieutenant Piotr Wysocki called on the students of the Infantry Cadet School in Warsaw's Lazienki Park to take up arms and fight for an independent Poland. Wysocki (1797-1875) was the leader of the cadet oath that led to the outbreak of the November Uprising. He became the hero of the third part of Adam Mickiewicz's Dziady (Forefathers' Eve) and Stanisław Wyspiański's Noce listopadowa (November Night).



"Sprzysiężenie Wysockiego", with about two hundred members, was founded by Piotr Wysocki in December 1828. It included, in addition to trusted friends from the Officer Cadet School and junior officers of the Warsaw garrison, also students of Warsaw University. Piotr Wysocki took part in many military engagements during the November Uprising. In 1831 he was awarded the Gold Cross of the Order of Virtuti Militari. He fell into the hands of the Russians on September 6, 1831, seriously wounded, while defending a redoubt in Wola. During his trial he took all the blame for the outbreak of the uprising, for which he was sentenced to death by hanging in July 1833. Although he rejected a proposal for clemency, Tsar Nicholas I commuted his death sentence to 20 years' exile in Siberia in 1834. He tried, along with several other deportees, to escape and return to Polish lands, however, he was captured. He was given a very harsh punishment of flogging, the effects of which he felt for the rest of his life, and his sentence was extended for another three years. After some time Wysocki was allowed to complete his sentence outside prison. He then set up a soap factory, the income from which allowed him to support himself and other deportees who were in a more difficult situation. He returned to the country in October 1857; he then settled in Warka, where he spent the rest of his life, in a house purchased with contributions from his compatriots.

His life motto was Everything for the homeland - nothing for me.

Juliusz Kossak (Wisnicz 1824 - Krakow 1899) - painter and illustrator - was one of the most popular Polish artists of the 2nd half of the 19th century. He began his drawing and painting lessons in Jan Maszkowski's studio in Lviv; later he drew a lot from nature while visiting noble estates in Ukraine, Podolia and Volhynia. In 1852 he was in Vienna, Hungary and St. Petersburg, before settling permanently in Warsaw. He spent the years 1856-1860 in Paris, where he was friends with Horace Vernet. Returning to Warsaw in 1862-1868, he was artistic director of the "Illustrated Weekly". In 1869, he moved permanently to Krakow, from where he continued to travel to Munich to paint in the atelier of the battle painter Franz Adam. Kossak was primarily an accomplished watercolorist; he used oil techniques less frequently. He painted historical and battle paintings, genre scenes illustrating the life and traditions of the noble court and the customs of the Polish people. But the real heroes of his paintings were horses, whose movement, temperament, character and individuality he was able to masterfully depict. He was also the author of many illustrations for magazines and books, hitting flawlessly both the atmosphere of literary works and the longings and needs of the audience - the readers of Wincenty Pol's Song of Our Land, Henryk Sienkiewicz's Trilogy, Pan Tadeusz and Adam Mickiewicz's poems.