Jan Matejko, Sketch for the "WAPOWSKI KILLING," OK. 1860

13.0 x 9.3 cm - pencil, paper pencil, paper, 13 x 9.3 cm (in light passe-partout)

Inscribed on the underside: to the assassination of Wapowski | ([...] Valezego) | to [...].

On the reverse, on the so called "zaplecki", a sticker of an auction house in Warsaw.



The drawing was created as one of the preparatory sketches for a painting painted in 1861. Its content is an incident that took place at a knight's tournament honoring the coronation of Henry of Valois on February 24, 1594. A courtier - Wojnicki castellan Jan Tęczyński - wanted to duel Samuel Zborowski. Zborowski, who came from a high family, considered this an insult, and being an impulsive man, attacked castellan Tęczyński. Andrzej Wapowski, castellan of Przemysl, trying to settle the erupting quarrel, died, having received a fatal blow with an axe from Samuel Zborowski, who was seething with anger.

Matejko's final canvas shows, in the foreground, the scene of the fatally wounded Wapowski being brought before Henry of Valois. In the center is Jan Tęczynski, asking the monarch for a just verdict. On the right, with his back to the viewer, stands Samuel Zborowski with an axe in his hand.

Based on the description placed by the artist on the drawing, we can assume that it depicts the figure of Henry of Valois. It is possible that Matejko initially wanted to give the figure of the king more dynamism. Ultimately, however, he decided to show him as almost passive, with only a slightly raised hand. In this way, the painter emphasized the monarch's helplessness in the face of the misdeeds of the magnates, to whom he owed his election as king of the Republic.

In the Catalog of the exhibition of drawings and sketches... of 1938 lists a sketch for an oil painting, a drawing that was one of the stages of the search for the right approach to the composition. This drawing is marked by Matejko with the date 1860, so we can also assign such a year of creation to the sketch presented here.



Bibliography:

- Catalog of the exhibition of Jan Matejko's drawings and sketches arranged on the 100th anniversary of the artist's birth by the Circle of Art Historians Students of J. Pilsudski University, National Museum, Warsaw III-IV 1938, p. 52, cat. no. 123.

Jan Matejko (Krakow 1838 - Krakow 1893) - the most outstanding Polish historical painter; he began his studies in painting under W. Łuszczkiewicz and W. K. Stattler at the School of Fine Arts in Krakow (1852-1858). He then studied at the Munich Academy under H. Anschütz (1859) and for two months at the Vienna Academy under C. Ruben (1860). After his studies he lived and worked in Cracow. In 1873 he took over as director of the School of Fine Arts there, holding this position until his death. He traveled extensively - he made numerous trips to Paris (in 1865-1880), Vienna (1866-1888), in 1872 he was in Constantinople, and a year later in Prague and Budapest, he also visited Italy (1878-1879 and 1883). He was a member of numerous academies and art societies, including the Académie des Beaux-Arts (1873) and the French Institute (1874) in Paris, the Berlin Academy of Art (1874), the Raphael Academy in Urbino (1878) and the Künstlersgenossenschaft in Vienna (1888). He became a member of the Scientific Society of Cracow in 1864, and received an honorary doctorate of philosophy from Jagiellonian University in 1887. He was the creator of great and well-known canvases, including the Sermon of Skarga, Rejtan, the Union of Lublin, Batory at Pskov, the Battle of Grunwald, the Prussian Homage and Kosciuszko at Raclawice. He also painted portraits and, less frequently, religious or genre scenes. Drawing played an important role in his work - the artist produced, among other things, the album Ubiory w Polsce od 1200 do 1795 and the drawing series Poczet królów i książąt polskich. In 1889-1891, together with a team of students, he worked on the polychrome of St. Mary's Church in Cracow. The painter's family home, on Florianska Street in Krakow, has housed a museum dedicated to him since 1898 - the Matejko House (a branch of the MNK).