Jan Matejko – The great Polish painterJan Matejko was a great Polish painter. He was born in Cracow – the old capital of Poland, on 24th June 1838. He studied painting in the Fine Arts School in Cracow. Then he traveled around Europe and showed his teachers how talented he was.

On the left you can see his self portrait.

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The times of occupation of Poland...

When Poland was partitioned and occupied, the purpose of his works was to encourage hearts to see Poland ceased to exist as a nation and free country.

This is another Matejko’s self portrait.

His last days...

Jan Matejko died on 1st November 1893. In 55 years of his life he did a great piece of work, everybody loves his paintings, lots of museums all over the world want to have his works. But most of his works still stay in Poland, and in Polish museums, because he usually painted scenes of Polish history.

On the left you can see a part of „Bitwa pod Grunwaldem” where Zawisza Czarny – the great Polish Warrior – is painted.

What do I think about him?

I think Matejko was a person who should be known, at least in Poland. His great talent and kind of his character let him paint all his masterpieces. Polish are and should be proud of him. He is a very big part of our history.

This is another, great Polish warrior – Zyndram z Maszkowic.

„Bitwa pod Grunwaldem”

Under this text you can see his greatest painting – „Bitwa pod Grunwaldem”. It was painted in 1879. Really, it is very big. It takes a whole wall in museum in Warsaw.

Before he painted „Bitwa pod Grunwaldem”, he had to draw a lot of „testing pictures”. This is one of them.

„Hołd Pruski”

This is the second of three greatest Matejko’s paintings. It is called „Hołd Pruski”. This painting and „Bitwa pod Grunwaldem” were made during the occupation of Poland.

„Konstytucja 3 Maja”And here we have the third masterpiece – „Konstytucja 3 Maja” („Constitution 3rd of May”). It is also very important painting for Polish people – it shows our history like Matejko’s many other paintings.

„Dzwon Zygmunta”

„Sobieski pod Wiedniem”

Author:Sebastian Koszuta

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