page_title: Jan Matejko
section_title: Rise to fame
hierarchical_section_title: Jan Matejko / Biography / Rise to fame
caption_attribution_description: Polski: Akademia Sztuk Pięknych w Krakowie.
context_page_description: Jan Matejko was a Polish painter known for paintings of notable historical Polish political and military events. His works include large oil on canvas paintings like Rejtan, Union of Lublin or Battle of Grunwald, numerous portraits, a gallery of Polish kings, and murals in St. Mary's Basilica, Kraków. He is referred to as the most famous Polish painter or even the "national painter" of Poland.
  Matejko spent most of his life in Kraków. His teachers at the Kraków Academy of Fine Arts included Wojciech Korneli Stattler and Władysław Łuszczkiewicz. Later, he became a director at this institution, which eventually was renamed the Jan Matejko Academy of Fine Arts. A number of his students became prominent painters themselves, including Maurycy Gottlieb, Jacek Malczewski, Józef Mehoffer and Stanisław Wyspiański.
context_section_description: At that time Matejko started to gain international recognition. In 1865, Matejko's painting Skarga's Sermon was awarded a gold medal at the yearly Paris salon; soon afterwards Count Maurycy Potocki bought it for 10,000 guldens. In 1867, his painting Rejtan was awarded a gold medal at the World Exhibition in Paris and acquired by Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria for 50,000 franks. His next major painting was the Union of Lublin (Unia Lubelska), created in the years 1867-1869. Once again applauded in Paris, it won Matejko a Cross of the French Légion d'honneur. and was purchased by the Sejm of Galicia. Union... was followed by Stefan Batory at Pskov (Stefan Batory pod Pskowem), finished in 1871. In 1872 he visited Istanbul in the Ottoman Empire, and upon his return to Kraków finished Astronomer Copernicus, or Conversations with God (Astronom Kopernik, czyli rozmowa z Bogiem), which was acquired by the Jagiellonian University. From the 1870s he was aided in many tasks by a secretary, Marian Gorzkowski, who would become his "right hand", his closest friend, a model for a number of paintings, and an author of memoirs about Matejko.
  In 1872 during an exhibition in Prague he was offered a directorship of the Academy of Fine Arts, Prague, and soon afterwards, a similar position at Kraków's School of Fine Arts. He accepted the Kraków offer, and was for many years the principal (rector) of the Academy of Fine Arts. In 1874 he finished Zawieszenie dzwonu Zygmunta (The Hanging of the Sigismund bell). In 1878 he finished another masterpiece, Battle of Grunwald. That year he received an "honorary grand gold" medal in Paris, and the city council of Kraków presented him with a ceremonial scepter, a symbol of his "royal status in fine arts". In 1879 he finished Rok 1863 - Polonia (Year 1863 - Polonia), his take on the January Uprising of that time. Begun in 1864, a year after the Uprising he himself had lived through and where he lost a number of friends and family members, this canvas languished unfinished until prince Władysław Czartoryski became interested in acquiring it; it is still considered unfinished.
  Years 1880-1882 marked his work on another large painting, Prussian Tribute (Hołd Pruski). Matejko gifted this painting to "the Polish nation", and it earned him honorary citizenship of Kraków; one of the squares in the city was also named Matejko Square. In 1883 he finished Sobieski at Vienna (Jan Sobieski pod Wiedniem). Sobieski... was gifted to Pope Leo XIII as a "gift of the Polish nation" and Matejko, who was one of the members of the group delivering it, received a Knight Commander with Star Order of Pius IX. The painting is exhibited in the Sobieski Room of the Vatican Museums.At that time he also became a vocal spokesman in a number of political issues, publishing letters on issues such as Polish-Russian relations. Another arena he was very engaged in were efforts to protect and reconstruct various historical monuments in the city of Kraków. In 1886, he finished a painting about French rather than about Polish history: Virgin of Orléans, portraying Joan of Arc. 
  Next year Matejko received a Doctor of Philosophy degree, honoris causa, from the Jagiellonian University, and the Austrian Litteris et Artibus. In 1888 he finished Battle of Racławice (Bitwa pod Racławicami). In 1888-1899, to justify his new academic title, he published a cycle of twelve sketches with an accompanying commentary, History of civilization in Poland (Dzieje Cywilizacji w Polsce). From 1890 to 1892 he published another cycle of sketches, this time of Polish kings (Poczet królów i książąt polskich - Fellowship of the kings and princes of Poland), which over the years became so popular that its portraits are seen as the canon portrayals of their subjects. 1891 saw him finishing Constitution of the 3 May (Konstytucja 3 Maja). He then began composing another large painting, Oaths of Jan Kazimierz (Śluby Jana Kazimierza), but it remained unfinished due to his death. In 1892, a year before his death, he finished a Self-portrait (Autoportret).
  Matejko suffere
caption: Kraków Academy of Fine Arts named after Matejko in 1979, where he served as president of many years
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