Famous People • Art

Jan Matejko

(1838 - 1893) is one of the greatest Polish painters. From 1853 till 1860 he studied art at Cracow Art Academy, later in Art Academy of Munchen (Germany) and Art Academy of Vienna (Austria). Matejko traveled to many foreign countries as France, Italy, Hungary, Turkey. In total he painted about 200 paintings. Most of them refer to Polish history. He is known for paintings of notable historical Polish political and military events. At a time when Poland was partitioned and occupied, his aim was to encourage his countrymen to defend their country by depicting the country's great historical events. His most famous works include oil on canvas paintings like Battle of Grunwald, paintings of numerous other battles and court scenes, and a gallery of Polish kings. Even if you do not know the history well go to see some of his paintings and just enjoy his painting skills.

Józef Marian Chełmoński

(1849 – 1914) was a painter, who represented the trend in art called "Polish Patriotic Painting". His first drawing teacher was his father, and then he studied in Warsaw Drawing Class and took private lessons from Wojciech Gerson. His first paintings were done under his influence. The works that he followed were landscapes and villages. He has stayed in Munich (Germany) for a three years, he traveled a lot around Polish territories, Tatra Mountains and Ukraine. Later he went to Paris, where he had many important exhibitions and became known to the art scene. He also traveled to Vienna and Venice. Then he settled in Polish village and found his inspiration in landscapes. His paintings express love of nature and country people life. He perfectly reconstructed nature's colors on canvas. The paintings considered the most beautiful are: Partridge on the snow, The storks or Before thunderstorm. Chemoński is also known for his remarkable horses' paintings because of fantastic movement expressing.

Stanisław Witkiewicz

(1851– 1915) was a painter, architect, writer and art theoretician. He studied in Saint Petersburg and later in Munich. He created the Zakopane style (also called Witkiewicz style) in the architecture. He was strongly associated with Zakopane and promoted it in the art community. His son, Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz, became a famous painter, playwright, novelist and philosopher, also known by the pseudonym "Witkacy."
Stanisław Witkiewicz was a radical critic of bourgeois society and the kind of social existence generated by capitalism, which he feared would lead to the complete dehumanization of social life and a growing totalitarianism, with the consequent annihilation of the individual personality. In 1908, suffering from tuberculosis, he left the family in Zakopane to settle in Lovranno (today Croatia), where he died.

Jacek Malczewski

(1854-1929) was one of the most famous painters of Polish symbolism. He studied in Cracow and Paris. Later as a drawer he went with the expedition to Asia Minor, Greece, Italy and Germany. At the beginning he was painting numerous portraits and folk life scenes, later Malczewski made a series of paintings illustrating the January Uprising and the martyrdom of its participants. He illustrated the torment of Polish deportees. Malczewski's creativity turned into symbolism - paintings were abounding with sorrow and mystery, fantastic and unreal creatures: angels, chimeras, fauns etc. He was the master of painting symbolic portraits of people dressed in marvelous costumes, surrounded by typical Polish landscape.

Wojciech Kossak

(1857 – 1942) was a great painter. He was the son of Juliusz and father of Jerzy Kossak - the second of three generations of painters. As young boy he studied drawing with his father, later he attended the School of Fine Arts in Cracow, then he went to Munich and Paris for further studies. Kossak worked on historical patriotic themes, especially battles, and other scenes with horses. He produced a large number of oil paintings and watercolors, the exemplary themes were the Napoleonic Wars and the Polish November Uprising. Among his most famous paintings are The Racławice Panorama, Berezyna, Battle of the Pyramids. Kossak also painted several portraits of his family, members of the nobility, military figures and figures from artistic circles, as well as numerous self-portraits.

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