Matejko under special protection
The National Museum is opening its bottomless archives with huge benefit for visitors, particularly because they contain real treasures. The collection includes also legendary drawings by Jan Matejko, on which the outstanding painter immortalised all Polish kings – from Mieszko I to Stanisław August Poniatowski. From the 10th of September, these rarely available works can be seen in the building of the National Museum. The exhibition will last till the 19th of October, and children aged up to 7 can admire Polish rulers for free.
Commission from a publisher from Vienna
The story of creation of this famous cycle by Jan Matejko is extremely interesting – it proves that in the 19th century not only aristocrats, but also influential publishers acted as patrons and orderers of works of art. One of them - Maurycy Perles from Vienna - intended to publish the history of Poland in illustrations, and the painter and drawing artist Jan Matejko, who was engaged in this project, suggested that it be published in the form of portraits of monarchs. He worked on this cycle for two years (1891-1893) and it is known that he put enormous effort into the preparation of each drawing. Many years of specialising in historical works (paintings “Stańczyk” or “The Battle of Grunwald” had been painted by Matejko almost two decades earlier) gave him not only a knowledge of the given epoch and its characteristic costumes or armament, but he also tried to render the most faithful reproduction of the appearance of the given ruler, taking account of his psychological characteristics (he studied available sources for this purpose).
Beautiful wife of Mieszko I
An account by Marian Gorzkowski, Matejko’s secretary, gives us a very interesting description of the painter’s work on the gallery of Polish kings (the artist wondered if Mieszko I’s wife, the Czech princess Dobrawa, was attractive and concluded that, as a lover of women, this ruler must have had a beautiful wife). It is worth adding that, apart from the gallery of Polish kings by Marcello Bacciarelli, this collection of portraits by Matejko is the most popular and most widely disseminated one (the image of Mieszko I taken from the painter’s work was put on the banknote with the nominal value of 2,000 PLN).
Masterly stroke of... a pencil
The gallery of Polish kings consists of 44 drawings made with a pencil. They were gradually published in Vienna – first in special notebooks, then already as an integral whole in Vienna in 1893 under the title “Gallery of Polish Kings. Collection of Historical Portraits. Drawings by Jan Matejko” with a commentary from Stanisław Smolka and August Sokołowski. They were acquired by the National Museum thanks to the efforts of Bolesław Orzechowicz, who bought them from the Vienna publisher in 1916 and presented them to the Lvov city. And, as after World War II Lvov treasures were transferred to Wroclaw, we can admire them here today.
Exhibition open from the 10th of September
The exhibition "Gallery of Polish Kings" by Jan Matejko will be open from the 10th of September till the 19th of October. Tickets are available at convenient prices: adults – 15 PLN, discount price – 10 PLN, school groups – 5 PLN, family tickets – 10 PLN (parent) and 5 PLN (child, with free entrance for children aged up to 7).
Magdalena Talik
