Jan Matejko

Jan Matejko was a Polish painter, a leading 19th-century exponent of history painting, known for depicting nodal events from Polish history. His works include large scale oil paintings such as Rejtan, the Union of Lublin, the Astronomer Copernicus, or Conversations with God, or the Battle of Grunwald. He is considered the national painter of Poland and the most famous artist of Romanticism. He studied at the Kraków Academy of Fine Arts, where he later became a director. He had many students who became prominent artists in their own right, such as Maurycy Gottlieb, Jacek Malczewski, Józef Mehoffer, and Stanisław Wyspiański. He supported the Polish cause through his art and his financial and material contributions to the January Uprising of 1863. He received several honors during his lifetime, including the French Légion d'honneur. He died of a heart attack in 1893, at the age of 55.