Jan Matejko epic polish painter s house and his work

Today we have a special surprise for you. We're taking you to the house of the great painter Jan Matejko. Let's go inside. The National Museum in Krakow was established by a resolution of the Krakow City Council on October 7th, 1879 as the first national museum institution at a time when the Polish people were deprived of their own statehood and country, which had been appropriated by the partitioning powers of Austria, Russia and Germany. Until the end of World War I, it was the only such large museum accessible to the public in the Polish lands and to this day remains the institution with the largest numbers of collections, buildings and permanent exhibitions. The collection of the National Museum in Krakow was begun with Nero's torches, Henryk Szymieracki's painting presented to the city of Krakow by the artist himself on October 5th, 1879 with the intention of creating a gallery of national art in the Sukiennica, the cloth hall. The following day, October 6th, 1879, 39 artists attending the celebration of Józef Ignacy Kaszewski's 50 years of work as an author gathered in Konrad Wenzel's townhouse at the main market square and promised donations of their works to form the initial collection of the newly formed museum. The artist's example was soon emulated by private individuals who began to send donations to the museum in the Sukiennica. Welcome to Poland Daily Culture. Today we're taking you to Krakow to the house of Jan Matejko, a great Polish painter. Today my guest is Mrs. Marta Kwak-Ambruszkiewicz, the curator of the exhibition here and of the museum. Hello and welcome. How did his life and his family have an impact on how he created, on his art? I know that his wife also was a model in his paintings and his daughter as well, I think, Helena. Shortly before his marriage, Jan Matejko had to really think of his life's mission, which allowed him to start a family, since he had to illustrate Polish history and make use of his talent. In 1864 he married Teodora Giełbutowska. Shortly after marriage, the pair moved into an apartment of a building, which does not exist anymore, on Grupnicza Street. That was where Matejko had his artistic workshop and where four of their children were born. Once the family had outgrown this apartment, the couple decided to buy a bigger house somewhere else in Krakow. A couple of transactions fell through. It was 1871 and Matejko decided to buy out the house we are now situated in, the house he was born in, from Jan Matejko's numerous siblings. After the transaction was finalized, they decided to renovate the house, which included the establishment of a home workshop, as well as the incredible facade of the house, with Matejko's crest on it. This is where the couple and their four children moved in. This is also where his youngest daughter, Renata, was born and died within three weeks. Matejko's wife went on to be the subject of his numerous paintings. She was first and foremost the historic Bona Sforza in the Prussian Home Age. She would star in many of his paintings. She was his muse. However, when the troubling times came for them, when the youngest daughter died, Teodora wallowed in illness and grief. The couple had to split. Teodora spent the rest of her life outside their home, initially receiving treatment and later living in Matejko's manor house in Krzesławice, outside of Kraków. These were the 1880s, but the second part of the 1860s, the 1870s, these were the golden days of the couple. They would travel all over Europe, take their kids to Korzonówka, where Teodora's family lived. Finally, after 1876, they would visit the aftermentioned manor house in Krzesławice. After Matejko sold the painting, named Stephen Batory at Pskov, he bought a village under Kraków with a manor house that once belonged to Hugo Kołłątaj, a Polish constitutional reformer. Their children could play there. They had a pony and a donkey. That place was also where the Matejkos would host their guests. And his daughter, who I mentioned before, Helena, was she also an artist? Both Helena and Tadeusz, Matejko's son, graduated fine art school. Tadeusz reportedly was a good painter. He even received a medal at one of his graduation ceremonies. However, his paintings remain unknown. Helena doubled in sculpting, painting, she wrote some poetry. As an adult, she was also her father's most frequent partner in his numerous travels. She remained at his side until the very end of his life. Helena married one of her father's students, a professor at the Academy of Fine Arts, Józef Unierzyński. She also devoted herself to charity, contributing greatly in the times of the establishment of the Polish regions. In 1932, when Poland became independent, she was given the Medal of Independence by the then President of Poland. Just how strong the need to create such an institution was is exemplified by the fact that, soon after the opening of the first museum exhibition in September 1883, the volume of donations grew exponentially. Not only single objects, but whole collections were donated. From the outset, the museum gathered works by contemporary and historic Polish artists from wherever they had lived or worked. The items collected included national mementos and objects connected with individuals recognized for their services to the country or otherwise relevant to national history and culture, including art prints, manuscripts, old prints, numismatics, decorative art objects, and militaria. As far as possible, examples of foreign art, including Far Eastern art, were collected as well. The turn of the 20th century coincided with the change of director at the National Museum. Following the unexpected death of Prof. Władysław Uszczewicz on May 23, 1900, the committee of the National Museum announced a competition, which selected Dr. Felix Kopera, until then the director of Count Emeryk Oltenczapski's museum in Kraków, and his appointment followed on April 25, 1901. In the same period, the museum doubled its floor space after the Friends of the Art Society vacated the other wing of the Sukinamice. Following renovation work, an entirely new, considerably larger modern exhibit was arranged, which, in addition to showing artworks chronologically and thematically, also included archaeological and ethnographic objects. The collecting of the latter was discontinued soon thereafter due to shortage of space and in light of the rise of institutions specializing in these areas. And are any of his family members still alive? Jan Matejko's childhood and upbringing was much different than that of his children, who were of the family of a famous artist. Firstly, they were much more affluent, as Matejko was bringing in good money. Secondly, since 1880, his family has been working in the field of art, he would receive a salary for being the director of the Kraków Academy of Fine Arts. It is certainly worth mentioning that this academy was reactivated due to the students of Kraków and Matejko's unyielding position. In 1873, Matejko received an immensely lucrative proposition of becoming the director of Prague Academy of Fine Arts. On top of a great salary, the Austrian authorities tried to persuade him to take this position by offering him a pavilion where all his work of art would be displayed. That led Matejko to start pondering this offer, having a family to support and without anyone holding him back in Kraków. However, that is when the students of the Jagiellonian University got wind of the proposal. In order to be educated, they had to go either to Munich or to Prague, since the Kraków Academy of Fine Arts did not exist at the time. Those students began writing petitions and sending it to the house asking Matejko to stay and fight for the restoration of the academy here. Jan Matejko wrote a letter to the citizens of Prague in which he famously said he had a kindship with the Czech people, however Poland deserves his love. And so under the Austrian authorities, the Kraków Academy of Fine Arts was reopened with Matejko being the head of the institution for 20 years. On the day of his nomination, August 31st, 1873, the school had him as the director and willing students. The school lacked professors and finances. Matejko took it upon himself to kick-start the endeavor. By October, the academy was operating. The building, which now bears Jan Matejko's name, was built. The construction was partially built thanks to Matejko's personal funds. He was the head of historical painting class, in which he brought up 102 students, some of whom became famous Polish painters. The names that should be mentioned here are those of Stanisław Wyspiański, Leon Wyczukowski, Jacek Malczewski, Włodzimierz Tettmayer. The list could go on and on. The only thing that Matejko did not manage to achieve during his life in terms of the school was to secure the status of an academy for it. The Austrian authorities were not in favor of the idea, which only materialized in 1904 when Austrian policy towards us, their subordinates, began to weaken. In Galicia, the school received the status of an academy for Julian Pałat.