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The Gallery of Polish Kings and Princes was painted in 1890-92, that is, towards the end of Jan Matejko's life (1838-93). By then he had already painted his best and most famous historical compositions which revealed his incredible, original talent, his love of the Polish past, and his patriotism.
The Gallery of Kings: A Collection of Historic Portraits, conceived as a portfolio, was published by Maurycy Perles in Vienna. It included 44 portraits: pencil drawings, each on a separate large plate, so that it could be taken out of the portfolio and perhaps framed. All were dated and signed with the initials J.M. They were accompanied by a kind of historic essay about the people presented and the times in which they had lived. The essay was written by Stanislaw Smolka and August Sokolowski, outstanding Cracow historians. This was the first Gallery published during the artist's lifetime. This became a prototype for other albums, published in large editions, colored by other painters who used Jan Matejko's original drawings. Whoever was responsible for this coloring, it was always accepted as Jan Matejko's Gallery and it had a formative influence on the imagination of whole generations of Poles.
In our book we present two versions of The Gallery: the original one, printed in Vienna, and here shown on the endpapers; and the second, colored by the painters L. Stroynowski and Z. Papieski, in forty full-page colored illustrations, showing the Polish kings and princes from the first historical ruler, Mieszko I, to the last king of Poland, Stanislaus Augustus.
Each portrait is accompanied by two texts: a short biographical note (in Polish and in English), and an excerpt (in Polish only) from an old chronicle, diary, letter, report by a papal legate or foreign envoy, concerning the person shown in the portrait or relating to some important event that took place under his reign.
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Features
- Hardcover
- 165 Pages
- Polish - English Edition
- Color and black and white pictures
- Size 6.5" x 9.5" - 16cm x 24cm
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