What Jan Matejko was famous for

Every Pole knows Jan Matejko. He is perhaps the most famous and talented Polish painter. He became famous as a painter of historical scenes such as Battle of Grunwald, Prussian Homage if Batory near Pskov. Jan Matejko is also the author of the most famous post office of Polish rulers, which is still the most popular image of Polish rulers.

Jan Matejko was born in 1838 year in Krakow, studied at the School of Fine Arts, in which he has been since 1873 year director. From the beginning of his education, Jan Matejko showed an extraordinary talent as a painter. Having barely 24 years he painted Stanczyk, one of his greatest paintings, a w 1864 He married Teodora Giebułtowska. The couple had five children, and the painter's wife was a model, whose face appears in many forms of Matejko's female paintings. Jan Matejko did not live very frugally, He spent large sums on supporting the poor, and he sold some of his paintings at very low prices or even donated them for free, which caused constant financial problems in the painter's house. He actually started getting richer over the years 70 XIX century, he bought a tenement house at Floriańska Street in Krakow, where he lived.

Jan Matejko, as the director of the School of Fine Arts, discovered and developed many painting talents, np. Józef Mehoffer. Jan Matejko died suddenly, 1 November 1893 a year as a result of rupture of a gastric ulcer. The painter's tomb is located in the Rakowicki Cemetery in Krakow, in the middle of one of the main avenues.