Constitution of May 3, 1791

The Constitution of May 3, 1791 is a large canvas that Jan Matejko painted between January and October 1891 to mark the first centenary of the fundamental law passed by the Sejm of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. It shows a procession of deputies who, at dusk that day, walked from the royal castle toward St. John's church in Warsaw to sing a Te Deum, escorted by soldiers while residents watched from the street. Matejko gathered many figures of the period into the scene, some who were actually present and others added for artistic reasons, aiming to distill the final years of the Commonwealth into a single image. At the centre stands Stanisław Małachowski, president of the Sejm, who raises the document, originally titled Ustawa rządowa. Contemporary critics received the work with reservations, finding it crowded and loosely composed, though it is now regarded as a major work of national history painting. It hangs in the Royal Castle in Warsaw.

Painter

Jan Matejko

Date

1891

Medium

oil paint, canvas

Dimensions

246 × 445 cm

Museum

Royal Castle in Warsaw, Warsaw

Genre

history painting

Depicts

Michał Zabiełło, Hugo Kołłątaj, Franciszek Ksawery Branicki, Józef Poniatowski, Tadeusz Kościuszko, Kazimierz Nestor Sapieha, Adam Kazimierz Czartoryski, Ignacy Potocki

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