Poland – The Year 1863

Jan Matejko painted this canvas in 1864, in the wake of the January Uprising of 1863 against Russian rule in Polish lands. Poland appears as a young woman in a black dress torn at the shoulders, her hands stretched over an anvil as if to be chained. To her left, Ruthenia is shown as a woman in white being violently pulled away, while Lithuania, partly naked, lies in a pool of blood at the lower left. The painting identifies two Russian officials: Mikhail Muravyov, who had crushed the rising in Lithuania, and General Friedrich von Berg, who had done the same in the Kingdom of Poland. Behind them, a proclamation announcing the uprising sits over the Russian imperial arms. The scene unfolds in a desecrated church where soldiers wear liturgical vestments and drink wine from chalices. A tombstone on the floor evokes the Polish ancestors. Matejko never had the chance to exhibit the work; fearing reprisals, he hid it behind a stove for several years. Left unfinished, it keeps a certain provisional character.

Painter

Jan Matejko

Date

1864

Medium

oil paint, canvas

Dimensions

158 × 232 cm

Museum

National Museum in Kraków, Kraków

Depicts

Polonia

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