Jan Kochanowski over the dead body of his daughter - Jan Matejko
Archival giclée
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Description
A poignant historical etching by Jan Matejko, depicting the poet Jan Kochanowski mourning his daughter, Urszula, amidst the quiet details of a Renaissance interior.
This etching depicts the Polish Renaissance poet Jan Kochanowski in a moment of profound personal grief, mourning his young daughter, Urszula. The composition captures the poet leaning over the child, who lies in a small casket. Matejko, known for his focus on Polish history, here turns his attention to a private, domestic tragedy that inspired one of the most famous cycles of Polish literature, the 'Laments'.
The visual narrative relies on the contrast between the stillness of the child and the expressive, weary posture of the father. The surrounding environment is filled with period-specific details: a lute rests near the casket, referencing the poet's musical and literary craft, while a candle provides a singular light source that casts long shadows across the room. In the background, a religious icon is visible, adding a layer of spiritual contemplation to the scene. The etching technique allows for a high degree of precision in the rendering of textures, from the fabric of the clothing to the wood grain of the furniture.
Matejko manages to convey the weight of loss through the physical interaction between the figures. The poet's hands are positioned with care, suggesting a final, desperate attempt to hold onto the child. This work is a reproduction of an earlier oil painting by the artist, translated into the medium of print. It reflects the nineteenth-century interest in historical figures and the romanticisation of their personal lives. The composition is balanced, drawing the eye directly to the centre where the father and daughter meet. The technical execution of the lines creates a sense of depth and volume, typical of the academic tradition in which Matejko was trained. This print offers a window into the intersection of Polish literary history and the visual arts of the late nineteenth century.
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Each print is produced to order using 12-colour giclée printing on FSC-certified archival paper. Designed in Britain and printed at your nearest production hub to reduce waste and speed up delivery.
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Specific Features
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Materials & Sizing
Museum-grade giclée on FSC-certified archival matte paper, with framed and canvas options.
- Paper sizes: A4, A3, A2, A1, A0 and B2 (50×70 cm)
- Canvas: XS (20×30 cm) to Large (60×90 cm)
- Frames: black, natural wood, dark wood or white
Jan Kochanowski over the dead body of his daughter - Jan Matejko
Artist Biography
Jan Matejko
Matejko was born in Krakow in 1838 to a Czech father and a half-German, half-Polish mother. Despite being only one-quarter Polish by blood, his household was fiercely patriotic: Polish books, portraits of Polish heroes, and a brother who followed General Jozef Bem into the Hungarian Revolution of 1848 (and died in battle). He enrolled at the Krakow Academy of Fine Arts at fourteen, studying under Wojciech Stattler. He never mastered a foreign language and struggled even with Polish, which made the public appearances demanded of him throughout his career an ordeal.
His ambition was to paint Polish history on a monumental scale. Stanczyk (1862) showed the royal jester alone with the news of a military defeat, a painting that reads as an editorial cartoon stretched to the size of a wall. Battle of Grunwald (1878) and Rejtan (1866) followed, each canvas an argument about national identity dressed as historical spectacle. Wilhelm von Kaulbach's method of "historical symbolism", which prioritised interpretation over documentary accuracy, shaped Matejko's approach. His brother Franciszek, a historian at the Jagiellonian Library, fed him archival detail.
As director of the Krakow School of Fine Arts, he trained over eighty students. Maurycy Gottlieb, Jacek Malczewski, Jozef Mehoffer and Stanislaw Wyspianski all passed through his studio; several became leading figures in the Young Poland movement, earning Matejko the title "Father of Young Poland". In 1887 he attended the opening of Queen Jadwiga's sarcophagus to sketch her skull for a portrait. He died in 1893, aged fifty-five.
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