The Union of Lublin - Jan Matejko
Archival giclée
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Description
A detailed historical painting by Jan Matejko depicting the 1569 union of Poland and Lithuania, rendered with precise attention to period costume and character.
Jan Matejko, a Polish painter known for his large-scale depictions of national history, completed The Union of Lublin in 1869. This work commemorates the 1569 act that united the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania into the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. The composition is dense, featuring a multitude of figures gathered in a grand interior, reflecting the artist's meticulous approach to historical costume, architecture, and portraiture. At the centre of the scene, King Sigismund II Augustus stands with a crucifix raised high, symbolising the religious and political weight of the event. The surrounding figures represent the nobility, clergy, and various officials involved in the negotiations. Matejko uses a dark, moody palette to create a sense of gravity and solemnity, with light focused on the central figures to guide the viewer through the complex arrangement of participants. The textures of the heavy fabrics, the gleam of metal, and the expressions on the faces of the figures demonstrate the artist's technical precision. Matejko often used his paintings to remind his contemporaries of the strength and unity of the Polish state during periods when the nation was partitioned and absent from the map. By choosing this specific moment of political consolidation, he aimed to document the collaborative spirit of the past. The painting is currently held in the collection of the Jan Matejko House in Kraków, a branch of the National Museum. This print captures the scale and detail of the original oil painting, offering a clear view of the historical narrative Matejko constructed through his careful placement of each individual within the frame.
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Manufacturing
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.
The Union of Lublin - Jan Matejko
Our Features
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Specific Features
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- Museum-grade giclée printing for rich, fade-resistant colour
- Archival matte fine-art paper, FSC-certified
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- Frames in black, natural wood, dark wood or white
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- Dust gently with a soft, dry cloth
- Avoid prolonged direct sunlight
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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
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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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