About this work
Kościuszko in Racławice (Polish: Kościuszko pod Racławicami) is an oil painting of the Battle of Racławice of 1794, painted by Jan Matejko in 1888, exhibited in the Gallery of 19th Century Polish Art in the Sukiennice Museum (Kraków). The interpretation of the painting was greatly influenced by Marian Gorzkowski's feuilleton Hints to Jan Matejko's latest painting "Kościuszko in Racławice", finished in April 1888. Tadeusz Kościuszko is dressed in a fashionable uniform tailcoat, identical to that in Michał Stachowicz's painting Kościuszko's Oath on the Main Square, which depicts the scene of Kościuszko's proclamation which occurred the prior month.
About Jan Matejko
Jan Alojzy Matejko was a Polish painter, a leading 19th-century exponent of history painting, known for depicting nodal events from Polish history. His works include large scale oil paintings such as Stańczyk, Rejtan (1866), Union of Lublin (1869), Astronomer Copernicus, or Conversations with God (1873), or Battle of Grunwald (1878). He was the author of numerous portraits, a gallery of Polish monarchs in book form, and murals in St. Mary's Basilica, Kraków. He is considered by many as the most celebrated Polish painter, and sometimes as the "national painter" of Poland.
Where it hangs
Battle of Raclawice is in the collection of National Museum in Kraków.
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