[2][3] His works include large scale oil paintings such as Stańczyk (1862), Rejtan (1866), Union of Lublin (1869), Astronomer Copernicus, or Conversations with God (1873),[4] or Battle of Grunwald (1878).

He enrolled at the Kraków Academy of Fine Arts at age fourteen, where he studied under notable artists such as Wojciech Korneli Stattler and Władysław Łuszczkiewicz and completed his first major historical painting in 1853.

He gradually gained recognition, selling key paintings that settled his debts and created some of his most famous works, including Stańczyk and Skarga's Sermon.

Matejko's art played a key role in promoting Polish history and national identity at a time when Poland was partitioned and lacked political autonomy.

Matejko was among the notable people to receive an unsolicited letter from the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, as the latter tipped, in January 1889, into his psychotic breakdown while in Turin.

[2] He first worked for the Wodzicki family in Kościelniki, Poland, then moved to Kraków, where he married the half-German, half-Polish Joanna Karolina Rossberg (Rozberg).

[14] His graduation project in 1858 was Sigismund I the Old ennobles professors of the Jagiellonian University (Zygmunt I nadaje szlachectwo profesorom Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego) and proved to be seminal.

[14] The following year he received a further scholarship to study at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, but after only a few days and a major quarrel with Christian Ruben, Matejko returned to Kraków.

[16] During the January Uprising of 1863, in which he did not directly take part on account of his poor health, Matejko supported it financially, donating most of his savings to the cause, and personally transporting arms to an insurgents' camp.

[16] Subsequently, his Skarga's Sermon (Kazanie Skargi), May 1864, was exhibited in the gallery of the Kraków Society of Friends of Fine Arts, which gained him much publicity.

[16] On 5 November that same year, he was elected member of the Kraków Scientific Society (Towarzystwo Naukowe Krakowskie) in recognition for his contributions to depicting great national historical themes.

[16] His daughter, Helena, also an artist, later helped World War I victims and was awarded the Cross of Independence by President Stanisław Wojciechowski.

His Skarga's Sermon was awarded a gold medal at the 1865 Paris Salon, prompting Count Maurycy Potocki [pl] to buy it for 10,000 florins.

[2] In 1867, his painting Rejtan was awarded a gold medal at the World Exhibition in Paris and was acquired by Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria for 50,000 franks.

[23] From the 1870s onwards he was aided by a secretary, Marian Gorzkowski, who became his personal assistant, his closest friend, a model for a number of his paintings, and the author of a memoir about Matejko.

[24] That year he received an "honorary grand gold" medal in Paris, while Kraków city council presented him with a ceremonial scepter, as a symbol of his "royal status in fine art".

Begun in 1864 as the Uprising was waning, he abandoned the canvas for a number of years, perhaps due to the loss of several close friends and family members in the conflict.

[29] In 1888-1899, to justify his new academic title, he published a group of twelve drawings with accompanying commentary, The History of civilisation in Poland (Dzieje Cywilizacji w Polsce).

This aimed not so much at an exact representation of past events, but gave the artist freedom to interpret and opened the possibility to blend historical data within a chosen perspective.

[39] Critics of his work have pointed to his use of traditional, outdated or bombastic painting style, discrediting him for "antiquarian realism" and "theatrical effects".

Nazi Germany planned to destroy both The Battle of Grunwald and The Prussian Homage, which the authorities saw as an offence against the German view of history.

[16][48] Stańczyk focuses on the court jester, portrayed as a symbol of his country's conscience, sitting in a chair, against the background of a party - a lonely figure reflecting on war, ignored by the joyful crowd.