Henryk Siemiradzki is a truly international painter, both because of his biography and because his fame transcends national boundaries. His paintings adorn the national art departments not only in museums in Poland, but also those in Russia and Ukraine.

Henryk Siemiradzki was a member of leading European academies of fine arts and received numerous awards and distinctions for his paintings. An alumnus of the St Petersburg Academy of Fine Arts, he worked and lived in Rome. Creator of famous curtains for the theatres in Krakow and Lviv. And finally, a "prince of painters" who was artistically and financially successful, his paintings toured European capitals, and his Roman studio, specially arranged for guests, could be visited. An outstanding representative of academism, he entered the academy with a doctorate in natural sciences and, wherever he exhibited his works, always emphasised that he was Polish, which was not so obvious (the artist is sometimes referred to as a Ukrainian or Russian painter).

A short biographical sketch of Henryk Siemiradzki
He was born on 24 October 1843 in Novoblygorod (today Pechenihy) near Kharkov, to a noble family with Polish traditions, although the painter's father, Hipolit, was a general in the Tsarist army. The Siemiradzkis were friends with Polish families, including the Mickiewicz family; Adam's brother, Aleksander, became the godfather of little Henryk.

Already at the Kharkiv gymnasium, the future painter took drawing lessons, which he continued during his studies at the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of the Imperial Kharkiv University. In 1864, he obtained the degree of candidate of natural sciences (equivalent to a doctorate) and later that year, in October, he began his studies at the Imperial Academy of Arts in St Petersburg. Initially as a free student, due to his age (over 20). Soon, thanks to his talent, he was accepted as a student and was repeatedly awarded silver and gold medals for his painting achievements. The ultimate accolade at the end of his artistic education (1871) was that Henryk Siemiradzki was awarded a government six-year scholarship to continue his studies abroad. The painter went to Munich, where he met the Polish artistic colony, and then to Italy. It was Rome that proved to be the place where he decided to live and work. The Mediterranean nature and light, the ancient buildings, the omnipresent beauty, became a source of enduring inspiration from which the artist drew for the rest of his life.

Siemiradzki's Roman studio
He settled in Rome in May 1872 and rented a studio near the Spanish Steps, where his most famous works were created. Large-scale depictions of historical subjects, mainly from the Roman Empire, as well as biblical themes. Siemiradzki's growing popularity translated into financial success, and the shows of works organised by the artist in the Roman studio attracted extraordinary guests such as Queen Margaret of Italy and the brother of the Russian Tsar, Grand Duke Pavel. The founder of Moscow's Tretyakov Gallery, Pavel Tretyakov, also visited him. He asked to change the signature to Russian on a painting of his choice, explaining that his gallery was Russian. When Siemiradzki refused, Tretjakov did not buy the work.

Siemiradzki's villa in Rome at via Gaeta 1, where he lived with his family, became a centre of Polishness for visitors from his homeland. The Siemiradzki family organised Christmas Eve and Easter celebrations together. They hosted, among others, Henryk Sienkiewicz, Ignacy Paderewski and many Polish artists.

Large-scale masterpieces required buyers among crowned heads or very wealthy patrons and institutions. The numerous idylls and idylls were somewhat commercial in nature and available to a wider clientele.

Siemiradzki's idyllic paintings
"Behind the example of the gods" belongs to the most numerous group of the painter's works. The small format and idyllic scenes of ancient Roman life, set unhurriedly against a background of ancient buildings and the Mediterranean landscape, quickly found a buyer. Harmonious, masterfully illuminated by the sun, they illustrated the then-popular thesis of antiquity as the golden age of mankind. They were desired by viewers so much that Siemiradzki often made replicas of his works.

The painting Behind the Example of the Gods is known from four surviving original replicas, one lost replica and sketches. The oldest is a canvas kept in the Josyp Bokshai Transcarpathian Regional Museum of Art in Uzhhorod, signed 'H Siemiradzki/Rome' in the lower left corner. It depicts an intimate scene set on a lake against a monumental landscape. A richly decorated boat is moored at the shore. In the foreground, we see a couple in love, moments before kissing, standing under the statue of the title gods - Cupid and Psyche, the personification of love and the soul. The girl is pouring flowers on the plinth of the marble statue. Her figure, bathed in sunlight, contrasts with the dark forest and the less illuminated figure of the boy standing behind her. The sculpture in the painting is a repetition of the famous ancient statue of 'Amor and Psyche' stored in the Capitoline Museums, discovered in Rome in the mid-18th century.

On a symbolic level, it is also a promise of a happy ending for the lovers depicted, as is the statue of the goddess of love Venus, the patron saint of lovers, standing in a niche deep within the painting. The shadowy forest, painted 'against the light', emphasises the secret nature of the couple's encounter, which mimics the tender embrace of Cupid and Psyche as they relive their love story like deities; one of the few in mythology to end with a happy ending despite obstacles and difficulties.

Subsequent variants of this popular scene differ in details in the pose and costume of the lovers, as well as in format, different for each of the surviving paintings. In chronological order, the first painting is in the museum in Uzhhorod I (1879), the next is privately owned, variant II is lost, known from photographs, III (1888) is in the collection of the National Gallery of Armenia in Yerevan, and IV (1899) is in the Lviv National Art Gallery. On the wave of popularity, 'Behind the Example of the Gods' was published and popularised as a heliogravure (intaglio printing technique) in Vienna.

The first painting, Behind the Example of the Gods, from 1879, was purchased by a landowner and well-known collector from Lviv, Bolesław Orzechowicz (1847-1927), who created a private museum at his family estate in Kalników near Przemyśl. In 1919, he donated his collection to the town, which included - in addition to crafts, weapons and watches - a representative collection of 19th century Polish painting. The work has been in Uzhhorod since 1948, having been donated by the Lviv Regional Picture Gallery (now the Boris Voznytskyi Lviv National Art Gallery) to the art gallery at the Transcarpathian National Museum (now the Josyp Bokshay Transcarpathian Regional Art Museum).

Siemiradzki as a classic of 19th century art
Henryk Siemiradzki is the 'last classicist' of 19th century art. On large and small format canvases, he brought the ancient world to life with his expertly crafted illusions of sunlight and natural landscapes, invariably striving for harmony and beauty in an age of realist painting. In addition to a professorship at the St Petersburg Academy, Siemiradzki was granted membership of the most prestigious art institutions in Europe at the time: Academy of Art in Berlin, the Academy of Fine Arts in Stockholm (1879), the Academy of St. Luke in Rome (1880) and the Académie des Beaux-Arts in Paris (1889), as the second Pole after Jan Matejko.

The painter died on 23 August 1902 at his estate in Strzałków near Radom and was buried in his family grave at the Powązki Cemetery in Warsaw. A year later, the painter's remains were transferred and deposited in the Crypt of the Deserved on Skałka, in the basement of the Basilica of St Michael the Archangel and St Stanislaus the Bishop in Krakow.