The Polonia series was executed by Artur Grottger, the brilliant draughtsman and painter. It is an iconic vision of the January uprising by an artist surrounded by the cult of the 'art insurgent'. His life and art became forever part of the legend of 1863.

The origins of Artur Grottger's painting

Artur Grottger created evocative cycles of drawings that entered the canon of national art, reproduced in thousands of copies already during his lifetime, and still illustrate school history textbooks today. For his contemporaries, he was a symbol of patriotism who "fought with the white weapon of drawing (...). And like an insurgent, he died in the defeat of fate, but in the triumph of an immaculate sacrifice for the sake of pure, great art", wrote Antoni Potocki in his biography of the painter (1907).

The artist was born in 1837 in Ottyniowice in Galicia, into a family with artistic and patriotic traditions. He received his first lessons from his father, a painter and insurgent of the November Uprising. Already at the age of fourteen, he gained a wealthy patron, Count Pappenheim. Soon, the Austrian Emperor Franz Joseph I took an interest in him as well. He funded a scholarship for the young artist, thanks to which Grottger took up studies at the School of Fine Arts in Krakow and then, from 1855, at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna, where he was considered a "born draughtsman". There he collaborated as a noted illustrator with Viennese magazines.

Grottger in the struggle for the independence of Poland

In 1863, the 22-year-old Grottger transformed himself from a promising young academic painter, dreaming of a career and blending into the life of the Viennese artistic bohemia, into a fighter for the independence of his homeland. In March, he arrived in Lvov to take part in the fight against Russia. The uprising was in its apogee, and the painter's brother, Yaroslavl, fought in it. After the persuasion of his friends and due to his poor health, Grottger resigned from active participation in the uprising, regretting "that it was only with a crayon that he could fight for Poland". But how effectively!

By that time, Grottger had already achieved spectacular success, including financial success, fame and the position of an outstanding artist. His series Warsaw I , illustrating the dramatic events in the Kingdom of Poland before the outbreak of the uprising, exhibited at the Kunstverein in Vienna in 1861 and later reproduced on photographic reproductions, became known throughout the country. To the photographic version of the cartoons the author attached a title page with a motif of a crown of thorns and the inscription PAMORCI POLEGŁYCH I RANNYCH NA ULICACH WARSZAWY WSPÓŁBRACI A KU WIECZNEJ MORERCÓW HA HNBIE. 27 FEBRUARY, 8 APRIL 1861 .

The Polonia series of drawings - the romantic ethos of the insurgent struggle

While still staying in Lvov, Artur Grottger started working on the Polonia cycle . He drew the first three cartoons: Branka , Kucie scythe and Battle . Subsequent scenes were created in the Vienna studio and were: Shelter , Defence of the manor , After the enemy has left , Mournful news , On the battlefield . Finally, a title card with an allegory of Polonia, added to a portfolio of reproductions.

On eight light grey cardboards, 43.5 cm × 57 cm, in charcoal and white crayon, the artist created a canon of uprising iconography. To this day, it functions in the collective imagination of Poles as a romantic ethos of struggle and as a symbol present in popular culture.

Individual scenes depict the fate of the insurgents, from the brigandage that precipitated the outbreak of the uprising, through the preparations - the scythe forging, then the battle, to the defeat and, ultimately, the widespread mourning afterwards. There may not be a history of Poland in them - wrote the publicist and critic Stanisław Tarnowski - but there is a history of all Polish families, of all hearts, captured in the most painful moments .

The series begins with the dynamic Branka , where we can almost hear the despairing cry of a woman in white, and ends with Na pobojowisku , a scene filled with pain, alluding to the classical theme of the Pieta - a mother mourning the body of her son.

The thoughtful composition of the cartoons contains elements of academic pathos and idealism, but the masterful handling of light and shadow creates the illusion of space and realism of vivid scenes. Artur Grottger rendered the facial expressions of the characters extremely suggestively. He revealed his talent as a portraitist, as he exuded emotion and involved the viewer in experiencing it intensely. In many of the faces of the figures in the Polonia series, we can recognise people close to him and even a self-portrait of the artist.

Exhibition of Grottger's insurgent paintings - international acclaim

In October 1863, the painter exhibited Polonia at the Kunstverein in Vienna, already the property of János Count Pálffy, a well-known Hungarian art collector, new patron and friend, who had purchased the cycle before it was completed. The aristocrat added it to his extensive collection in one of his residences immediately after the exhibition.

The immense interest of the public and the enthusiastic reviews of critics also prompted Grottger this time to reproduce the cycle in photographic reproductions by the firm Miethke und Wawra. Once again, despite the unavailability of the original, the dramatic images of the January Uprising, present in thousands of copies on the publishing market, received international acclaim. Special shows of the photographic reproductions in London, Newcastle and Paris gathered crowds in front of the exhibition. They were treated on a par with the originals.

Artur Grottger's work after the January Uprising

In 1864, the painter's younger brother, Jaroslav, was exiled to Siberia. Grottger, on the other hand, was put on trial for helping the insurgents and lost his imperial scholarship. As a result, he fell into poverty and left Vienna. In doing so, he began another series, Lituania (1864-1866), a depiction of the tragic fate of the uprising in Lithuania.

In the following years, the painter visited Munich, Venice, Hungary and Lvov. He often returned to Krakow. From 1866 onwards, he worked in Paris until an advanced stage of tuberculosis prevented him from continuing his work. A stay and treatment at the French spa Amélie-les-Bains-Palalda in the Pyrenees proved unsuccessful.

Artur Grottger died there on 13 December 1867 at the age of just 30. Thanks to the efforts of his fiancée, Wanda Monné, whom he had met only a year earlier, on 4 July 1868 the artist was buried - in accordance with his wishes - in Lvov's Lychakiv Cemetery, next to the Cross of the Fallen in 1863.

Remembrance of Grottger's work - references to Polonia in art

The death of the draughtsman did not end the life of his works, rather it strengthened the myth of Grottger as the creator of the insurgent topos. In addition to exhibitions and reproductions reprinted by publishers in subsequent years, the borders of the Partitions were crossed by so-called 'living paintings'. In 1882, live paintings under the title Polonia , based on Grottger's series, were shown at the Summer Theatre in Krakow; the following year, Lituania was presented in Warsaw . Poems inspired by the series were written. Kazimierz Baranowski published Polonia and The Forging of the Blackbird (1906).

And what happened to the drawings? János Pálffy donated the Polonia cartoons to the Museum of Fine Arts (Szépművészeti Múzeum) in Budapest. The Polish public could see the originals of Polonia for the first time at an exhibition in Warsaw in 1938, and they are now on display again in the capital. On the occasion of the 160th anniversary of the January Uprising, they can be seen at the Royal Castle.