Jacek Malczewski (July 14, 1854 – October 8, 1929) was a prominent representative of the “young Polish school” and the founder of symbolism in Polish painting.

Features of the artist Jacek Malczewski’s work: brought up in the spirit of Polish patriotism, Malczewski embodied in his work the struggle for national Polish self-identity. The artist complemented biblical and mythological motifs with a personal interpretation of Polish folklore and art, forming his own style based on European symbolism and romanticism. The main themes of Malczewski’s paintings were Poland, art and death; in his later period, the artist often included self-portraits in his works. One of his teachers, Jan Matejko, an outstanding Polish artist and master of historical and patriotic scenes, had a great influence on Malczewski’s views and painting.

The future artist was born in Radom, into the family of Julian and Maria Malczewski. Jacek’s father was the secretary general of the Radom Land Credit Society, descended from an ancient noble family of the Tarnawa coat of arms, but did not have his own lands. The artist’s mother, Maria (née Korwin-Szymanowska) was the daughter of a former officer in Napoleon’s army, Aleksander, who, contrary to public opinion and his position, married a servant named Bronsia. The family was filled with a spirit of patriotism and goodwill, and the boy and his sisters were brought up in Polish national traditions.

At the age of 13, Jacek, who had been educated at home until then, went to his uncle Felix Karczewski in Welg, where his guardian and teacher was Adolf Dygasinski, a participant in the January Uprising of 1863, a future writer and publicist. Four years later, Malczewski entered the Krakow Gymnasium and also became a free student at the School of Fine Arts (later the Academy of Fine Arts) in the class of Władysław Luszczkiewicz. The gymnasium was soon forgotten, and the talented young man, with the support of the artist Jan Matejko, devoted himself entirely to drawing and painting.

In 1875, Malczewski, like many young artists, went to continue his studies in Paris: for two years he attended the National Higher School of Fine Arts and the Académie Suisse. Returning to Krakow, Jacek completed his studies at the School of Arts. During this period, he began working on a series of paintings dedicated to the hard life of participants in the Polish uprisings, exiled to Siberia by the tsarist authorities. Creative quests required new impressions, and in 1880 the artist went traveling. He visited Italy, visited Lvov, and traveled through the cities of Podolia.

Together with his friend and patron Karol Lanckoroński, Malczewski travelled to Greece and Turkey in 1884. A wealthy man and a famous collector, Lanckoroński set up a studio for Malczewski in one of his estates in Rozdole.

The death of his father deeply hurt the young artist, and the theme of Death began to appear regularly in his paintings of this period. Having suffered the loss, he left for Munich. In 1887, Malczewski proposed to Maria Gralewska, the daughter of a Krakow pharmacist. They had two children – daughter Julia (1888) and son Rafal (1892), who followed in his father’s footsteps and also became an artist.

From the mid-1890s, realism began to give way to symbolism in Malczewski’s work. In addition to exhibitions, the artist taught classes at the School of Fine Arts and also taught at Baraniecki’s private courses, which were open to female artists. In 1897, Malczewski became one of the co-founders of the Polish Artists’ Society “Sztuka” (“Art”), which also included Jan Stanisławski, Teodor Axentowicz, Józef Chełmoński, and Stanisław Wyspiański. According to the Charter, the main goal of the Society was “to promote the expansion of artistic life in the country.” The main “weapon” in the struggle for qualitatively new art became… exhibitions, which, according to the “Sztuka members,” differed significantly “from the average level of exhibitions of the “Society of Friends of Fine Arts” – for the better, of course, and the paintings were selected by a special panel of judges.

The artist’s works received high marks at international exhibitions in Munich (1892), Berlin (1891), and Paris (1900). In 1900, Malczewski left the School of Fine Arts after a conflict with director Julian Fałat. It was time for active exhibition activities and new travels. Ten years later, the artist returned to his native land as a professor, and two years later he became the rector of the Academy. With the outbreak of World War I, Malczewski left for Vienna, returning to Krakow in 1916 as a professor. Rethinking his work, he left mythology and martyrology behind and began working on a series of paintings, My Life, reflecting on the end of his earthly journey and recalling his happy childhood.

In 1921, 70-year-old Jacek Malczewski celebrated the 50th anniversary of his creative activity and left the Academy. After a number of successful solo exhibitions in Poland, he settled in a manor house in Lusławice, where he founded a painting school for rural children. Despite his deteriorating eyesight, in 1923 Malczewski painted the triptych My Funeral. He was awarded the Warsaw City Art Prize (1927) and became a member of the Czech Academy of Sciences and Arts (1928). The artist died in 1929 and was buried in Krakow, in the Pantheon of Eminent Poles in the Basilica of St. Michael on Skałecka Street.