(Cracow 1838–1893)
Three-quarter length portrait of Carol Gilewski (18321871), Professor of anatomy in Cracow, on the reverse old exhibition label of the Kunstverein Vienna, monogrammed, dated J. 1872 M., oil on canvas, 133 x 92 cm, framed, (W)

Provenance:
Emilie Gilewska, who commissioned this work 1872 after the death of her husband.
Collection Emilie Gilewska née Schuh (1841–1918), Krakov - Meran/Südtirol;
their heirs,
Private Poperty, Vienna.

Catalogued and illustrated in:
Matejko, Obrazy olejne. Katalog, Ed. Krystyna Sroczynska, Edition Arkady, Warsaw 1993, p.121, no.140

Exhibited:
Kunstverein Vienna, 1915.

We are grateful to Ewa Micke-Broniarek, curator at the National Museum in Warsaw, for her assistance in cataloguing this work, and for confirming the authenticity on the basis of a photo.

Jan Matejko, a Polish painter of historical scenes and portraits, was born in Cracow in 1838, dying here in 1893. He studied at the Cracow Academy of Fine Arts, under Hermann Anschütz in Munich between 1858 and 1859, and under Christian Ruben at the Vienna Academy between 1859 and 1860. In 1860 the artist settled in Cracow where he was appointed Director of the Academy of Fine Arts in 1873. Jan Matejko’s home was transformed into a museum in 1904.
The artist rose to prominence thanks to his moving depictions of Poland’s history, and for his portraits which demonstrated an equally skillful ability to blend the temperament and clarity already evident in his monumental historical compositions. (Excerpts from Thieme-Becker, Allg. Lexikon der Malerei, Vol. XXIV)

The portrait shown here is a three-quarter view of the physician Professor Carol Gilewski (1832 – 1871) from Cracow, who studied under Professor Schuh, Director of the Surgical Department at the Faculty of Medicine in Vienna. Gilewski earned his doctorate in Vienna in 1856 and was employed as a medical assistant at the Oppolzer Clinic before being appointed Professor of Forensic Medicine at the University of Cracow in 1861. He later became Director of the Clinic for Internal Medicine in 1865. He rose to prominence not only for his revolutionary operational techniques but also his staunch and publicly-voiced anticlerical leanings. (Biography Portal ÖBL Print Edition)