Juliusz Kossak
Encyclopedia
Nowy Wisnicz
Nowy Wiśnicz is a small town in Bochnia County, Lesser Poland Voivodeship, Poland, with 2,724 inhabitants . It is located 4 miles south of Bochnia.-Former structures:...
, 15 December 1824 – 3 February 1899, Kraków
Kraków
Kraków also Krakow, or Cracow , is the second largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in the Lesser Poland region, the city dates back to the 7th century. Kraków has traditionally been one of the leading centres of Polish academic, cultural, and artistic life...
) was a Polish
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
historical painter
History painting
History painting is a genre in painting defined by subject matter rather than an artistic style, depicting a moment in a narrative story, rather than a static subject such as a portrait...
and master illustrator
Illustrator
An Illustrator is a narrative artist who specializes in enhancing writing by providing a visual representation that corresponds to the content of the associated text...
who specialized in battle scenes, military portraits and horse
Horse
The horse is one of two extant subspecies of Equus ferus, or the wild horse. It is a single-hooved mammal belonging to the taxonomic family Equidae. The horse has evolved over the past 45 to 55 million years from a small multi-toed creature into the large, single-toed animal of today...
s. He was the progenitor
Ancestor
An ancestor is a parent or the parent of an ancestor ....
of an artistic family that spanned four generations, father of painter Wojciech Kossak
Wojciech Kossak
Wojciech Kossak was a Polish painter and member of the celebrated Kossak family of painters and writers...
and grandfather of painter Jerzy Kossak
Jerzy Kossak
Jerzy Kossak was a Polish realist painter specializing in military scenes; son of painter Wojciech Kossak and grandson of painter Juliusz Kossak — a third-generation artist from a well-known and sought after family of painters, writers and poets.Jerzy Kossak was a prolific painter of mostly...
.
Life
Juliusz Kossak grew up in LwówLviv
Lviv is a city in western Ukraine. The city is regarded as one of the main cultural centres of today's Ukraine and historically has also been a major Polish and Jewish cultural center, as Poles and Jews were the two main ethnicities of the city until the outbreak of World War II and the following...
during the military partitions of Poland
Partitions of Poland
The Partitions of Poland or Partitions of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth took place in the second half of the 18th century and ended the existence of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, resulting in the elimination of sovereign Poland for 123 years...
. He obtained a degree in law at the Lwów University
Lviv University
The Lviv University or officially the Ivan Franko National University of Lviv is the oldest continuously operating university in Ukraine...
encouraged by his mother. At the same time he studied painting with Jan Maszkowski and Piotr Michałowski. Beginning in 1844 Kossak worked on commissions for the local aristocracy in Malopolska, Podolia
Podolia
The region of Podolia is an historical region in the west-central and south-west portions of present-day Ukraine, corresponding to Khmelnytskyi Oblast and Vinnytsia Oblast. Northern Transnistria, in Moldova, is also a part of Podolia...
and Wolyn. He married Zofia Gałczyńska in 1855 and together they left for Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
where they spent five years. His sons were born there, the twin brothers: Wojciech and Tadeusz (on New Year's Eve 1856–1857) and the younger Stefan in 1858. The family came to Warsaw
Warsaw
Warsaw is the capital and largest city of Poland. It is located on the Vistula River, roughly from the Baltic Sea and from the Carpathian Mountains. Its population in 2010 was estimated at 1,716,855 residents with a greater metropolitan area of 2,631,902 residents, making Warsaw the 10th most...
in 1860 where Kossak obtained a position as the head illustrator and engraver for Tygodnik Illustrowany magazine. They moved to Munich
Munich
Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...
for a year and in 1868 settled in Kraków
Kraków
Kraków also Krakow, or Cracow , is the second largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in the Lesser Poland region, the city dates back to the 7th century. Kraków has traditionally been one of the leading centres of Polish academic, cultural, and artistic life...
blessed with five children already. Kossak bought a small estate there, known as Kossakówka, famed for artistic and literary salon
Salon (gathering)
A salon is a gathering of people under the roof of an inspiring host, held partly to amuse one another and partly to refine taste and increase their knowledge of the participants through conversation. These gatherings often consciously followed Horace's definition of the aims of poetry, "either to...
frequented by Adam Asnyk
Adam Asnyk
Adam Asnyk , was a Polish poet and dramatist. Born September 11, 1838 in Kalisz to a szlachta family, he was educated for an heir of his family's estate. As such he received education at the Institute of Agriculture and Forestry in Marymont and then the Medical Surgeon School in Warsaw. He...
, Henryk Sienkiewicz
Henryk Sienkiewicz
Henryk Adam Aleksander Pius Sienkiewicz was a Polish journalist and Nobel Prize-winning novelist. A Polish szlachcic of the Oszyk coat of arms, he was one of the most popular Polish writers at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, and received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1905 for his...
, Stanisław Witkiewicz, Józef Chełmoński and many others. Juliusz Kossak lived and worked there till the end of his life. In 1880 he was awarded the Cross of Order of Merit by Emperor Franz Joseph of Austria–Hungary for his lifetime achievements as an artist.
Work
Kossak exhibited his work on Polish soil and abroad since 1854. His preferred medium was watercolour, both in smaller and larger formats. He was the precursor of a Polish school of battle-scene painting, with his main subject matter revolving around what was of great concern to Poles opposing the military occupation of their country. He was the author of over a dozen panoramic paintingPanoramic painting
Panoramic paintings are massive artworks that reveal a wide, all-encompassing view of a particular subject, often a landscape, military battle, or historical event. They became especially popular in the 19th Century in Europe and the United States, inciting opposition from writers of Romantic poetry...
s depicting Polish cavalry in battle and on military actions against foreign invaders.
Kossak produced also a series of portraits in oil for Polish noble families including Fredro
Fredro
Fredro is a surname or given name, and may refer to:* Aleksander Fredro, Polish poet, playwright, and writer* Andrzej Maksymilian Fredro, Polish szlachcic* Fredro Starr, rapperSee also:* Fryderyk...
, Gniewosz, Tyszkiewicz
Tyszkiewicz
The Tyszkiewicz family was a wealthy and influential magnate family of Ruthenian/Lithuanian nobility with roots traced into the times of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania...
, Lipski and Morstin clan. His rustic and pastoral scenes included horse fairs, country weddings, winter hunting excursions, mythological scenes and horse stables. He also produces a series of illustrations of Polish epic literature such as Pan Tadeusz
Pan Tadeusz
Pan Tadeusz, the full title in English: Sir Thaddeus, or the Last Lithuanian Foray: A Nobleman's Tale from the Years of 1811 and 1812 in Twelve Books of Verse is an epic poem by the Polish poet, writer and philosopher Adam Mickiewicz...
by Adam Mickiewicz
Adam Mickiewicz
Adam Bernard Mickiewicz ) was a Polish poet, publisher and political writer of the Romantic period. One of the primary representatives of the Polish Romanticism era, a national poet of Poland, he is seen as one of Poland's Three Bards and the greatest poet in all of Polish literature...
, novels of Henryk Sienkiewicz
Henryk Sienkiewicz
Henryk Adam Aleksander Pius Sienkiewicz was a Polish journalist and Nobel Prize-winning novelist. A Polish szlachcic of the Oszyk coat of arms, he was one of the most popular Polish writers at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, and received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1905 for his...
, works by Wincenty Pol
Wincenty Pol
Wincenty Pol was a Polish poet and geographer.-Life:Pol was born in Lublin , to Franz Pohl , a German in the Austrian service, and his wife Eleonora Longchamps de Berier, from a French family living in Poland. Pol fought in the Polish army in the November 1830 Uprising and participated in the 1848...
, Jan Chryzostom Pasek
Jan Chryzostom Pasek
Jan Chryzostom Pasek was a Polish nobleman and writer in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. He is best remembered for his memoirs , which are a valuable historical source about Baroque sarmatian culture and events in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.Born in Węgrzynowice near Rawa Mazowiecka in...
and others. He designed various honorary medals for Kraków foundries.
See also
- Wojciech KossakWojciech KossakWojciech Kossak was a Polish painter and member of the celebrated Kossak family of painters and writers...
(1857–1942), painter, son of Juliusz Kossak - Jerzy KossakJerzy KossakJerzy Kossak was a Polish realist painter specializing in military scenes; son of painter Wojciech Kossak and grandson of painter Juliusz Kossak — a third-generation artist from a well-known and sought after family of painters, writers and poets.Jerzy Kossak was a prolific painter of mostly...
(1886–1955), painter, Juliusz Kossak's grandson, Wojciech Kossak's son, father of painter and poet Gloria KossakGloria KossakGloria Kossak , Polish painter and poet, was a daughter of painter Jerzy Kossak and granddaughter of another renowned Polish painter, Wojciech Kossak, himself the son of Juliusz Kossak, the progenitor of the entire Kossak family of artists and writers, and precursor of a Polish school of...
(1941–1991) - Zofia Kossak-SzczuckaZofia Kossak-SzczuckaZofia Kossak-Szczucka was a Polish writer and World War II resistance fighter. She co-founded the wartime Polish organization Żegota, set up to assist Poland's Jews in escaping the Holocaust...
(1889–1968), novelist, Juliusz Kossak's granddaughter and daughter of Wojciech Kossak's twin brother Tadeusz KossakTadeusz KossakTadeusz Kossak was a Polish activist, freedom fighter, and a plenipotent of a country estate in Górki Wielkie from 1922. In 1907 Kossak was arrested by the Imperial Russian authorities for protesting against the foreign occupation of Poland... - Maria Pawlikowska-JasnorzewskaMaria Pawlikowska-JasnorzewskaMaria Pawlikowska-Jasnorzewska, née Kossak , was a Polish poet known as the Polish Sappho and "queen of lyrical poetry" of Poland's interwar period...
(1891–1945), poet, Juliusz Kossak's granddaughter, daughter of Wojciech Kossak - Magdalena SamozwaniecMagdalena SamozwaniecMagdalena Samozwaniec née Kossak was a Polish writer. The Kossak family is known for many artists including her father Wojciech Kossak, her brother Jerzy and sister Maria.- Stories by Magdalena Samozwaniec :...
(1894–1972), writer, Juliusz Kossak's granddaughter and daughter of Wojciech Kossak - Gloria KossakGloria KossakGloria Kossak , Polish painter and poet, was a daughter of painter Jerzy Kossak and granddaughter of another renowned Polish painter, Wojciech Kossak, himself the son of Juliusz Kossak, the progenitor of the entire Kossak family of artists and writers, and precursor of a Polish school of...
(1941–1991), painter and poet, Juliusz Kossak's great-granddaughter, daughter of Jerzy KossakJerzy KossakJerzy Kossak was a Polish realist painter specializing in military scenes; son of painter Wojciech Kossak and grandson of painter Juliusz Kossak — a third-generation artist from a well-known and sought after family of painters, writers and poets.Jerzy Kossak was a prolific painter of mostly... - "KossakKossakKossak is the surname of the 4 generations of notable Polish painters, writers and poets, descending from the historical painter Juliusz Kossak. The family includes:* Progenitor, Juliusz Kossak , Polish painter from the partitions period...
family," including second-, third- and fourth-generation painters - List of Poles