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Look Who I Was and What Was Inside Me: Jan Matejko
Abstract
Jan Matejko (1838–1893) was an excellent portraitist. He was exceptionally good at portraying human moods and emotions. According to him, the essence of portraits was to show the full knowledge of man. Matejko’s early portraits were mainly images of his relatives and friends. He also created self-portraits. He started painting them in his early years, then he painted them as a student and continued his passion until the last years of his life. The last of his self-portraits were called by critics ‘the magic key to his complex soul’. In addition, Matejko gave the features of his own face to some of the characters he portrayed in his works.
In the light of extant letters, memoirs and a diary written by Matejko’s secretary, the self-portraits make up a very interesting autobiography of the artist born in a family of immigrants, on the border of cultures.
Keywords:
Jan Matejko, Marian Gorzkowski, self-portrait, portrait, letters, memoirs, diaryDetails
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