Kościuszko at Racławice, sketch

Jan Matejko was Poland's national painter — the creator of monumental historical canvases that shaped Polish national consciousness during the period of foreign partition. His sketch for 'Kościuszko at Racławice' (1885) is a preparatory study for his famous painting of the 1794 Battle of Racławice, in which Tadeusz Kościuszko's forces — including peasant scythe-bearers — defeated a Russian army in one of the most celebrated moments of Polish military resistance. The sketch allowed Matejko to work out the compositional and figural elements that would be elaborated in the final painting.

As a preparatory sketch, the Racławice study shows Matejko's compositional thinking — the arrangement of the battle's key figures and the spatial organization of the scene worked out with the freedom that sketch practice permits. His figure handling is confident and direct, the historical accuracy of costume and equipment he was famous for present even in the study stage. The sketch's energy captures the heroic drama of the subject more immediately than the elaborated final version.