With viaticum.

With Viaticum, dated 1889 and now in the National Museum in Warsaw, depicts a Catholic sacramental scene — the viaticum is the Eucharist administered to a dying person, a subject freighted with religious and social meaning in Catholic Polish culture. Siemiradzki, living in Rome but deeply conscious of his Polish Catholic heritage, returned periodically to religious subject matter that resonated with the situation of occupied Poland. Depicting a priest bringing last rites to a dying parishioner in an outdoor or village setting connected ancient religious practice to contemporary life, bridging Siemiradzki's twin interests in historical-religious subjects and genre painting. By 1889 he had already completed his most spectacular religious commissions, and this more intimate work represents a different register — personal, devotional, and connected to an everyday experience of faith rather than to ancient Roman spectacle.

Oil on canvas, the scene balances the ceremonial formality of the priest and acolytes with the informality of the dying person's setting. Siemiradzki employs careful management of natural light, likely falling from a consistent outdoor source, to unite the figures spatially. The palette is cooler and more muted than his ancient Roman subjects, appropriate to the gravity of the sacramental moment.