Jan Nepomucen Głowacki (1802 – July 28, 1847) was a Polish realist painter of the

Romantic era Romanticism (also known as the Romantic movement or Romantic era) was an artistic and intellectual movement that originated in Europe towards the end of the 18th century. The purpose of the movement was to advocate for the importance of subjec ...

, regarded as the most outstanding landscape painter of the early 19th century in

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

under the foreign partitions. Głowacki studied painting at the Kraków School of Fine Arts and later at the academies of

Prague Prague ( ; ) is the capital and List of cities and towns in the Czech Republic, largest city of the Czech Republic and the historical capital of Bohemia. Prague, located on the Vltava River, has a population of about 1.4 million, while its P ...

and

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

, as well as Rome and

Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...

. He returned to Kraków in 1828, and became a teacher of painting and drawing. From 1842 he served as a professor in the Faculty of Landscape Painting at the School of Fine Arts. His work can be found at the National Museum of Poland and its branches. Some of his work was looted by Nazi Germany in World War II and has never been recovered.

Work

Głowacki was born in

Kraków , officially the Royal Capital City of Kraków, is the List of cities and towns in Poland, second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city has a population of 804,237 ...

, where he lived for most of his life. He took his first art lessons with the painter Antoni Giziński, and between 1819 and 1825 attended the workshops of Józef Brodowski the Elder and Józef Peszka at the School of Fine Arts in Kraków. He continued his studies in Prague and then at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna under Franz Steinfeld until 1828. He went to Rome in 1834/35 and finished his studies in Munich. While abroad, he went by the name Jean Nepomuk Glowacki. Upon his return from Vienna, Głowacki became a teacher of art in his hometown and also a prolific artist. He painted mostly landscapes and city scapes, as well as portraits, and religious or mythological scenes. He was influenced by the Viennese school of realism, which was especially apparent in his portrait studies. Polish art critics and historians consider him the father of Polish school of landscape painting. Głowacki was the first Polish artist to devote an entire series of works to the Tatra Mountains. He was also the first, to produce studies for his oil paintings on strenuous outdoor trips. Landscapes such as "" (View from

Poronin Poronin , is a village in southern Poland; from 1999 it formed part of Tatra County of the Lesser Poland Voivodeship (it was previously in Nowy Sącz Voivodeship from 1975 to 1998). It lies approximately north-east of Zakopane and south of the r ...

, 1836) and "" (1837) are said to mark the beginning of realist Polish mountain painting. His Romantic city scapes of Kraków and its environs became very popular during his lifetime thanks to an album of 24 prints that he published in 1836. He was married and had a son, Justyn Jan Głowacki, born in 1838, and a daughter Emilia (ca 1840). Very little else is known about his personal life.

Gallery

Notes and references

{{DEFAULTSORT:Glowacki, Jan Nepomucen 1802 births 1847 deaths Polish landscape painters 19th-century Polish painters 19th-century Polish male artists Polish male painters People from the Free City of Kraków