Collection

Death of King Charles XII

Artur Grottger

Basic information

ID: Г-I-189
Author: Artur Grottger
Name: Death of King Charles XII
Date of creation: c.1858
Technique: drawing
Material: paper pencil
Dimensions (height x width, cm): 27 x 35

Additionally

Type: graphic art
Genre: narrative art
Plot: Death of King Charles XII
Provenance: National Museum in Lviv

Information about author

Author: Artur Grottger
Artist's lifetime: 1837–1867
Biography: Artur Grottger was born in 1837 in the village of Otynevychi in the Lviv region (former Ottyniowice, Eastern Galicia). He studied at the Lviv School of Painting of Jan Maszkowski, and at the Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow and Vienna (1852–1858). He is a leading representative of Polish Romanticism. He is known as a painter, periodical illustrator, graphic artist, and watercolorist. He is the author of six patriotic art cycles regarding the January Uprising against the Russian occupation of Poland of 1863, portraits, and local history materials. Artur Grottger died after a serious illness in Amélie-les-Bains, France, in 1867. He was buried in the Lychakiv Cemetery in Lviv (field No.95).

Object description

The composition is depicted against a dark background (events are taking place at night). One can see five male figures that are dressed in Swedish military uniforms of the time of King Charles XII. There are tricorns on their heads. The soldier in the foreground has a sword with a wide shoulder belt on the left side. One of the men is shining a night lantern over a motionless (dead) body that is lying in the left corner of the drawing and having a firm hold over a sword with his right hand. There is a tricorn next to his body.

Inscriptions

In the right lower corner of the work there is an author's inscription "AG" and date 1867.

Portrayed person