Artur Grottger's "Polonia" and "Lithuania" cycle

The Polish artist Artur Grottger (1837-1867) was in Austria when he observed the unfolding political events in Poland that preceeded the uprising of 1863 in the lands of the Kingdom of Poland and in Lithuania. One year later, influenced by news of the uprising received from the lands already occupied by the Russians, he created the cycle "Polonia" which Portrayed battling the nation's bravery and drama through symbolic illustrations. Following the failed uprising, the artist decided to make the illustrious the battles that had taken place in Lithuania, mostly in the country's deepest forests.

The boards in this cycle, uniting the typical elements of Romantic poetry - heroism, tragicism, idealism and mysticism - with the realism of meticulously depicted forms, an unbelievably subtle play of light and darkness, as well as a broad pallett of black and white tones, volatile playwrights and a gradation of moods appealing to viewers' emotions, are commanding and eloquent, and became the most important Polish patriotic works of art.