Helena Unierzyska

Helena Unierzyska née Matejko (6 April 1867 – 11 October 1932), was a Polish painter and sculptor, daughter of Poland's national painter Jan Matejko and his wife Teodora Giebułtowska who often posed for his paintings. His daughter Helena (one of their five children) is best remembered as the live model for a series of her father's symbolic portraits of girls, and less as an aspiring artist.[1]

Helena Matejko by Jan Matejko, circa 1883

Biography

During her infancy she lived with her parents in Krzesławice, a suburb of Kraków. She was very sickly when she was a child. Helena often assisted her father in his painting trips and in his daily studio sessions. On June 24, 1891 she married one of her father's students from the Academy of Fine Arts, painter Józef Unierzyski. Notably, her own mother disapproved of the match and did not attend the wedding ceremony.[1]

After the wedding they went to live in Boleń, a village near Kraków. They had no children of their own, but she adopted children from the village. Helena was a patriot. She had helped Polish victims in World War I and was awarded the Cross of Independence by president Stanisław Wojciechowski in the interwar period.

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References
  1. AB (5 December 2002). "Helena z Matejków Unierzyska". Informacje z regionów. Gazeta.pl, Kraj. Archived from the original on 10 September 2012. Retrieved 11 November 2012.

Sources
  • Ciciora–Czwórnóg B., Jan Matejko, Kolekcja Muzeum Narodowego w Krakowie, Olszanica 2005; ISBN 83-89747-16-2, ss. 5–8.
  • Serafińska S., Jan Matejko. Wspomnienia rodzinne, Wydawnictwo Literackie, Kraków 1958.
  • Szypowska M., Jan Matejko wszystkim znany, Zarząd Krajowy Związku Młodzieży Wiejskiej; ISBN 83-00-02435-2, Warszawa 1988.
  • Helena Matejko
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