Henryk Siemiradzki

Siemiradzki was born to Hipolit Siemiradzki, a Polish noble and an officer of the Imperial Russian Army (made general in 1871) and Michalina (née Prószyńska) in Novo-Belgorod (now Pechenihy, Chuhuiv Raion, Kharkiv oblast, Ukraine), near the city of Kharkiv, where his father's regiment was stationed. The family had origins in Radom land and derived its name from the village of Siemiradz. One of the branches settled near Navahrudak (Nowogródek) in the late 17th century. ==Artistic career==

) After graduating from university with a Kandidat degree he abandoned his scientific career and moved to Saint Petersburg to study painting at the Imperial Academy of Arts from 1864 to 1870. Upon his graduation he was awarded a gold medal. In 1870–1871 he studied under Karl von Piloty in Munich on a grant from the Academy. In 1872 he moved to Rome and later built a studio there on Via Gaeta, while spending summers at his estate in Strzałków near Częstochowa. In 1873 he received the title of Academician of the Imperial Academy of Arts for his painting Christ and a Sinner, based on a verse Sinner written by Aleksey Tolstoy. In 1878 he received the French National Order of the Legion of Honour and a gold medal at the Paris World's Fair for the painting Flower Vase. In 1876–1879 Siemiradzki worked on frescoes for the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour (Moscow) among his other large-scale projects. In 1879, he offered one of his best-known works, the enormous Pochodnie Nerona (Nero's torches), painted around 1876, to the newly formed Polish National Museum. The artwork is on display at the Siemiradzki Room of the Sukiennice Museum in the Kraków Old Town, the most popular branch of the museum. Around 1893 Siemiradzki worked on two large paintings for the State Historical Museum (Moscow). In 1894, he produced his monumental curtain for the Juliusz Słowacki Theatre in Kraków. He died in Strzałków in 1902 and was buried originally in Warsaw. His remains were later moved to the national Pantheon on Skałka in Kraków. == Commemoration ==

The modern arts gallery at V.N. Karazin Kharkiv National University in Kharkiv where he studied, is named after Siemiradzki. In January 2025, on the occasion of the 220th anniversary of the V. N. Karazin Kharkiv National University, a monument to Henryk Siemiradsky was unveiled at the entrance to the gallery in the northern building of the university. The monument was created back in 2021, but its installation and opening were postponed due to quarantine restrictions and a Russian invasion of Ukraine. in 1910, a street in Lviv connecting the modern streets of Gipsova and Konovalets was named after Henryk Siemiradsky. ==Monumental paintings==

Siemiradzki's large-scale canvasses, including The Sword Dance influenced by the French Académie des Beaux-Arts, are on display at the national museums of Poland, Russia, and Ukraine; notably, at the Sukiennice Museum, the National Museum, Poznań, Lviv National Art Gallery, Tretyakov Gallery, and others. File:Siemiradski Fackeln.jpg|''Nero's Torches'', 1876, National Museum, Kraków File:Henryk Siemiradzki - Wazon czy kobieta?.jpg|The Girl or the Vase, 1878 Private collection File:Ivankupala.jpg|Night on the eve of Ivan Kupala, 1880s, Lviv National Art Gallery File:1881 Siemiradzki Tanz der Schwerter anagoria.JPG|The Sword Dance, 1881, Tretyakov Gallery File:Siemiradzki Christian Dirce.jpg|Christian Dirce, 1897, National Museum, Warsaw File:Semiradsky Christ Martha Maria.jpg|Christ with Martha and Maria, 1886, Russian Museum File:Талисман.jpg|The Talisman, 1880s, Art Museum of Nizhny Novgorod File:Siemiradzki-Chrystus i Samarytanka.jpg|Christ and Samaritan, 1890, Lviv National Art Gallery File:Genrich Ippolitovich Semiradsky - Roma, 1889.jpg|Phryne at the Poseidonia in Eleusis, 1889, Russian Museum File:Siemiradzki Curtain design for the Słowacki Theatre.jpg|Curtain for the Juliusz Słowacki Theatre in Kraków File:TeatrWielkiLwow-kurtyna.jpg|Curtain for the Lviv Theatre of Opera and Ballet ==Other paintings==

File:Alexander of macedon trust's the doctor Philip, Henryk Siemiradzki.jpg|''Alexander the Great's trust in Doctor Philip'', 1870 File:Henryk Siemiradzki 002.jpg|Socrates Finds his Student Alcibiades at Heterai, 1873 File:POL Henryk Siemiradzki Żebrzący rozbitek.jpg|Begging Castaway, 1878 File:Siemiradzki-Za przykładem bogów.jpg|Following the Gods, 1899 File:Henryk Siemiradzki 007.jpeg|Corsars, 1880 File:Henryk Siemiradzki 004.jpeg|''Roman Orgy at Caesar's Time'', 1872 File:Henryk Siemiradzki 011.jpeg|''Roman Orgy at Tiberius' Time'', 1881 File:Siemiradzki Merry company.jpg|Merry Company by the Spring, 1885 File:Semiradsky Christ and Sinner.jpg|Christ and Sinner, 1873 File:Семирадский гонители христиан.jpg|Persecutors of Christians at the Entrance to the Catacombs, 1874 ==See also==