Józef MĘCINA-KRZESZ (1860–1934), *At the Battle*, 1884

lithograph, paper, 33 x 24 cm (inside the mat), signed and dated on the plate, lower right: “JKrzesz 884 Kraków”;

Józef Feliks Męcina-Krzesz (born January 2, 1860, in Kraków; died December 2, 1934, in Poznań) – Polish painter. He painted works with religious and historical themes, as well as portraits. He graduated from a secondary school. He then studied at the School of Fine Arts in Kraków from 1877 to 1884 under Władysław Łuszczkiewicz and Florian Cynk. From 1882 to 1884, he was a student of Jan Matejko. In 1884, he received a scholarship from the National Department, and in 1886 he left for further studies in Paris, where he trained at Jean-Paul Laurens’s school. He worked as an illustrator for the magazines *L’Illustration* and *Figaro Illustré*. In 1888, he married the French painter Ludwika Maria Barat. From 1894, he was a member of the board of the General Association of Polish Artists, and from 1913, a member of the Union Internationale des Beaux-Arts et des Lettres in Paris.