The painting „Kościuszko Falls from His Horse” by Jan Bogumił Plersch – Maciejowice

Fact of the Polish figure „The Battle of Maciejowice – Maciejowice”

Part of the „The myth of national disaster” topic

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The painting depicts most dramatic moment of the Kościuszko Uprising. Defeated in the battle of Maciejowice (10 October 1794), the commander of the Polish forces, Tadeusz Kościuszko, gets wounded and captured by Russians, thus sealing the fate of partitioned Poland-Lithuania. Allegedly, before losing consciousness, Kościuszko was supposed to say: “Finis Poloniae” (“End of Poland”). Whether that is true is questionable, although undoubtedly that final, lost battle resulted in final decomposition of independent Polish state for more than a century. What adds to the gravity of the painting is that its author was the court painter of Stanisław August – the last King of Poland.