Jan Styka (born April 8, 1858 in Lviv, died April 11, 1925 in Rome) is the author of religious, historical and battle paintings, creator of four panoramas, including the co-founder of Panorama Racławicka.
He showed his love for painting as a child. However, the Polish painter and book illustrator had to go a long way for his work to become respected. Although the painter's father, a government official, strongly opposed his son's artistic career, Jan overcame all adversities, including financial ones. Although Lviv may not have seemed the best place for a painter, young Styka went to Vienna to study. Shortly after the end of his first year, the artist's father died, and he himself was left without a livelihood. So he returned to Vienna, where he lived with his friend Krudowski, a novice composer.
Many of the author's paintings were framed, and he himself left the world in great artistic glory.
Selected images: Golgotha, Regina Poloniale, Christ distributes bread to the multitudes, Polonia, White Polish eagle on the French front,
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