In 1519, Bishop Jan Lubrański founded the first higher-education institution in Poznań, a bold move that would shape the city’s intellectual life for centuries. Three and a half centuries later, Jan Matejko—Poland’s great chronicler of national history—chose this very moment as the subject for a preparatory sketch in 1886. This work stands out as a rare glimpse into Matejko’s creative process, offering us the artist’s raw vision before the final composition was ever realized.

The sketch is one of several studies Matejko made for his monumental series on Polish history, but the finished painting of this scene is now lost or perhaps never completed. The sketch captures the charged instant when Bishop Lubrański, robed in episcopal finery, presents the founding charter to assembled clergy and scholars. The bishop’s outstretched arm, holding the document aloft, becomes the visual axis—his gesture a symbol of both authority and generosity. Around him, the figures lean in, their faces illuminated by a shaft of imagined light, suggesting the dawn of learning and hope.

The presence of a young student at Lubrański’s side, clutching a book, hints at the future generations who would benefit from this act. Unlike the more theatrical crowd scenes of Matejko’s The Prussian Homage, this composition is intimate, focusing on the solemnity of the founding rather than spectacle. As a sketch, the work was likely never intended for public display, instead serving as an internal blueprint for a larger canvas. Its medium remains uncertain, but the energetic lines and washes reveal Matejko’s hand at its most spontaneous.

Today, the sketch survives as part of a collection devoted to the artist’s studies, cherished for its insight into his working method and historical imagination. In the context of Matejko’s career, it marks a late phase, when he was increasingly preoccupied with the educational and civic legacy of Poland’s past—an interest reflected in his own role as director of the Kraków Academy of Fine Arts.