12 Facts About Maurycy Gottlieb

Maurycy Gottlieb was a Polish-Jewish realist painter of the Romantic period.

Maurycy Gottlieb was one of eleven children born to Fanya and Isaac Gottlieb.

Maurycy Gottlieb returned to Vienna and from there travelled to Munich in 1875 to study under Karl von Piloty and Alexander von Wagner.

Maurycy Gottlieb lived and worked in Vienna for the next two years and produced paintings with biblical themes, as well as illustrations for Friedrich Bruckmann Publishing of Munich.

In fall 1878, Maurycy Gottlieb travelled to Rome, where he befriended Henryk Siemiradzki.

At a banquet in his residence at Via Gaeta, Maurycy Gottlieb met with Matejko, who convinced him to come back to Krakow as one of his best students, to work on a series of monumental paintings including scenes from the history of the Jews in Poland.

In 1879, Maurycy Gottlieb settled in Krakow and began working on his new major project.

Maurycy Gottlieb died in the same year from health complications.

Maurycy Gottlieb won a gold medal at the Munich art competition for his painting, Shylock and Jessica, portraying a scene from Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice.

Maurycy Gottlieb based Jessica's face on that of Laura Rosenfeld, to whom he had proposed marriage.

Maurycy Gottlieb planned to marry Lola Rosengarten, but when he heard about Rosenfeld's marriage, he knowingly exposed himself to the elements, dying of complications from a cold and sore throat.

Maurycy Gottlieb's brother, Leopold Gottlieb, was born five years after his death and became known as a painter as an adult.