The Last Moments of Nicolaus Copernicus

The presented painting is a sketch for the actual work "The Last Moments of Nicolaus Copernicus", kept in the Nicolaus Copernicus Museum in Rome (on Monte Mario hill). The author made several replicas of the same scene, and several other sketches from 1870 are in the National Museum in Warsaw.

Aleksander Lesser, the author of the painting, was a painter who faithfully recreated historical realities, creating compositions depicting groundbreaking events in the history of Poland. The turn towards historical themes occurred in his work around 1840, when he painted famous oil paintings: "The Defense of Trembowla against the Turks in 1675", "Anna Chrzanowska in Defense of Trembowla" (1840) and "Blessed Bishop Wincenty Kadłubek Writing a Chronicle in the Jędrzejów Monastery" (1844).
The scene shows the sick Nicolaus Copernicus sitting in an armchair in his studio in Frombork, surrounded by friends and canons of the Warmia Chapter.