Romanticism in Poland in the context of "Partitions of Poland"

Adam Bernard Mickiewicz (24 December 1798 – 26 November 1855) was a Polish poet, dramatist, essayist, publicist, translator and political activist. He is regarded as national poet in Poland, Lithuania and Belarus. He also largely influenced Ukrainian literature and affected Russian literature. A principal figure in Polish Romanticism, he is one of Poland's "Three Bards" (Polish: trzej wieszcze) and is widely regarded as Poland's greatest poet. He is also considered one of the greatest Slavic and European poets and has been dubbed a "Slavic bard". A leading Romantic dramatist, he has been compared in Poland and Europe to Byron and Goethe.

He is known chiefly for the poetic drama Dziady (Forefathers' Eve) and the national epic poem Pan Tadeusz. His other influential works include Konrad Wallenrod and Grażyna. All these served as inspiration for uprisings against the three imperial powers that had partitioned the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth out of existence.

Wojciech Korneli Stattler or Albert Kornel Stattler (20 April 1800 – 6 November 1875) was a Polish Romantic painter of Swiss aristocratic ancestry, who started training in Vienna and at age 17 went to St. Luke's Academy in Rome. From 1831 he taught as professor at the School of Fine Arts in Kraków. 1850 he returned to Rome. His most famous pupil was Poland's leading painter of historical figures and events, Jan Matejko.

Władysław Łuszczkiewicz (3 September 1828 – 23 May 1900) was a Polish historian and painter of the late Romantic era from Kraków, active in the period of the foreign partitions of Poland. He was a professor at the Academy of Fine Arts and served as its principal in 1893/95. One of his best students was Jan Matejko, the eminent Polish historical painter and later, his close associate. Łuszczkiewicz taught painting, drawing, anatomy and architectural styles. Highly educated, he also worked as conservator of architectural monuments in the city later on in his career, and wrote historical dissertations.

Polish Positivism (Polish: Pozytywizm [pɔ.zɘˈtɘ.vizm] ) was a social, literary and philosophical movement that became dominant in late-19th-century partitioned Poland following Romanticism in Poland and the suppression of the January 1863 Uprising against the Russian Empire. The Positivist period lasted until the turn of the 20th century and the advent of the modernist Young Poland movement.

Juliusz Słowacki (/sloʊˈvɑːtski/; Polish: [ˈjuljuʂ swɔˈvat͡skʲi]; French: Jules Slowacki; 4 September 1809 – 3 April 1849) was a Polish Romantic poet. He is considered one of the "Three Bards" of Polish literature — a major figure in the Polish Romantic period, and the father of modern Polish drama. His works often feature elements of Slavic paganism, Polish history, mysticism and orientalism. His style includes the employment of neologisms and irony. His primary genre was the drama, but he also wrote lyric poetry. His most popular works include the dramas Kordian and Balladyna and the poems Beniowski, Testament mój and Anhelli.

Słowacki spent his youth in the so-called "Stolen Lands" within the Russian Empire, in Kremenets (Polish: Krzemieniec, now in Ukraine) and in Vilnius (now Lithuania). He briefly worked for the government of the Kingdom of Poland. During the November 1830 Uprising, he was a courier for the Polish revolutionary government. When the uprising ended in defeat, he found himself abroad and thereafter, like many compatriots, lived the life of an émigré. He settled briefly in Paris, France, and later in Geneva, Switzerland. He also traveled through Italy, Greece and the Middle East. Eventually he returned to Paris, where he spent the last decade of his life. He briefly returned to Poland when another uprising broke out during the Spring of Nations (1848).

The ideas of the Age of Enlightenment in Poland were developed later than in Western Europe, as the Polish bourgeoisie was weaker, and szlachta (nobility) culture (Sarmatism) together with the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth political system (Golden Liberty) were in deep crisis. The period of Polish Enlightenment began in the 1730s–40s, peaked in the reign of Poland's last king, Stanisław August Poniatowski (1764-1795), went into decline with the Third Partition of Poland (1795) – a national tragedy inspiring a short period of sentimental writing – and ended in 1822, replaced by Romanticism.

Maurycy Gottlieb (Polish pronunciation; 21 February 1856 – 17 July 1879) was a Polish-Jewish realist painter of the Romantic period. Considered one of the most talented students of Jan Matejko, Gottlieb died at the age of 23.