Struggle

"Struggle" (1864) places Grottger in his most politically engaged period, the year of the January Uprising's suppression, when the full tragedy of the Polish insurrection against Russian rule was becoming clear. The uprising, begun in January 1863, had been crushed by the spring of 1864; the consequences included mass executions, deportations to Siberia, and the final dissolution of Polish autonomy under the Russian Empire. Grottger documented these events obsessively in his cycle works — Polonia (1863), Lithuania (1864–1866), War (1866–1867) — but also in independent canvases like this one. A painting simply titled "Struggle" in this context carries both physical and metaphorical weight: the physical combat of insurrectionists against imperial soldiers, and the broader existential struggle of a nation for its existence. The lack of a designated collection suggests private ownership.

Struggle subjects in Grottger's work involve dynamic, physically engaged figures in close combat, requiring the management of intertwined bodies in violent motion. He employs strong directional lighting to distinguish figures in conflict and to dramatize the physical stress of bodies under extreme force. The palette tends toward dark, urgent tones — earth reds, deep browns, and grey-blacks — appropriate to the gravity of the subject.