Karl Matzek

Karl George Matzek (1890 – 16 April 1983) was an Austrian artist of Czech descent who is best noted for his panoramas of historic battles and murals of Biblical scenes in churches.

Matzek was a graduate of the Berlin Academy of Art. His artwork was shown in museums and at major galleries of Europe at his artistic height (in the 1930s). He was awarded various medals for his works, including a gold medal from the Russian tsar for his "Battle of Borodin".

Matzek fought in the Austrian-Hungarian cavalry in World War I, and was imprisoned in Siberia after the October Revolution. He was able to escape, and in the following years he managed to walk back to Europe, although details of this trek are largely unknown. On a winter day after World War II, he was found sick and half-frozen by villagers of Balatun in Bosnia. He remained in the town, supported by the townspeople in exchange for painting frescos in their churches. Matzek was placed in the most honorable home in the community, of a young widow with three children, the mother of the sculptor Slobodan Pejić. For almost ten years, Matzek educated the boy (he was the only father the boy ever knew; they became inseparable and painted frescos together, the boy painting the lower parts and Matzek painting the upper areas), and eventually married the mother.

In Harkanovci there is the parish church of Our Lady, built in 1799, restored and expanded in 1938. The entire interior was painted with frescoes and stained glass was created for the windows. The frescoes were painted by Karl Matzek in the period from 1955 to 1957. His frescos decorate also churches/monasteries in Janja, in Dragaljevac, in Bijeljina and elsewhere. Earlier Matzek had been sentenced to death by communist authorities, but in Bosnia he was saved by the influence of the parish priest don Mirko Gazivode. In return he painted two murals in the church. Parishioners liked them and then ordered all other frescoes in the church.

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