The theme of the old or dying Copernicus, who - according to tradition - only received a printed copy of his most famous work only on his deathbed, was very popular among Polish artists in the 19th century. It was reflected in the paintings of Aleksander Lesseur, Karol Młodziejowski and Walery Eljasz-Radzikowski, among others. Rygier's sculpture, however, was not only intended to be an illustration of a specific event; the branch of laurel visible at the astronomer's feet foreshadows the appreciation of his achievements by posterity.

Andrzej Pieńkos, who considered Rygier's composition to be a unique depiction of agony in Polish sculpture, rightly states that the artist's model was probably the well-known work by Vincenzo Vela "The Last Days of Napoleon" (1866; Malmaison Castle, France). The French sculpture shows the ailing emperor seated in an armchair, supported by cushions, with his right hand supporting a map spread across his lap.

Rygier made several versions of the representation of the dying Copernicus. The first, shown at the First Great Exhibition of Polish Art in Kraków in 1887, was met, probably because of its far-reaching realism, with a relatively cold reception from critics. Apart from the marble copy from the ZKW, repetitions of the composition in bronze are known (e.g. in the MNK).


Sculpture purchased by Andrzej Ciechanowiecki from the legacy of Teodor Rygier on the antiquarian market in Rome in the 1960s, donated by him to the ZKW in 1986.