Russia 1955 – Nicolaus Copernicus 

The illustration on this stamp is a coloured engraving of the painting 

Astronomer Copernicus: Conversation with God by the Polish artist Jan Matejko (1838–93); Matejko himself is depicted in the inset. The date of the painting is usually given as 1872, although the stamp carries a date of 1873 (which would have been the 400th anniversary of Copernicus’s death). The stamp is the highest-value member of a set of four marking the 10th anniversary of a treaty of mutual assistance between the Soviet and Polish governments. A monochrome version of Matejko’s painting also appears on a Polish stamp from 1953. 

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