In 1872, during an exhibition in Prague he was offered a directorship of the Academy of Fine Arts, Prague, and soon afterwards, a similar position at Kraków's School of Fine Arts. He accepted the Kraków offer, and was for many years the principal (rector) of the Academy of Fine Arts. In 1874, he finished "Zawieszenie dzwonu Zygmunta" ("The Hanging of the Sigismund bell"). In 1878, he finished another masterpiece, "Battle of Grunwald". That year he received an "honorary grand gold" medal in Paris, and the city council of Kraków presented him with a ceremonial scepter, a symbol of his "royal status in fine arts". In 1879, he finished "Rok 1863 - Polonia" (Year 1863 - Polonia), his take on the January Uprising of that time. Begun in 1864, a year after the Uprising he himself had lived through and where he lost a number of friends and family members, this canvas languished unfinished until prince Władysław Czartoryski became interested in acquiring it; it is still considered unfinished.