Piotr Michałowski, PORTRET OF A MUSIC TEACHER, 1840-1845

23.4 x 17.9 cm - pencil, watercolor, paper glued on cardboard pencil, watercolor, paper glued on cardboard, 23.4 x 17.9 cm (inside passe-partout)



On the so called backing a sticker of the National Museum in Warsaw with the deposit number: reg. 480/22/4.



Compare with:

- Piotr Michałowski 1800-1855. exhibition of the artist's works on the bicentennial of his birth [A. Zeńczak, B. Studziżba], MN in Kraków, Kraków 2000, cat. no. 18, 226 il.



The portrait depicts the music teacher of the Michałowski children, who was German Herber. He was most likely employed at the Bolestraszyce manor between 1840 and 1845, hence the dating of this and two other known portraits of him - an oil portrait (collection of Wojciech Fibak) and a watercolor portrait (privately owned), which depict Herber in the same pose. Both were presented at the artist's monographic exhibition held at the National Museum in Krakow in 2000.

Piotr Michałowski (Krakow 1800 - Krzysztoforzyce / Krzyżtoporzyce 1855) was the most outstanding painter of the Polish Romantic era, and his work is a phenomenon on a European scale. Versatilely talented, he studied natural sciences, law, history and languages at Jagiellonian University and Göttingen between 1815 and 1821. At the same time, from childhood he studied drawing in the Cracow studios of M. Stachowicz, J. Brodowski and F. Lampi. He worked in the administration of the Kingdom of Poland as head of the steel mills and mining counselor. During the November Uprising he managed the production of arms and ammunition at the Bialogon steelworks. From 1832 to 1835 he stayed in Paris and studied in the studio of Nicolas Toussaint Charlet. He was an excellent painter of horses, and his paintings and watercolors gained admiration and great success, so that "all of Paris flew after his horses." Upon his return to the country, he stayed mainly at his estates - Krzyżtoporzyce and Bolestraszyce, taking care of their administration. He traveled extensively in Europe, going to London, Vienna, Carlsbad, Belgium, Holland and several more times to France. In 1848-53 he served as Chairman of the Administrative Council of the City of Cracow. He painted dynamic battle compositions from the Napoleonic wars, equestrian portraits of commanders and hetmans, portraits of family and friends, and portraits of peasants. His oil paintings and watercolors, combining expressive power with sensitivity to nature, are characterized by bold drawing, synthetic form, values of color, freedom of painting technique and the romantic fervor of a Polish patriot.