Oncamping

Aleksander Orłowski came from a low-income family that was forced to move to Siedlce. There, his father ran an inn where Aleksander, in his free time, created paintings on the walls. They were appreciated by Izabela Czartoryska, who decided that he should study with Norblin for ten years at the Czartoryski court. In 1793, he joined the army. He was wounded in the Kościuszko Uprising, after which he returned to Warsaw and undertook further studies. In 1802, he went to Lithuania and later to Petersburg. He became a court painter of Prince Konstanty, which provided him with a flat in the Marble Palace and a permanent salary. It entailed the obligation to create one painting a month on commission from the tsarist court. He was fascinated by Romanticism and Orientalism. Between 1809 and 1825, he worked at the Academy of Fine Arts in St Petersburg. After that period, he moved to the outskirts of St Petersburg. Orłowski specialised in watercolours and also excelled in pencil and charcoal drawing. In the collection of the National Museum in Szczecin, there is one example of one of the subjects he often undertook, namely images of horses and soldiers. The picture was painted in 1815 when he designed uniforms for the army of the Kingdom of Poland on Prince Constantine's orders.

Beata Małgorzata Wolska