Jan Ksawery Kaniewski, also known in

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

as Francesco Saverio Kaniewski (1805 – 13 April 1867) was a

Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Poles, people from Poland or of Polish descent * Polish chicken *Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin screenwr ...

painter trained in

St. Petersburg Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

who spent several years in Rome. He was particularly known for his portraits and his depictions of historical and Biblical scenes.

Life and career

Kaniewski was born in Krasiłów,

Krasyliv Krasyliv (, ) is a city in Khmelnytskyi Raion, Khmelnytskyi Oblast (province) of western Ukraine. It hosts the administration of Krasyliv urban hromada, one of the hromadas of Ukraine. Population: Until 18 July 2020, Krasyliv was the administrat ...

Podolia Podolia or Podilia ( uk, Поділля, Podillia, ; russian: Подолье, Podolye; ro, Podolia; pl, Podole; german: Podolien; be, Падолле, Padollie; lt, Podolė), is a historic region in Eastern Europe, located in the west-central ...

Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...

. He was educated in the

Liceum Krzemienieckie Krzemieniec Lyceum ( pl, Liceum Krzemienieckie; russian: Кременецкий лицей; uk, Крем'янецький ліцей); sometimes referred to as "the Volhynian Athens" and " Czacki's School") was a renowned Polish secondary school ...

Krzemieniec Kremenets ( uk, Крем'янець, Кременець, translit. ''Kremianets'', ''Kremenets''; pl, Krzemieniec; yi, קרעמעניץ, Kremenits) is a city in Ternopil Oblast (province) of western Ukraine. It is the administrative center o ...

, where he received his first lessons in drawing and painting from

Józef Pitschmann Józef Franciszek Jan Pitschmann, or Franz Joseph Pitschmann (1758, Trieste - 1 September 1834, Krzemieniec) was an Austrian-born Polish portrait painter. Biography He began his artistic studies at the Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna, under the di ...

. Between 1827 and 1833 he studied in the

Imperial Academy of Arts The Russian Academy of Arts, informally known as the Saint Petersburg Academy of Arts, was an art academy in Saint Petersburg, founded in 1757 by the founder of the Imperial Moscow University Ivan Shuvalov under the name ''Academy of the Thre ...

. After graduating with the title "free artist" ( pl, wolny artysta), he traveled to Rome thanks to a government grant, arriving in November 1833, via

Dresden Dresden (, ; Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; wen, label=Upper Sorbian, Drježdźany) is the capital city of the German state of Saxony and its second most populous city, after Leipzig. It is the 12th most populous city of Germany, the fourth larg ...

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

Bologna Bologna (, , ; egl, label= Emilian, Bulåggna ; lat, Bononia) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in Northern Italy. It is the seventh most populous city in Italy with about 400,000 inhabitants and 150 different nat ...

and

Florence Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico an ...

. In Rome he found fame, thanks to his portrait of

Pope Gregory XVI Pope Gregory XVI ( la, Gregorius XVI; it, Gregorio XVI; born Bartolomeo Alberto Cappellari; 18 September 1765 – 1 June 1846) was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 2 February 1831 to his death in 1 June 1846. He h ...

, commissioned by

Tsar Nicholas I , house = Romanov-Holstein-Gottorp , father = Paul I of Russia , mother = Maria Feodorovna (Sophie Dorothea of Württemberg) , birth_date = , birth_place = Gatchina Palace, Gatchina, Russian Empire , death_date = ...

, for which he was awarded the

Order of the Golden Spur The Order of the Golden Spur ( it, Ordine dello Speron d'Oro, french: Ordre de l'Éperon d'or), officially known also as the Order of the Golden Militia ( la, Ordo Militia Aurata, it, Milizia Aurata), is a papal order of knighthood conferre ...

and was elected a member of the '' Accademia Virtuosi'' of the

Pantheon Pantheon may refer to: * Pantheon (religion), a set of gods belonging to a particular religion or tradition, and a temple or sacred building Arts and entertainment Comics *Pantheon (Marvel Comics), a fictional organization * ''Pantheon'' (Lone S ...

. While in Rome he also painted

Gaetano Moroni Gaetano Moroni (17 October 1802, Rome – 3 November 1883, Rome) was an Italian writer on the history and contemporary structure of the Catholic Church and an official of the papal court in Rome. He was the author of the well-known ''Dizionario ...

. In the years 1842–1846 he was back in St. Petersburg, where in 1845, for his work ''Portrait of Field-Marshal Iwan Paskiewicz'' he received the title of Academician. In 1846 he moved to

Warsaw Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officia ...

, where after the death of Aleksander Kokular he occupied the chair of drawing and figure painting in the School of Fine Arts, of which from 1858 to 1864 he was director, with the patronage of Tsar Alexander II. In 1860 he became one of the organisers of the Society for the Encouragement of the Arts (''Towarzystwo Zachęty Sztuk Pięknych''), with which he remained associated until the end of his life. After the School of Fine Arts was forcibly closed in 1864, Kaniewski continued to lead a drawing class. His work included many portraits of members of the

Russian Imperial family The House of Romanov (also transcribed Romanoff; rus, Романовы, Románovy, rɐˈmanəvɨ) was the reigning imperial house of Russia from 1613 to 1917. They achieved prominence after the Tsarina, Anastasia Romanova, was married to th ...

, including

Tsar Alexander II Alexander II ( rus, Алекса́ндр II Никола́евич, Aleksándr II Nikoláyevich, p=ɐlʲɪˈksandr ftɐˈroj nʲɪkɐˈlajɪvʲɪtɕ; 29 April 181813 March 1881) was Emperor of Russia, King of Poland and Grand Duke of Fin ...

, and dignitaries of

Congress Poland Congress Poland, Congress Kingdom of Poland, or Russian Poland, formally known as the Kingdom of Poland, was a polity created in 1815 by the Congress of Vienna as a semi-autonomous Polish state, a successor to Napoleon's Duchy of Warsaw. It w ...

Sources

* ''Dizionario di erudizione storico-ecclesiastica'', Vol. LXXXIII, p. 67 (n.d.)

External links

19th-century Polish painters 19th-century Polish male artists People from Krasyliv People from the Russian Empire of Polish descent 1805 births 1867 deaths Polish male painters {{Poland-painter-stub