Wincenty Fryderyk de Lesseur, or Lesserowicz (1745,

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 ...

- 31 May 1813, Warsaw) was a Polish painter,

miniaturist A portrait miniature is a miniature portrait painting, usually executed in gouache, watercolor, or enamel. Portrait miniatures developed out of the techniques of the miniatures in illuminated manuscripts, and were popular among 16th-century eli ...

, pastelist and

caricaturist A caricaturist is an artist who specializes in drawing caricatures. List of caricaturists * Abed Abdi (born 1942) * Al Hirschfeld (1903–2003) * Alex Gard (1900–1948) * Alexander Saroukhan (1898–1977) * Alfred Grévin (1827–1892) * Alf ...

Biography

His father was a French army officer, stationed in Warsaw after the

War of the Polish Succession The War of the Polish Succession ( pl, Wojna o sukcesję polską; 1733–35) was a major European conflict sparked by a Polish civil war over the succession to Augustus II of Poland, which the other European powers widened in pursuit of thei ...

.Brief biography
from the ''Dictionary of Pastellists Before 1800'' by Neil Jeffares. He received formal art education from

Marcello Marcello is a common masculine Italian given name. It is a variant of Marcellus. The Spanish and Portuguese version of the name is Marcelo, differing in having only one "l", while the Greek form is Markellos. Etymology The name originally means ...

and Johanna Bacciarelli. During a brief stay in Vienna, he worked with

Heinrich Füger Heinrich Friedrich Füger (8 December 1751, in Heilbronn – 5 November 1818, in Vienna) was a German classicist portrait and historical painter. Biography Füger was a pupil of Nicolas Guibal in Stuttgart and of Adam Friedrich Oeser in L ...

. His primary patron (and customer) was King

Stanisław August Poniatowski Stanisław II August (born Stanisław Antoni Poniatowski; 17 January 1732 – 12 February 1798), known also by his regnal Latin name Stanislaus II Augustus, was King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania from 1764 to 1795, and the last monarch ...

. After 1787, he served as a

chamberlain Chamberlain may refer to: Profession *Chamberlain (office), the officer in charge of managing the household of a sovereign or other noble figure People *Chamberlain (surname) **Houston Stewart Chamberlain (1855–1927), German-British philosop ...

at the court. By 1804, he was sufficiently well-off to settle on his own small property near Kozery. He was renowned for his ability to create small watercolors or

gouache Gouache (; ), body color, or opaque watercolor is a water-medium paint consisting of natural pigment, water, a binding agent (usually gum arabic or dextrin), and sometimes additional inert material. Gouache is designed to be opaque. Gouache h ...

s on ivory, using a

pointillistic Pointillism (, ) is a technique of painting in which small, distinct dots of color are applied in patterns to form an image. Georges Seurat and Paul Signac developed the technique in 1886, branching from Impressionism. The term "Pointillism" wa ...

style that created the effect of smoothness. In addition to portraits of the King, he painted portraits of other European monarchs, national heroes, artists, scholars, and aristocratic families and their friends. He also made miniature copies of the works of Bacciarelli,

Josef Grassi Josef Grassi (22 April 1757 – 7 January 1838) was an Austrian portrait and history painter. His middle name is usually given as "Maria", although there is evidence that it was actually "Mathias".Michael Lorenz Wien 2012 He is also called "Giuse ...

and Jan Chrzciciel Lampi. Among his students were and Waleria Tarnowska. A large collection of his miniatures which was owned by the

Tarnowski family The House of Tarnowski (plural: Tarnowscy) is the name of a Polish noble and aristocratic family (see: Szlachta). Because Polish adjectives have different forms for the genders, Tarnowska is the form for a female family member. History The ...

may now be seen at the

Polish Museum, Rapperswil The Polish Museum, Rapperswil, was founded in Rapperswil, Switzerland, on 23 October 1870, by Polish Count Władysław Broel-Plater, at the urging of Agaton Giller, as "a refuge for Poland's historic memorabilia dishonored and plundered in the ...

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lesseur, Wincenty De 1745 births 1813 deaths 18th-century Polish–Lithuanian painters 18th-century male artists 19th-century Polish painters 19th-century Polish male artists Polish people of French descent Artists from Warsaw Polish portrait painters Pastel artists Polish male painters

Biography

References

Further reading

External links