Józef Simmler (March 14, 1823, in

Warsaw Warsaw, officially the Capital City of Warsaw, is the capital and List of cities and towns in Poland, largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the Vistula, River Vistula in east-central Poland. Its population is officially estimated at ...

– March 1, 1868, in Warsaw) was a Polish

painter Painting is a Visual arts, visual art, which is characterized by the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called "matrix" or "Support (art), support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with ...

known for his classical style and his Polish subjects.

Biography

Simmler came from a wealthy German Protestant family. It was this affluent upbringing that allowed him to pursue his interest in cities like Dresden, Munich and Paris. Perhaps his most famous work is "Death of Barbara Radziwillowna" ("''Śmierć Barbary Radziwiłłówny''"), an oil on canvas work completed in 1860. The painting gained immense popularity when the Warsaw-based Society for the Promotion of the Fine Arts, a newly formed institution with the goal of encouraging and promoting domestic art and artists, put it on exhibit in 1861. It now hangs in the National Museum, Warsaw. His other famous paintings are "Children of King Edward" (1847) and "Portrait of a Nobleman with a Parrot" (1859). Józef Simmler's major contribution to Polish art is the humaneness that his paintings evoked. He was a specially gifted portraitist. Using styles of costume paintings prevalent in France, he produced works that allowed the public a view of the past. His paintings, however, were more than just reproductions of history. The masterful works also gave a deep sense of compassion, dread, and tenderness. His daughter's brother-in-law was

Eduard Strasburger Eduard Adolf Strasburger (1 February 1844 – 18 May 1912) was a Polish- German professor and one of the most famous botanists of the 19th century. He discovered mitosis in plants. Life Eduard Strasburger was born in Warsaw, Congress Poland, t ...

, the famous Polish-German

botanist Botany, also called plant science, is the branch of natural science and biology studying plants, especially Plant anatomy, their anatomy, Plant taxonomy, taxonomy, and Plant ecology, ecology. A botanist or plant scientist is a scientist who s ...

. One of Simmler's grandsons was Henryk Leon Strasburger, a Polish delegate to the

League of Nations The League of Nations (LN or LoN; , SdN) was the first worldwide intergovernmental organisation whose principal mission was to maintain world peace. It was founded on 10 January 1920 by the Paris Peace Conference (1919–1920), Paris Peace ...

Selected paintings

File:Simmler Katarzyna Jahn.jpg, His sister, Katarzyna Jahn File:Jadwiga Łuszczewska gen. Deotyma.jpg,

Jadwiga Łuszczewska Jadwiga Łuszczewska (pen name: ''Deotyma'' ( Diotima); 1 July 1834 – 23 September 1908) was a Polish poet, novelist and salonniére. She was born and died in Warsaw Warsaw, officially the Capital City of Warsaw, is the capital and List ...

File:Simmler szlachcic.jpg, Nobleman with a Parrot File:Simmler Kronenberg sisters.jpg, The Kronenberg sisters

References

External links

A gallery of Jozef Simmler works

1823 births 1868 deaths 19th-century Polish painters 19th-century Polish male artists Polish male painters Painters from the Russian Empire Artists from Congress Poland {{Poland-painter-stub