Franciszek Smuglewicz (Lithuanian: Pranciškus Smuglevičius^[1][2], October 6 1745 – September 18 1807) was a Polish-Lithuanian draughtsman and painter. Smuglevičius is considered as a progenitor of Lithuanian art in the modern era.^[1] Some scholars consider him as a spiritual father of Jan Matejko's school of painting.^{[citation needed]}. His brother was Antoni Smuglewicz.

Biography

Smuglewicz was born in Warsaw into a Polish-Lithuanian family.^[1] His father, Łukasz Smuglewicz, also a painter, had moved there from the province of Samogitia. In 1763 Franciszek journeyed to Rome, where he began the study of fine arts under the tutorship of Anton von Maron. He stayed in Rome for the next 21 years, where he embraced the Neo-Classical style.

In 1765 he received a royal scholarship from king Stanisław August Poniatowski and was admitted into the Saint Lucas Academy. As a colleague of Vincenzo Brenna he participated in cataloging artifacts from Nero`s Domus Aurea. In 1784 he returned to Warsaw, where he founded his own school of fine arts, one of the predecessors of the modern Academy of Fine Arts.

A classicist, but under strong influence of the Polish baroque^{[citation needed]}, Smuglewicz became a notable representative of historical paintings, a genre that dominated the fine arts of Poland throughout the 19th century. Around 1790 he started working on a series of sketches and lithographies inspired by Adam Naruszewicz's History of the Polish Nation. Although never finished, this series gained him much popularity.

In 1797 he moved to Vilnius, where he became the founder and the first deacon of the Institute of Sketch and Painting at the Academy of Vilnius. A tutor of several generations of Polish-Lithuanian painters, Smuglewicz devoted himself to historical paintings in the latter years of his life. He brought to Lithuania classical ideas and views of enlightened classicism. He painted every day life, and the architecture of Vilnius in a realistic manner. His works have helped with the ongoing reconstruction of the Royal Palace of Lithuania in Vilnius.

Among the notable surviving works of that period are A Meeting of the Four Years' Sejm (1793) and Kościuszko's Oath at Kraków's Old Town Market (1797), Lithuanian Peasants, Freeing Peasants from Serfdom in Merkinė.^[2] . Among his works of the period are priceless views of the city walls and city gates, that were demolished during the 19th century.

He was buried at the Rasos Cemetery, although the exact location of his grave is no longer known.

References

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  Scythians meeting with Darius, 1785
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  Portrait of the Prozor Family, 1789, National Museum in Warsaw
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  "Tadeusz Kościuszko taking the oath", 1797