Background
Suchodolski was born in Grodno and was the brother of Rajnold Suchodolski.
1850
January Suchodolski. Portrait by Maksymilian Fajans
Suchodolski was born in Grodno and was the brother of Rajnold Suchodolski.
He joined the Warsaw Cadet Corps in 1810. In 1812 he stood guard on the Hotel Angielski, Warsaw when Napoleon stayed there incognito, during his escape from Moscow. In 1823 he became adjutant to Wincenty Krasiński a former officer in Napoleon"s Army who at the time was with the Royal Regiment of Grenadier Guards.
Through Krasiński"s connections he got access to the Palace"s art galleries, gaining exposure to military paintings particularly those of Horace Vernet.
He also gained access to Poland"s leading artistic and intellectual circles meeting such luminaries as Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz, Woronicz, Koźmian, Franciszek Salezy Dmochowski, Antoni Edward Odyniec, and Morawski. During this period he started painting pictures with military themes, particularly battles from the Kościuszko Uprising and the Napoleonic wars including those in which Krasiński was involved in during the Peninsular War.
He got to know Antoni Brodowski and succeeded in an art competition with compositions called "Taking the banner of Muhammad in Vienna" and "Death of Ladislaus of Varna". January fought at the First Battle of Wawer, the Battle of Olszynka Grochowska and the Battle of Iganie.
In his spare time he sketched the scenes of soldiers and made portraits of his colleagues.
Here he socialised with Zygmunt Krasinski, Wincenty"s son, Juliusz Słowacki, Thorwaldsen, Johann Friedrich Overbeck, Peter von Cornelius, and Louis Léopold Robert. He returned to Warsaw in 1837 and was soon offered membership of the Imperial Academy of Fine Arts for his painting "Siege of Akhaltsikhe". He was then invited to Street St. Petersburg by Tsar Nicholas I to paint famous battles of the Russian Army.
After returning to Poland, he next went to Paris in 1844.
In 1852 he moved to Krakow, where he met Wincenty Policy He provided some illustrations for Political"s poem "Mohorta".
In 1860 Suchodolski joined the committee of the Society for the Encouragement of Fine Arts and helped set up the Museum of Fine Arts in Warsaw. January Suchodolski died in Bojmie (near Siedlce) on March 20, 1875.
January Suchodolski was a well known painter of battle scenes. He created many pictures of the war period, and was especially good in painting horses. Suchodolski is regarded primarily as a historical painter of battle scenes, but he also left numerous genre paintings and landscapes. His works can be found in the National Museums in Warsaw, Krakow, Poznan and Wroclaw, museums in Toruń and Rzeszów, Lublin, Gallery of paintings in Lviv, Hermitage in St. Petersburg and private collections in Poland and abroad.
He participated and died in the November Uprising of 1830-1831.
