Background
Piotr Michałowski was born on July 2, 1800 in Krakow, Poland, the son of landowner Józef Michałowski, senator in the Free City of Kraków.
Piotr Michałowski was born on July 2, 1800 in Krakow, Poland, the son of landowner Józef Michałowski, senator in the Free City of Kraków.
Piotr studied a broad range of subjects at the Jagiellonian University including classical philosophy, agriculture and mathematics. In 1821 he went to Göttingen to devote himself to legal studies and to expand his historical knowledge.
After returning to Poland, in 1823 he began to practice in Warsaw in the Government Committee of Revenue and Treasury, in which in 1827 he was appointed as the head of the Metallurgical Department. In 1831 he was subordinated to the Government War Commission in order to direct the production of arms in his facilities for the November Uprising. After the fall of the national liberation uprising he went with Antoni Ostrowski, the father of his newly married wife, Julia, to emigrate to France. Here he also demonstrated his social activism as a member of the Polish Emigration Funds Committee. After returning to Poland in 1835, he initially lived in Krakow, concentrating on artistic activity.
In 1837 he settled in his family estate, Krzyżtoporzyce, opening a new chapter related to farming in his biography. In 1840 he moved to the estate of Bolestraszyce near Przemyśl. In 1848 he became the president of the Administrative Council of the Krakow District. In 1853 he was elected the president of the Cracow Agricultural Society. During numerous trips on the European countries - France, Germany, Austria, Czech Republic, Belgium, Holland and England - Michalowski deepened his knowledge of the industry and agriculture, but also devoted time to study the old masters of art in museum collections.
Michałowski became famous as a painter of horses. He left for Hanover and Eilsen to sketch the horses stationed there. In his watercolor drawings from the 1820s, depicting military scenes, horse carts and caricatures, the influence of Aleksander Orłowski - a pioneer of a realistic trend in Polish art - can be clearly seen. During his stay in France in the years 1832 - 1835, he devoted himself above all to improving artistic skills.
The artist also made attempts in the field of sculpture. While in Paris in 1832 - 1835, he made a Napoleon's plaster statuette and a bust of his own kept in the neoclassical convention. From 1833, watercolors of the artist depicting horses enjoyed great popularity on the French market and were also sold by the marszands, including Durand-Ruela, in Germany, England and America. The subject of the stagecoach returned in Michałowski's drawings in 1840 and 1850 including his famous Romantic "Battle of Somosierra", "Parade before Napoleon" and other battle sites. Piotr Michałowski died on June 9, 1855.
A characteristic feature of his historical-genre images was the conciseness and suggestiveness of the shot that captures the essence of phenomena in the likeness of a metaphor.
Piotr was a thriving social activist.
Piotr Michałowski was married to Julia Michalowski.