The Late Birth of a Great Artist: Piotr Michalowski’s Sketchbook of 1832

The book covers a very special moment in the life of Piotr Michałowski (1800–55), the most outstanding painter of Polish Romanticism. In his early life, Michałowski built a career as a technocrat and later became head of the state-owned heavy industry. At the time, he proved himself a brilliant amateur salon painter. During the anti-Russian uprising of 1830–31, he was responsible for producing weapons for the Polish army, and would later head for France to pursue the arts. This change in his mindset is documented by the sketchbook he kept in January 1832. It illustrates the transition from a superficial salon artist to keen student of nature and insightful realist. The authors analyze the sketchbook, the circumstances of its creation, and its deeper structure from several perspectives.