[ŁĘTOWSKI Ludwik - portrait photograph - shot in card de visite format]. [early 1860s]. Photograph form....

[ŁĘTOWSKI Ludwik - portrait photograph - shot in card de visite format]. [early 1860s]. Photograph form. 8.7x5.3 cm on original backing form. 9.5x6.3 cm, by Walery Rzewuski in Cracow.
The titular bishop captured in full view, seated on a padded, carved armchair, supporting his right hand on an open book lying on a bentwood table. Photo pasted on original cardboard backing. Imprint in the lower margin: "Photographed by W. Rzewuski in Cracow". Identifying inscriptions in pencil and ink on the back. Local stains, good condition overall.
L. Łętowski, alias "Bartłomiej Podgórzanin" (born September 13, 1786 in Bobowa, Sącz region, died August 25, 1868 in Cracow) - auxiliary bishop of Cracow, historian and writer, member of the Senate of the Republic of Cracow. He was born as the son of Franciszek Łętowski of the Ogończyk coat of arms from Łętów and Teresa of Balicki. In 1806, he was a student at the officer's school in Vienna. From 1811 a lieutenant in the army of the Duchy of Warsaw. From 1815 in the army of the Congress Kingdom. In Vilna he was taken prisoner of war. He entered the seminary in Kielce in 1816. He was ordained a priest in 1818. He was a parish priest in Konskie, and from 1821 taught history and theology at the Kielce seminary. Appointed a canon of Cracow in 1825, from 1841 he was administrator of the Diocese of Cracow, then its auxiliary bishop, and was titular bishop of Joppa. During the 1846 Krakow Uprising, he recommended submission to the invaders, then fled to Vienna. In 1848 he relinquished administration of the Kielce part of the diocese, and a year later also of the Krakow part, and devoted himself to scientific work and charity. In his Diary Memoirs he included a lot of interesting information about his youth in Bobowa, which he sold in 1806 to Michal Miłkowski - the heir of Siedliska. He took a lively part in the cultural and social life of Cracow, running a salon on Kanonicza Street frequented by Aleksander Fredro, Wincenty Pol, Lucjan Siemieński and Karolina Wojnarowska. He received an honorary doctorate in theology (1829) from Jagiellonian University. Awarded the Order of St. Stanislaus First Class in 1829. (Wikipedia).
W. Rzewuski (1837-1888) - Cracow photographer, social activist, one of the pioneers of Polish photography. He studied at the Technical Institute in Cracow and from 1857-1858 at the Vienna Polytechnic. From 1859 he worked as a photographer, first outdoors, then in a studio in a rented room at 83 Grodzka St. In 1861 he opened an establishment at 6 Krupnicza St., then at 29 Kopernika St. Between 1864 and 1867 he put up a house at 27b Kolejowa St., where on November 1, 1867 he opened his renowned establishment with a modern laboratory atelier. Prominent citizen and councilor of the city of Cracow. Known for his ethnographic photography, landscapes of the Tatra Mountains, he created so-called "living pictures". Author of portraits, including insurgents of 1863 and the first album photos of actors.