Jan Feliks Piwarski (1794 Puławy - 1859 Warsaw), "Garkuchnia pod studnią," 1841

galvanography/paper
Size: 31.5 x 44.5 cm (in light of passe-partout)
Taken from 'Warsaw Zincography-Drawing Album'; signed and inscribed on the plate l.d.: '18 JFPiwarski 41', inscribed on the plate at the top: 'February 1841', 'Album Rys. No. 2' and at the bottom: ' 'Garkuchnia pod studnią czyli obiad w każdym czasie (w Warszawie) w Starym mieście na rynku''.

State of preservation
framed work

Biography
Protoplast of lithography in Poland. He studied painting in the studio of Jozef Richter. In 1816 he settled permanently in Warsaw where he began his career as a clerk at the Commission of Justice, in 1818 he was appointed custodian of the study of engravings at the library of the University of Warsaw and secretary of the university's Public Library. In 1819 he traveled to Vienna as a fellow of the Commission of Religious Denominations and Public Enlightenment. There he learned printmaking techniques while working at the Imperial Prints Cabinet under Adam von Bartsch. Upon his return in as curator of the Prints Cabinet, he was in charge of organizing, enlarging and developing the collection. In 1821-22 he collaborated with the Literary Gazette, writing about art and history. Commissioned by the Society of Friends of Science, he became secretary and artistic director of the publishing house Monumenta Regnum Poloniae Cracoviensis in the period 1820-30. Together with Seweryn Oleszczynski, he disseminated a new lithographic technology - tintype. In 1825, he traveled to Berlin and Dresden for scientific purposes: he learned about the art collections there and deepened his museum experience. After the fall of the November Uprising, in 1832-34 he worked on the liquidation of the Cabinet of Engravings and the Public Library: the confiscated collections were taken to St. Petersburg.