Olga's Gallery

Alexander Orlowski was born in Warsaw into a well-to-do Polish family; his father had an inn in the small provincial town of Sedlitz. There, the boy met princess Isabella Czartoryskich, who was impressed by the boy’s pictures. She sent Alexander, in 1793, for professional training to the Warsaw studio of J.-P. Norblin and M. Boccarelli, the court painter of the princes of Czartoryskichs.

The early, Warsaw period, of his artistic activity is marked with an interest for the national liberation movement of the Polish people under the leadership of Thaddeus Kościuszko. In 1794, Orlowski was a volunteer in a partisan group of Kościuszko. After the defeat of the liberation movement, Orlowski for some time worked with a troupe of traveling actors. In 1802, he moved to Lithuania, and then came to St. Petersburg, where he lived to the end of his life. Under the patronage of prince A. Czartoryskich, he was admitted into the service of the Grand Duke Constantin Pavlovich.

A talented painter, draftsman and graphic artist, Orlowski created a lot of graphic works, pastels, and watercolors of romantic character. In 1809, he was awarded the title of Academician. Genre watercolors depicting working people and scenes from the life of the high society showed us the life of St. Petersburg of the time. Portraiture takes up a big part of his activities. In 1816, Orlowski, one of the first, tried lithography and published several series of lithographic works, which were appreciated by his contemporaries. After 1819 he worked as a graphic artist for the Topographic Department of the Army Headquarters. He traveled much throughout Russia and created many genre and battle pictures, as well as portraits of his contemporaries. In Russia, the painter was called Alexander Osipovich Orlowski.

The painter was a member of a maison loge, forbidden by Alexander I, he was friends with the progressive Russian intellectuals: Ivan Krylov, Alexander Pushkin, Petr Vyasemsky, Denis Davydov, and others.

Orlowski died in St. Petersburg in 1832.

Luis-Antoin Duport (1781/83-1853), French ballet-dancer, choreographer. In 1800-1808 leading dancer of the Paris Opera Ballet. In 1808-1812, performed in the theaters of St. Petersburg and Moscow. Later worked in Vienna, Naples, and London. Finished his career in 1836 in Paris.
 

Lanskaya, Alexandra Mikhailovna (1773-1842), née Khanykova. Wife of the Senator P. S. Lanskoy.

Seidel, Karl Ivanovich (1786-1842). Russian author, translator from German; worked in the Ministry of Internal Affairs, delivered lectures on the German language, worked as a librarian in the Independent Economic Society. Published “Anthology of Anecdotes for 1830” and another one for 1832.

Shalikov, Petr Ivanovich (1768-1852) poet, imitator of N.M. Karamsin, translator, journalist, in 1823-1833 published  Damsky Journal (magazine for ladies), editor of Moskovsky Vedomosti (1813-1838). Acquaintance of A. Pushkin, who treated his poetry ironically, but respected him as a person. Shalikov was married to A. F. von Leysnau  and had two daughters, one of them N. P. Shalikova (1816-1975) became a writer.

Muzio Clementi (1752-1832) Italian pianist and composer for the pianoforte, and teacher, born in Rome. He was brought to England in 1766 by Peter Beckford, MP. He conducted the Italian Opera in London (1777-80), toured as a virtuoso in 1781, and later went into the piano-manufacturing business. In 1817 he wrote the Gradus ad Parnassum, on which subsequent piano methods have been based, and he left many charming and tuneful pieces.

Bibliography:
Russian Water-Colour in the Collection of Hermitage, Leningrad. Moscow. Iskusstvo. 1975.