Jan Piotr Norblin

Jean-Pierre Norblin de La Gourdaine (Polish: Jan Piotr Norblin; 15 July 1745 – 23 February 1830) was a French-born painter, draughtsman, engraver, drawing artist and caricaturist. From 1774 to 1804 he resided in the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland, where he obtained citizenship.

He is considered one of the most important painters of the Enlightenment in Poland. He achieved great success in Poland. Given many commissions from some of the most notable families of the country, he stayed there for many years, not returning to Paris until the early 19th century. His style showed the influence of Antoine Watteau, and combined the Rococo tradition of charming fêtes galantes and fêtes champêtres with a panorama of daily life and current political events, captured with journalistic accuracy. He created a gallery of portraits of representatives of all social classes in the last years of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.

Born in Misy-sur-Yonne in 1740. Norblin started his career in France, in the early sixties (his first known works date to 1763). Later he became influenced by Rembrandt and Watteau. Around 1769 he trained in the studio of Francesco Casanova, then around 1769–70 at the Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture, and in 1770–71 under Louis-Michel van Loo and Joseph-Marie Vien at the Ecole Royale des Elèves Protégés, all in Paris. Around 1771–72 he worked in Paris, London, Dresden and Spa, and possibly studied for a time under Christian Wilhelm Ernst Dietrich. In 1772 he met Polish Prince Adam Kazimierz Czartoryski, with whom he traveled for two years and by whom he was invited to Poland. From 1774 he worked for the magnate family of Czartoryski and became their court artist and tutor for the children. Among his early works the most prominent are his illustrations to Myszeida, a poem by Ignacy Krasicki. He worked in Puławy and at Powązki estates as painter and decorator of local Czartoryski's estates. Later he also worked for the Radziwiłł family in Arkadia (Nieborów) and for King Stanisław August Poniatowski.

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