Johann Baptist von Lampi the Elder

Johann Baptist Lampi the Elder
Self-portrait (1808/10)
Born	31 December 1751 Romeno, County of Tyrol
Died	11 February 1830(1830-02-11) (aged 78) Vienna

Johann Baptist Lampi the Elder (German: Johann Baptist von Lampi der Ältere, Polish: Jan Chrzciciel Lampi; 31 December 1751 – 11 February 1830) was an Austrian-Italian historical and portrait painter. He settled in the Russian Empire after the third and final partition of Poland, enticed by an extremely generous offer from the Tsar.

Johann Baptist Lampi was born at Romeno in the County of Tyrol to painter Matteo (Mattia) Lampi. Frescoes by his father Matteo can be found in many elegant buildings there. He studied art under his father in Verona and later in Salzburg.

In 1773 he went to Trento, where he learned to become a portraitist in canvases and miniatures. He travelled to Innsbruck, then to Vienna, where the Emperor Joseph II appointed him a professor at the Vienna Academy in 1786. That same year, he was invited to Warsaw by the court of King Stanisław II Augustus (pictured). He worked in Warsaw until the complete military Partitions of Poland.

In 1791, he moved to St. Petersburg where the Czar gave him a hereditary knighthood. In Russia he devoted himself to portrait painting, and amassed a large fortune. He painted the Empress Catherine II and Empress Maria Fedorovna among other aristocrats. He returned to Vienna in 1797 and became its honorary citizen in 1799. Pensioned in 1822, he died at Vienna on February 11, 1830.