Napoleon ORDA (1807-1883), - Graphic Card from the Album of Views of the Duchy of Poznan and West Prussia: Zlotoryja on the Vistula River, Castle

Dimensions: clear passe-partout: 25 x 30 cm; passe-partout 43 x 50 cm
Graphic comes from the publication Album of views depicting historical places of the Duchy of Poznan and Western Prussia : drawn from nature by Napoleon Orda; this is the first edition of the album from 1880, self-published by photographer and lithographer Maksymilian Fajans (1825-1890).
Napoleon Mateusz Tadeusz Orda (born 30 I/11 II 1807 in Vorotsevichy, died 26 IV 1883 in Warsaw) - Polish illustrator, painter, pianist and composer; author of more than a thousand watercolors and drawings depicting views from the area of the former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. He came from a middle-class noble family; after graduating from the Lyceum in Svisloch, he studied at Vilnius University, but did not complete his studies - he was arrested for illegal patriotic activities. Participant in the November Uprising, for which he was awarded the Virtuti Militari Gold Cross. After the defeat of the uprising forced to emigrate. In Paris, where he developed his artistic and musical career for many years, he studied composition with Franz Liszt and became friends with Frederic Chopin. In 1856, after the declaration of amnesty, he returned to his hometown. Beginning in the 1870s, he embarked on a major documentary tour of the lands of the former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. The result of this work was the creation of some 1,000 drawings and watercolors depicting castles, manors, churches and cities - architectural monuments of Poland, Lithuania, Belarus and Ukraine. Some of these works were published in a series of lithographs entitled. "Album of Historical Views of Poland," which today is an invaluable iconographic source for researchers of the region's history and architecture.
Condition as in the photos.