Józef Peszka (1767-1831)

• Was a Polish painter and art professor.
• His first drawing lessons were with Dominik Oesterreicher, an Austrian painter living in Kraków.
• He then studied painting in Warsaw with Franciszek Smuglewicz.
• He took numerous trips throughout Lithuania and Russia, where he created watercolor and sepia toned landscapes with staffage as well as some vedute.
• From 1807 to 1810, he lingered in Niasvizh where he served as a court painter to Prince Michał Hieronim Radziwiłł.
• In 1813, he returned to Kraków and taught art at the Jagiellonian University.
• In 1818, he helped organize the newly established School of Fine Arts and became a Professor there.
• In 1831, a few months before his death, he was named Director.
• During that time, he concentrated on painting portraits; mostly of military heroes, wealthy businessmen and their families and figures of the Polish Enlightenment.

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