Napoleon Orda (1807 Vorotsevichi near Pinsk - 1883 Warsaw), Zhovkva, 1875

Condition
framed

Biography
Polish and Belarusian illustrator, painter, pianist and composer. Napoleon Orda was the author of more than a thousand watercolors and drawings depicting historic places in the Polish lands, created in 1872-80, which are often the only source documenting the appearance of hundreds of residences and other buildings. In 1872 he began to realize his life's work. During his annual summer travels, he systematically recorded historical sites. In 1872-74 Volhynia, Podolia and Ukraine. In 1875-1877 of Lithuania, Samogitia, Inflants and Belarus. In 1878-1879 he drew the monuments of Galicia, Poznański, Royal Prussia. In 1880 he portrayed areas of the Kingdom of Poland. Orda signed and described his works on his drawings. The seventy-year-old artist, gripped by a passion to create a visual documentation of Polish architectural monuments, traveled the country by craftsman's drawbar, carriage, wagon, and often on his own feet, in order to preserve for posterity from the destructive effects of time the world that is an important part of the cultural heritage of Poles. His oeuvre is not without some workshop shortcomings, especially regarding the plotting perspective, which is sometimes noticeable when painting architecture. However, he developed his own recognizable style, reflecting the character of Polish landscapes. No diary of his travels remains, it is only known that he traveled in 1860-77 Grodno governorate, 1862-76 Volyn governorate, 1864-76 Minsk governorate, 1870-74 Kiev governorate, 1871-73 Podolia governorate, 1875-76 Kaunas and Vitebsk governorate, 1875-1877 Vilnius governorate, 1877 Mogilev governorate and in 1878-80 he stayed in Greater Poland, Galicia and the Kingdom of Poland. During his lifetime, eight series of drawings and watercolors were published as part of an album entitled Album of Historical Views of Poland Dedicated to Compatriots. They included 260 lithographed drawings and watercolors out of more than a thousand made by the author. The drawings were transferred to lithographic stone by Alojzy Misierowicz (Misyrowicz), while the prints were made in the lithographic studio of Maksymilian Fajans. Heavily ill, he died on April 26, 1883 in Warsaw. Napoleon Orda was buried in Yanov near Kobrin. The church there has a cross made by Orda's own hand, found in 1995 in the basement of the Pinsk Cathedral. The cemetery in Yanovo was completely destroyed after 1980 during the construction of a school. The burial place is commemorated only by an old mulberry tree; the upper half of the gravestone is in the Polesie Museum in Pinsk. In 1997, a monument to Orda by Igor Golubev was unveiled in the market square in Yanov, depicting the artist on a tree trunk with a sketchbook, while a stone with a bas-relief lyre and a palette stood at the crossroads to Vorotsevich.