Jan Rustem

Jan Rustem (1762-1835) was a painter of Armenian ethnicity who lived and worked in the territories of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Born in Constantinople, he is remembered above all as a portrait painter of notable figures of his time and as a professor for many years at Vilnius University, which made him an important figure in art teaching in the region.

Orphaned at a young age, he was taken in by Adam Kazimierz Czartoryski, who brought him to the Commonwealth around 1774 and paid for his studies in Warsaw. There his tutors included Jean-Pierre Norblin de La Gourdaine and Marcello Bacciarelli. Between 1788 and 1790 he lived in Germany, where he became a Freemason, and after his return he spent some time in Warsaw before settling in Vilnius.

Following the partitions of the Commonwealth, he began working at the university as an assistant to Franciszek Smuglewicz. After Smuglewicz's death, the chair of Fine Art went in 1810 to the Englishman Joseph Saunders, and Rustem became his collaborator. In 1811 he was appointed professor of sketching and in 1819 professor of painting. He retired in 1826 but continued giving lectures until his death near Dūkštas.

Among his successful students were Taras Shevchenko, Józef Oleszkiewicz, Kanuty Rusiecki, Michał Kulesza, Walenty Wańkowicz and Jonas Damelis. His portraits of figures such as Michał Józef Römer, Jan Śniadecki and Stanisław Bonifacy Jundziłł, along with that of Krystyna Frank, wife of Dr. Józef Frank, form the best-documented part of his work. His legacy rests largely on the generation of pupils he trained in Vilnius.