Szymon Czechowicz (1689-1775) was a leading Polish Baroque painter and one of the most accomplished sacred painters in Poland in the 18th century. His portraits and the school he founded in Warsaw made him an important figure in the art of his country.
He trained in Rome, where he arrived around 1710 to work under Benedetto Luti, becoming one of his most capable collaborators. While there he copied works by Guido Reni, Rubens and Federico Barocci, and in 1716 the Accademia di San Luca awarded him for two of his drawings. From Rome he also sent altarpieces to Polish churches, such as the Protection of the Mother of God over Kraków, made for the Piarists of that city.
He returned to Poland in 1731 and settled in Warsaw, where he became known for religious history paintings and portraits. He worked for Polish and Lithuanian nobles, among them Jan Fryderyk Sapieha, whose portrait he painted around 1740, and Wacław Rzewuski, for whom he produced paintings for the castle chapel at Pidhirtsi.
Czechowicz ran his own school in Warsaw, where he taught painting free of charge. His pupils included Franciszek Smuglewicz, Jan Ścisło and Jan Bogumił Plersch, and some works still linked to the master are probably theirs.
His style blended the Roman Baroque tradition seen in his religious paintings with lighter tones from about 1750 that bring him close to Rococo. His portraits, by contrast, show mainly German influences. His legacy lives on chiefly through the school he founded and the Polish religious painting of the mid-18th century.
Works (1)
Where to see the work
Teachers and pupils
Pupils
- Franciszek Smuglewicz 1745–1807
Curiosities
A rivalry at court
In Warsaw, Czechowicz competed with Johann Samuel Mock for the post of court painter to Augustus II the Strong. Both artists sought the royal favour, and the rivalry reflects how intensely painters competed for patronage in eighteenth-century Poland.
A school without fees
Czechowicz taught painting free of charge in the school he set up in Warsaw, which was unusual for masters of his day. After his death in 1775 he was buried in the Capuchin church of the city, a place that reflects his ties to the religious life of Warsaw.