Jan Damel

Self-Portrait (1817)

Jan Krzysztof Damel , also Jonas Damelis and Johann Damehl , (* 1780 in Mitau , † August 30, 1840 in Minsk ) was a Polish painter.

Life

Damel was born in 1780 as the son of a Saxon colonel in Mitau (today Jelgava ). He studied from 1799 to 1809 at the art school of the University of Vilnius under Franciszek Smuglewicz and Jan Rustem and was then a drawing teacher at the university and a grammar school in Vilnius.

Around 1816 Damel moved to Minsk but was exiled to Tobolsk in Siberia in 1820 as a result of a lawsuit for forgery of assignats . On the way into exile, he created drawings with genre motifs, but also caricatures and portraits of the local population. On trips to Tomsk , Irkutsk and Omsk he drew and painted portraits of the exiles as well as local officials and politicians as well as religious images. He was allowed to return to Minsk around 1823.

For numerous churches in the vicinity of Vilna and Minsk Damel painted paintings based on the models of his teacher Smuglewicz or copied from engravings. Scenes about Polish history were also created. But Damel achieved fame as a portrait painter of the intellectuals of Minsk, of high officials and clergy. He was considered a master of interpretation with a tendency to caricature. He also painted landscapes, designed signs and symbols for the Masonic lodges ; he himself belonged to the Litwin Gorliwy lodge.

Works in churches

• Christ carrying the cross for the Evangelical Church in Tobolsk
• Madonna and Child for the St. Bernard Church in Tomsk

Exhibitions

• 2000: Vilnius Classicism , Lithuanian Art Museum , Vilnius

literature

• Tadeusz Szydłowski: Damel, Johann . In: Ulrich Thieme (Hrsg.): General Lexicon of Fine Artists from Antiquity to the Present . Founded by Ulrich Thieme and Felix Becker . tape 8 : Coutan-Delattre . EA Seemann, Leipzig 1912, p. 317 ( Textarchiv - Internet Archive ).

Web links

Commons : Jan Damel  - collection of images, videos and audio files