Gentleman with long curls

A sizable number of miniatures are known that were painted in oils on copper or paper and bear the monogram “FS”. They are usually attributed to Franciszek Smiadecki, an artist about whom we know very little. According to Schidlof, he was the son of a servant to the Russian Orlov family.¹ He is thought to have travelled to Sweden as a young man to learn painting from the miniaturist Alexander Cooper, brother of the more famous Samuel Cooper.² Later he probably also worked in England, as suggested by the names of some of his models. Whereas in a sense Samuel Cooper transferred the portrait style of his great role model Anthony van Dyck to watercolour miniatures, Smiadecki realised elements of Cooper’s works in oil miniatures. 

This gentleman’s portrait is one of the painter’s especially appealing pieces. This may be because the model was depicted with a less severe expression than the subjects in his other portraits. Thanks to the proficient method used to create this piece, it has retained its original freshness and suffered little loss of colour.

B. P.