Walery Mroczkowski “Card from the herbarium-Scutellaria ”, near Kaluga, 1858
Description
Watercolor and ink on paper, signed lower right “z natury W. Mroczkowski”.
Framed: 46x32,5 cm (30x21 cm)
Walery Karłowicz Mroczkowski (1840-1889 Paris) was a student of the Medical Academy in Warsaw (1860–1861). He was a Polish insurgent in the 1863 January Uprising. He was arrested and imprisoned by the Prussian authorities. Upon release in 1865, he was sent into exile and travelled to Italy, Switzerland, London and finally settled in France. While in Florence he met Mikhail Bakunin and became an anarchist and a member of the latter's close circle. He is also known as a portrait photographer in France, working under the pseudonym, "Ostroga" or "Valerien Ostroga".