(b Lemberg [Lw?w; now L'viv, Ukraine], 9 July 1823; d Krak?w, 28 Dec 1894). Polish painter. While studying law (1841-4) at the University of Vienna, he also studied drawing and painting under Josef Danhauser, Franz Eybl and Friedrich von Amerling. His earliest surviving works are small watercolour portraits that capture the spirit of Viennese Biedermeier. In 1846 he moved to Paris where he was based until 1867. At first he pursued his studies with relative independence, producing the Self-portrait of 1849 (ex-Warsaw, N. Mus.; see Ryszkiewicz, 1954, pl. 1), his first oil portrait, which already shows his mastery of portraiture. However, the sketch for the Entry of Henry de Valois into Krak?w (1848; Warsaw, N. Mus.) reveals that Rodakowski was also learning from Romantic examples. From 1850, he continued his studies under L?on Cogniet, and Rodakowski's progress may be seen in works such as the intimate Self-portrait of 1853 (Wroclaw, N. Mus.). In the portrait of Adam Mickiewicz (1855; Warsaw, N. Mus.) the influence of Italian Renaissance portraits is apparent. The use of restrained colour schemes combined with subtle and soft modelling is typical of his portraiture. While Rodakowski also experimented with an increasingly charming type of portrait that pays extra attention to pictorial qualities and colour, as in that of his sister Wanda in her wedding dress (1858; Bytom, Mus. Upper Silesia), he soon returned to a more earnest and penetrating approach, attempting to match imaginary poetic settings with each sitter so as to convey as much as possible of the sitter's character, as in the portrait of Roger Raczynski (1859; Poznan, N. Mus.).
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