Antoni Blank

He often signed his paintings as Jan Antoni Blank-Białecki He was born to the owner of a textile factory, but was orphaned at an early age and raised by the local postmaster.

At the age of fifteen, he was apprenticed to Józef Kosiński, who had been a court painter for King Stanisław II August.

He remained in Warsaw until 1809, when he moved to Dresden, where he studied with the Austrian painter, Josef Grassi.

[2] His most notable portraits are those of Abraham Stern, Stanisław Kostka Potocki and General Jan Teodor Kobylański (1777-1851).

Among his best known students were Rafał Hadziewicz, Jan Feliks Piwarski, Antoni Brodowski and January Suchodolski.