Teofil Kwiatkowski (1809 Pułtusk - 1891 Avallon), Family portrait, 1840.

oil, canvas, 46.5 × 38 cm
Signed and dated l. d.: "T. Kwiatkowski/1840"

On the reverse, stamp of the French company of painting implements Vallé et Bourniche

"At the same time, Kwiatkowski toiled in portrait painting for almost his entire life. Over the years he created dozens of images of contemporary people in oil paintings, watercolors, drawings and miniatures (...). He prepared a series of portrait studies of people from the Czartoryski family. (...) Kwiatkowski painted Adam Mickiewicz several times, whom he met at the turn of 1832/33 and with whom he maintained intimate and cordial contacts. Especially in the last years of the poet's life. (...) Bound by a long-standing friendship with Fryderyk Chopin, Kwiatkowski produced dozens of images of the musician in various techniques, which earned him the title of Chopin's first painter and authority, " before whom all others had to give way."
A. Malbechowska-Luty, [in:] Słownik artystów polskich i obcych w Polsce działających (zmarłych przed 1966 r.) : malarze, rzeźbiarze, graficy, Tom IV, Kl-La, Ossolineum 1986, p. 408.