Jonas Damelis, Jan Krzysztof Damel (Johann Damehl; 1780–1840) was a neoclassicist artist associated with the School of Art at Vilnius University

Vilnius University

Vilnius University is the oldest university in the Baltic states and one of the oldest in Eastern Europe. It is also the largest university in Lithuania....

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Born in Jelgava, Latvia

Jelgava

-Sports:The city's main football team, FK Jelgava, plays in the Latvian Higher League and won the 2009/2010 Latvian Football Cup.- Notable people :*August Johann Gottfried Bielenstein - linguist, folklorist, ethnographer...

, Damelis studied art at Vilnius University under Jan Rustem

Jan Rustem

Jan Rustem was a painter of Armenian, Turkish or Greek ethnicity who lived and worked in the territories of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. Primarily a portrait painter, he was commissioned to execute portraits of notable personalities of his epoch...

 and Franciszek Smuglewicz

Franciszek Smuglewicz

Franciszek Smuglewicz or Pranciškus Smuglevičius, October 6, 1745 – September 18, 1807) was a Polish-Lithuanian draughtsman and painter. Smuglewicz is considered a progenitor of Lithuanian art in the modern era. Some consider him as a spiritual father of Jan Matejko's school of painting....

, receiving a degree in 1809. He lived in Vilnius

Vilnius

Vilnius is the capital of Lithuania, and its largest city, with a population of 560,190 as of 2010. It is the seat of the Vilnius city municipality and of the Vilnius district municipality. It is also the capital of Vilnius County...

 until he was deported to Siberia

Siberia

Siberia is an extensive region constituting almost all of Northern Asia. Comprising the central and eastern portion of the Russian Federation, it was part of the Soviet Union from its beginning, as its predecessor states, the Tsardom of Russia and the Russian Empire, conquered it during the 16th...

 in 1820. Upon his release he lived in St. Petersburg and Minsk

Minsk

- Ecological situation :The ecological situation is monitored by Republican Center of Radioactive and Environmental Control .During 2003–2008 the overall weight of contaminants increased from 186,000 to 247,400 tons. The change of gas as industrial fuel to mazut for financial reasons has worsened...

. He is considered one of the most prominent artists of the genre working in Belarus

Belarus

Belarus , officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe, bordered clockwise by Russia to the northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Its capital is Minsk; other major cities include Brest, Grodno , Gomel ,...

 (White Russia).

His works include paintings of historic events (the Kościuszko Uprising

Kosciuszko Uprising

The Kościuszko Uprising was an uprising against Imperial Russia and the Kingdom of Prussia led by Tadeusz Kościuszko in Poland, Belarus and Lithuania in 1794...

, Napoleon's army in Vilnius, the death of Ulrich von Jungingen

Ulrich von Jungingen

Ulrich von Jungingen was the 26th Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights, serving from 1407 to 1410. His policy of confrontation with the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Kingdom of Poland sparked the Polish–Lithuanian–Teutonic War and led to disaster for the Order in the Battle of Grunwald.- Life...

 during the Battle of Grunwald

Battle of Grunwald

The Battle of Grunwald or 1st Battle of Tannenberg was fought on 15 July 1410, during the Polish–Lithuanian–Teutonic War. The alliance of the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, led respectively by King Jogaila and Grand Duke Vytautas , decisively defeated the Teutonic Knights, led...

, and the Battle of Vienna

Battle of Vienna

The Battle of Vienna took place on 11 and 12 September 1683 after Vienna had been besieged by the Ottoman Empire for two months...

), portraits, drawings, and religious compositions. Among his successful students was Michał Kulesza

Michał Kulesza

The Romantic painter Michał Kulesza was among the first lithographers in the area of the former Grand Duchy of Lithuania, ruled by Russia for almost all of his life. His frequent theme, sites linked to the Grand Duchy's history, reflected the growing Lithuanian and Polish ethnic activism in the area...

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