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Primary sourcePainting1817

Portrait of Tadeusz Kościuszko by Ramsay Richard Reinagle

Ramsay Richard Reinagle · 1817

An oil portrait of Kościuszko painted by an English artist in 1817, the year of his death.

A portrait of Kościuszko made in the year of his death, showing him in old age.

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Oil painting of an older man with wild, swept-back grey hair in a dark coat with a high white collar and a maroon cravat, leaning his right hand on a ledge against a dark background. Faint handwritten inscription visible in the upper left corner.
Ramsay Richard Reinagle, Portrait of Tadeusz Kościuszko, 1817.

About this source

What it is

This oil painting by English artist Ramsay Richard Reinagle is dated 1817, the same year Tadeusz Kościuszko died. It shows him as an older man.

Why it matters

Because it dates from the end of his life, this portrait offers a view of Kościuszko very different from earlier, younger images of him, and reflects how he was depicted by artists in Western Europe near the end of his years in exile.

Look closer

  • How does this portrait of an older man differ from earlier portraits of Kościuszko made when he was younger?
  • What might the handwritten inscription in the corner tell us, and why is it hard to read clearly?
  • What choices did the artist make about pose and expression, and what might they be trying to say about him?

This painting is part of the curated material that grounds the AI version of Tadeusz Kościuszko on Humy.ai — when students ask about related events, the AI can quote it and cite it.

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