Helena Skirmunt

Helena Skirmunt (also Skirmuntt or Skirmuntowa; ; 5 November 1827 – 1 February 1874) was a Polish painter and sculptor. She was mostly self-taught though she briefly studied under several German and Italian artists. For participation in the January Uprising, she was deported to the interior of Russia and spent her last years in Crimea. As a painter she created landscapes, portraits, and religious icons; as a sculptor she completed numerous portrait medallions and religious works. In her later years she turned to historical sculpture drawing inspiration from the history of the former Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Her daughter Konstancija Skirmuntt was a well-known historian.

Biography Skirmuntt was born in 1827 in between Pinsk and Stolin in present-day Belarus, then part of the Russian Empire. Her family was local nobles who traced their lineage to the 13th century. From an early age, Skirmunt showed great interest in painting. She received education at home from private tutors, but also studied for a few months under the landscape painter Wincenty Dmochowski in Vilnius. In 1844, she accompanied an acquaintance to Berlin, later visiting Dresden and Paris to study western art.