Kanuty Rusiecki

Kanuty Rusiecki (; 1800–1860) was a Polish-Lithuanian painter.

Biography He was born into an impoverished noble Polish-Lithuanian family in Lithuania and his father was a magistrate. He is said to have displayed his artistic talent at an early age, making impromptu models in wax. In 1816, he began his studies at the University of Vilnius. Initially, he studied law and mathematics, but eventually followed his true interests and, in 1818, switched to the study of art, under the tutelage of Jan Rustem and Kazimierz Jelski. During his stay at the university, he was a member of the Philomaths, a secret society of Polish students.

With letters of recommendation and his father's financial support (and following a secret marriage), he went to Paris and enrolled at the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts from 1821 to 1822, studying with Guillaume Guillon-Lethière. He then spent a year at the Accademia di San Luca in Rome, where he worked with Vincenzo Camuccini and attended the sculpture workshop of Bertel Thorvaldsen.