Mining Corps Foot Riflemen, Le Chasseur a pied de mineurs

The graphic depicts two soldiers in the foreground near an earthen embankment. On the left, one soldier is wearing a blue uniform with crimson piping, a sabre at his side, and is kneeling in position to fire a rifle. The second soldier is in a walking stance, dressed in a blue wool uniform lined with crimson fabric, armed with a sabre and rifle. In the background, there are trees.

The 8th Battalion of Riflemen of the Mining Corps was a volunteer Polish military formation formed during the November Uprising. The unit was established in January 1831 in the Sandomierz and Kraków Voivodeships. The battalion participated in the battles near Puławy on 26 February and 2 March 1831.

This graphic is part of the series Ubiory Wojska Polskiego z roku 1831 (Uniforms of the Polish Army from 1831), based on drawings by Jan Feliks Piwarski (1794–1859), a painter, graphic artist, curator of the Print Room at the University of Warsaw, professor at the Warsaw School of Fine Arts, and one of Poland's first lithographers. Piwarski was an eyewitness to the Warsaw uprising. The author of the engraving is Fryderyk Krzysztof Dietrich (1779-1847), a German-born engraver who was associated with Poland since 1819. For many years, he operated a print workshop in Warsaw with his son, producing works highly regarded for their artistic quality. The series included 30 engravings, which Dietrich hand-coloured with the help of his son and, later, another engraver. Gazeta Warszawska in 1831 noted that "Mr. Dietrich has begun publishing depictions of our army’s uniforms, highly sought after abroad." The engravings were sold by Antoni Dal Trozzo in Warsaw, and Dietrich dedicated them as a token of respect to General Jan Zygmunt Skrzynecki.

This piece was acquired from the Lubomirski family of Przeworsk.

dr Daniel Reniszewski

Lit: H. Widacka, Dietrichowie rytownicy warszawscy, Warszawa 1989.