„Półk (!) 9. Le 9. Régiment d'Infanterie de Cracuses : Colonel Samuel Rożycki

After the outbreak of the November Uprising, an order issued by the dictator General Józef Chłopicki on 10 January 1831 imposed an obligation to organise military formations on the provincial authorities. The 9th Infantry Regiment was established in the Kraków Voivodeship, originally under the name: 1st Kraków Voivodeship Regiment. Its first commander was Samuel Józef Różycki. The regiment participated in battles during the November Uprising, including the battles of Kock on 14 and 17 June 1831.

In the early period, the uniform of the Kraków Voivodeship Infantry Regiment consisted of a white, embroidered coat with a white, turned-down collar, a greyish-brown or navy-blue burka-czamara, and a soft crimson rogatywka cap with a lambskin trim and a short-cut peacock feather. The trousers were navy blue, grey, or patterned according to traditional folk attire, featuring white and red stripes.

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.