Ezechiel Cercha the miniaturist. From the ‘Forgotten inhabitants of Cracow’ cycle

Ezechiel Cercha, a miniaturist, was descended from an assimilated Italian family, one recorded in Cracow from the early 18th century. The exact date of his birth is not known, but it falls between 1781 and 1783. In 1803 he attended the St Anne Gimnazjum (Secondary School). He was probably trained in miniature painting by Dominik Oesterreicher (Estreicher). From 1808 he journeyed to Warsaw, where he settled permanently in 1817 and where he died on 8 January 1828. His miniatures are rarities. Two of them, untraced till now, were on display at the exhibition of miniature paintings in Lwów (Lviv) and Cracow (‘P. Bronikowska’ and an ‘Amorino’). The surviving works are now in a private collection (the ‘Madonna’), at the Castle Museum in Pszczyna (‘Stanisław Wodzicki’), and at the National Museum in Cracow (‘Józef Zakulski’); two were put up for sale at an online auction (‘An Unknown Young Man’, ‘An Unknown Woman’). All of them date back to the early period of Cercha’s activity (1809–1815); painted in watercolours or gouache on ivory, they reveal the artist’s proficiency in painting techniques and follow English miniatures in style.

Ezechiel Cercha, a miniaturist, was descended from an assimilated Italian family, one recorded in Cracow from the early 18th century. The exact date of his birth is not known, but it falls between 1781 and 1783. In 1803 he attended the St Anne Gimnazjum (Secondary School). He was probably trained in miniature painting by Dominik Oesterreicher (Estreicher). From 1808 he journeyed to Warsaw, where he settled permanently in 1817 and where he died on 8 January 1828. His miniatures are rarities. Two of them, untraced till now, were on display at the exhibition of miniature paintings in Lwów (Lviv) and Cracow (‘P. Bronikowska’ and an ‘Amorino’). The surviving works are now in a private collection (the ‘Madonna’), at the Castle Museum in Pszczyna (‘Stanisław Wodzicki’), and at the National Museum in Cracow (‘Józef Zakulski’); two were put up for sale at an online auction (‘An Unknown Young Man’, ‘An Unknown Woman’). All of them date back to the early period of Cercha’s activity (1809–1815); painted in watercolours or gouache on ivory, they reveal the artist’s proficiency in painting techniques and follow English miniatures in style.