(b Nowomalin, nr Grodno, 12 Oct 1810; d Rome, 27 Jan 1888). Polish sculptor. He studied in Warsaw under the painters Xaver Jan Kaniewski (1809–70) and Antoni Blank (1785–1844) and the sculptor Pawel Malinski (d 1853), then (1833–5) in Berlin under Christian Daniel Rauch and finally in Rome under Pietro Tenerani. After returning to Warsaw for three years (1843–6) he settled in Rome, teaching at the Accademia di S Luca. He was prolific in the production of monumental, figurative and portrait sculpture, most of which was sent from Rome to Polish churches and institutions as gifts invariably marked with political significance. Sosnowski’s work was strictly academic in style, as is most clearly seen in his earlier Roman work such as the marble statue of Christ in the Tomb (1855; Warsaw, Carmelite church), or the marble figures of Oedipus and Antigone (1854; Kraków, N. Mus.). Increasingly, however, Sosnowski was fired by patriotic sentiments as evinced in his choice of subjects: Polish monarchs, such as the marble relief, for Gniezno Cathedral, with the figures of King Mieszko I and Queen Dabrówka (1862) or the stone sculptures of Queen Jadwiga and King Vladislav V for the Planty Gardens in Kraków (1866); symbolic figures, such as Justice (before 1867; Warsaw, N. Mus.); and national heroes, as in the bozzetto of the astronomer Copernicus (c. 1870; Warsaw, N. Mus.).

• Sosnowski, Tomasz Oskar
  • Poland, §II, 3: Architecture, after c 1700
  • Poland, §IV, 5: Sculpture, after c 1775
  • Poland, §XIV, 3: Art education, after c 1900
  • Slav Revival, §4: Poland
  • Warsaw, §II, 2(ii): Urban development, 20th century
  • Warsaw, §III, 2: Art life and organization, 1795 and after