One hundred seventy-five years ago, Ivan Dem'ianovich Bulychev (1813-1877) led the East Siberian Expedition, undertaken in the midst of the audit of Eastern Siberia (1842-1846), headed by Senator Ivan Nikolaevich Tolstoy (1792-1854). Bulychev was charged with the task of the exploration and description of the far eastern territories of the Russian Empire.

Between May 10, 1844 and July 17, 1845, members of the expedition traveled over 1,000 kilometers. In 1856, Bulychev published the account of the trip under the title Puteshestvie po vostochnoi Sibiri I. Bulychova. Ch. 1. Iakutskaia oblast, Okhotskii krai. The set consists of a study in 298 pages and an atlas of 60 plates. The atlas was issued in three states, with descriptive letterpress in Russian, Russian-French, and Russian-German. The New York Public Library copy is in Russian-French. 

For the diligent audit of Eastern Siberia, Tolstoy was awarded the Order of the White Eagle and received additional funds on top of his salary. Bulychev was received by the Tsar and his family, to whom he showed the illustrations. The Royals liked them so much they ordered copies for themselves. However, the Tsar's family did not learn the identity of the artist, nor was it revealed in the printed atlas.

The illustrations were created by Polish political prisoner Leopold Niemirowski (1810- 1883), who was born in Volhynia (now Ukraine) to a noble family. Some details of his biography still require more research, including his higher education. He took part in the November Uprising against the Russian rule (1830-1831), possibly alongside Piotr Wysocki (1897-1875), leader of the Polish conspiracy, who raised military insurgents that started the uprising (The NYPL holds Wysocki's autograph).

Despite imprisonment for his part in the uprising, after his release from jail in 1836, Niemirowski once again engaged in the underground Polish liberation movement. Arrested again in 1838, he was first sentenced to death; eventually, the sentenced was changed to 20 years of imprisonment in Siberia. Niemirowski was transported to Tobol’sk, from which he was forced to walk on foot to Irkutsk, a distance of more than 2,000 miles!

His artistic abilities soon caught the attention of the Dutch-born general-governor of Eastern Siberia, lieutenant-general Wilhelm Rupert (1787-1847), and Niemirowski was assigned as a teacher for Rupert’s children. His sentence was commuted in 1843, but he was forced to settle in Siberia, where he continued to teach drawing and French. That's where Bulychev, who needed an artist to participate in the East Siberian Expedition, found him.

Niemirowski later participated in another Siberian expedition led by Julius Stubendorff (1811–1878), and possibly also in one led by Gustav Radde (1831-1909). He was eventually allowed to leave Siberia and, in 1857, even returned to his native Volhynia, bringing some of his Siberian works with him. In later years, he dedicated his time to painting and successfully exhibited many of his works, some of which were unfortunately lost in a fire in 1877. In the early 1880s, he was planning to publish his East Siberian landscapes; his death in 1883 prevented publication. 

Niemirowski was largely forgotten until the 1990s, when Polish scholar Jan Trynkowski started writing about him. A book with several essays about Niemirowski, as well as his Siberian drawings and paintings, was published in Irtkutsk, Russia under the title Podróz po Syberii Wschodniej Leopolda Niemirowskiego : rysunki, akwarele, litografie = Puteshestvie po Vostochnoi Sibiri Leopol’da Nemirovskogo : risunki, litografii, akvareli (2010). 

For more information about Leopold Niemirowski:

• Gaponenko, V. V.  and E. V. Semenov. Polʹskie politicheskie ssylʹnye v khoziastvennoi i kulʹturnoi zhizni Zabaikalia pervoi poloviny XIX v. (Ulan-Ude, 2006)
• Milewska-Młynik, Anna. "Ludy północno-wschodniej Syberii w pracach Leopolda Niemirowskiego," Zesłaniec no. 62 (2015): 39-56.
• Trynkowski, Jan.  "Leopold Niemirowski," Przegląd Wschodni  1:2 (1991): 375-378.
• ----------. "Leopold Niemirowski — znany i nieznany." Wrocławskie Studia Wschodnie 15 (2011): 177-185.
• ----------. "W pustyni, czyli w puszczy : krajobraz syberyjski w malarstwie Leopolda Niemirowskiego," In: Małgorzata  Król and  Małgorzata Łukaszuk-Piekara, eds., Syberyjskie przestrzenie intymne (2016): 83-95.
• Woch, Joanna. "Podróże i ekspedycje naukowe polskich artystów po Sybirze w pierwszej połowie XIX wieku : Jan Damel, Leopold Niemirowski, Bronisław Zaleski," Sztuka Europy Wschodniej /Искусство Bосточной Европы /Art of Eastern Europe 1 (2013): 327-339.

Illustrations by Niemirowski: