Napoleon Orda is a heir of two Belarusian famous gentry families – the Ordas and the Butrymovichs. He was born on February 11, 1807 at the Varatsevichy estate. This village still exists in Ivanov district (Brest province).

His father Michal Orda, the Marshal of Kobrin district, prematurely died in 1809. His mother Josephine Butrimovich Orda had to bring up her only son and four daughters alone. Napoleon Orda got a considerable primary education at home and then continued it at the famous Svislach grammar school. In 1823 he entered the physics and mathematics department of the Vilna University. But his schooling lasted for only a year and a half. At that time investigations were held on account of students who were members of secret democratic societies of the Philomats and the Philarets. Having been one of the society “Zariane” members he happened to be under the inquest too. The result was the exclusion, fifteen months in Vilna’s prison and the returning home for some period.

The beginning of 30es was marked with the new wave of the national democratic movement. A lot of the Belarusian gentry’ representatives took part in the rebellion of 1830-1831. Napoleon Orda joined it also. After its defeat he, the bearer of the Golden Cross “Virtuti Militari”, could not stay in his Motherland. Like many other rebels he found refuge in France. Orda returned to Belarus only in 25 years.

Emigration years became the period of intense creative and civic activities. He engaged in both music and painting, improved his skills in playing the piano. His talent was highly appreciated by Liszt and Chopin. Thanks to their insistence Orda prepared for publication his “Album of Polish Composers’ Works” in 1838. His polonaises, romances and songs enjoyed popularity with the refined French public and were taken enthusiastically at home. He, an immigrant, was offered a position of the director of the Italian Opera, the prestige theatre in Paris. Napoleon Orda took part in the work of historical and literary society and the Committee of Polish emigration. There he got acquainted with Adam Mickevich and they became friends.

The creative Orda’s heritage tells us about his active pedagogical work. In the middle of 50es he created “Polish language Grammar for the French” (Grammaire analytique et pratique de la langue polonaise a l’usage des francais. Paris, 1856. P. 1; Berlin, 1858. P. 2). His “Music Grammar” (Gramatyka muzyki czyli wyklad rozbiorowy i praktyczny melodyi i harmonii) published in Warsaw in 1873 was considered to be one of the best manuals for studying music.

But highly gifted Orda gave preference to painting. His painting skills he developed under the guidance of Piere Girard, a famous landscape painter of France. After traveling to France, Spain, Portugal and Rhine province in 1840-44 his first cycle of drawings devoted to monuments and landscapes of those countries appeared.

He enjoyed general respect and was satisfied with his creative work and happy marriage with Irene who gave birth to his son Vitald but he was deprived of his motherland.

As a rebel of 1831 Orda got his amnesty only in September 1857 and finely got the opportunity to see his native Varatsevichy, his mother and relatives. But he met not a few trials at home. He still remained an unwanted person for those in power. After his mother’s death Varatsevichy was passed over to the state though he got some compensation in money and was allowed to rent the state. Nevertheless he was dispossessed of his father’s estate as a former rebel. In 1862-1863 he lived in Grodno and then in Volyn.

Napoleon Orda shared the ideas of rebellion of 1863 though he was not involved in it. Nevertheless he was arrested in 1866. In 1867 the court-martial sentenced 60-year old Orda to deportation to the deep interior of Russia. Fortunately the case was reviewed and the sentence was cancelled. Orda was set free from the Kobrin prison but refused the right to rent Varatsevichy.

Painting, music, pedagogics were those activities he gave his energy and health for the rest of his life. In spite of the middle age Orda traveled untiringly from early spring till late autumn and made sketches. He walked alone and drove about hundreds of towns, places, villages and farm-steads of Belarus, Lithuania, Ukraine and Poland.144 drawings resulted from his journey around Grodno region, from those 34 were of Grodno itself. A lot of his works were dedicated to the Volyn and Kiev (177), Minsk (64), Vilna (50) provinces, a little less to Vitebsk (35) and Mogilev (15) provinces. In 1878 the artist noted that he had visited nine provinces and had made 800 sketches during his traveling. Even in his late years, well over seventy, Orda visited Galicia, some places of Poland.

The main theme of his artistic works is history and nature. His drawings present a singular combination of the precision of historical documents and poetical works. General plans of towns, minor places, villages and churches, palaces, castles, memorial places... Many monuments he drawn don’t exist today. The more we value his artistic heritage.

When returning from travels Orda lived the final period of his life at his sister’s Skirmundt Hortense in Pinsk. His collection was housed there too. He dreamt of publishing his works though it demanded considerable money. To overcome the censorship was even more difficult. In March 1880 the head of Minsk provincial gendarme administration reported that “Orda, a bourgeois is engaged in drawing some schemes of our fortresses, it is rumored, which he then sends abroad”. Evidently castles in Lida, Mir, Medniki and Novogrudok presented military secrets…

His first series of “Albums of Historical Landscapes of…” (Album widokow historycznych…) appeared in 1873 at the Warsaw publishing-house of Maximilian Fajans. Over ten years, since 1873-1883, eight series of “Albums” with 260 drawings were being issued. Sometimes friends and acquaintances helped him financial, but mainly the expenses were paid by himself. The profit he made from selling them as well as for his musical recitals he gave over for charity. The last eight series appeared already after his death. He finished preparation of that edition in the last days of his life overcoming acute pain.

Napoleon Orda died on March 26, 1883 in Warsaw where he had come from Pinsk in the hope to improve his health a bit and to further publication of the “Albums”. Upon his will he was buried in the native ground in his family crypt of the Yanov Church on April 30 (now the town Ivanovo, Brest province).

In 1889 his relatives presented his collection of drawings (977 sheets) to the National Museum in Krakow where it has been preserved till now. The original works of Orda are in the National Museum in Warsaw (29 drawings), in the Ossolinski Library in Wroclaw (2 drawings), in the National Museum of Lithuania (3). We can also find some works of Orda in other places and private collections.

Lithographs are widely spread but the complete set of eight series is a rarity. In Belarus the more complete collection of lithographs of Napoleon Orda is in the National Library of Belarus, there are some in the National Museum of History and Culture of Belarus, the National Art Museum etc.

Some reproductions of Orda’s drawings were published in “Tygodnik ilustrowany”, “Tygodnik powsechny”, “Klosy” etc. Reproductions from Napoleon Orda’s drawings are illustrated innumerous cyclopedias, handbooks, books on the history of architecture. One may positively say that without Orda’s heritage the history of Belarusian culture would have many more “white patches”.

The memory about outstanding pianist, composer, pedagogue, painter is revered in his Motherland, in Belarus. The monument to Orda of sculptor I. Golubev was placed in 1997 in Ivanovo (Brest province). The anniversary date of Orda’s birthday is included in UNESCO Calendar of memorable dates.