Władysław Tomasz Kazimierz Oleszczyński (1807-1866) was a Polish sculptor, medallist and printmaker. In 1824 he began his studies at the Faculty of Fine Arts of the Royal University of Warsaw. After a year, he received a government scholarship, which enabled him to take up artistic education in France, accompanied by his brother Antoni. His teachers were F. J. Heim (drawing) and A. L. Dantan (sculpture), and between 1826 and 1829 at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, P. J. David d'Angers (sculpture) and N. Tiolier (medal-making). During his studies he made, among other things, a statue of Emperor Alexander I and a Copernicus medal for the unveiling of the astronomer's monument in Warsaw. After returning to Warsaw in May 1830, he worked at the mint and then took part in the November Uprising. After its fall, he went into exile and lived in Paris for the next 25 years, where he became the leading sculptor of the Great Emigration. He created many monuments and tombstones of representatives of the Polish émigré community, such as Ludwik Michał Pac in Smyrna, Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz and Karol Kniaziewicz in Montmorency, or Juliusz Słowacki in Paris' Montmartre. He also created portrait statuettes (of Niemcewicz or Mickiewicz), portrait medallions in bronze (of his brother Antoni, Słowacki and Mickiewicz) and medals (of Louis Philippe I). He also did lithographs and copperplate engravings, illustrating Polish émigré publications in Paris. He created decorations such as a group with the patron saint of the parish for the church of St Marie Madeleine in Paris and allegorical statues for Napoleon's mausoleum. In 1856, he created a statue of Adam Mickiewicz in Poznan. After some time he returned to Poland and settled in Warsaw, continuing his work as a sculptor. He made many epitaphs and monuments, including to Jan Paweł Woronicz and Copernicus in Wieniec. He moved in 1857 and worked in the country. He was also one of the founding members of the Society for the Encouragement of Fine Arts. He died in Rome in 1865, working on a monument to Jan Kochanowski. His work involved a variety of materials, including marble, clay, plaster and bronze, as well as graphic techniques such as lithography and copperplate. His contribution to sculpture is central to Polish Romanticism.