Tadeusz Kosciuszko Portrait of Tadeusz Kosciuszko by Kazimierz Wojniakowski, probably painted soon after 1794 The portrait shows the general in a peasant's russet coat and Magyar hat. Kosciuszko adopted the wearing of a peasant's russet coat as a tribute to the Kosinierzy or peasant pikemen whose valor proved decisive at the Battle of Raclawice and as a expression of the populist ideals he acquired in America. Wojnakowski's portrait was to start an iconographic tradition that produced a long line of images of the general which remained universally popular in Poland through the early years of the twentieth century. The origins of such a representation of Kosciuszko are traceable to the April 1794 "Gazeta Powstancza Polski" (Poland's Isurrectionist Journal) which carried a front page image of Tadeusz Kosciuszko, with raised sword in hand, taking the oath on March 24, 1794, to liberate Poland from oppression. The caption to the image stated it was taken from life.