Napoleon Orda (February 11, 1807 – April 26, 1883) was a Polish-Lithuanian musician, pianist, composer and artist.
Napoleon Orda was born in the village of Varacevičy in the Pinsk district of Minsk guberniya (now Ivanava Raion, Brest voblast, Belarus) in his father's manor. His father Michał Orda was an impoverished noble and the marshal of the powiat of Kobryn. After finishing Svislach gymnasium in 1823, he started mathematical studies at the Vilnius University. However, his university career came to an end on August 27th, 1826 when he was arrested by the Russian secret police for taking part in an secret student society "Zarane", which was active in Svislach and Białystok gymnasiums. Although he was released soon afterwards, he was expelled from the university and was not allowed to continue his studies.
In 1872 Orda started to travel throughout the partitioned Republic of Both Nations and document its historical landmarks and architecture. During his summer trips throughout the country he made more than 1000 sketches depicting various towns, cities and historical landscapes. He also depicted landscapes, urban and rural architecture, churches and palaces of partitioned Commonwealth - regions of today's Belarus, Lithuania, Poland, Ukraine, as well as several regions of France, Germany, Portugal and Switzerland. His works are pencil sketches tinted with watercolour, gouache and sepia. Between 1872 and 1874 he visited most of the notable castles, manors and towns in Volhynia, Podolia and Ukraine. Until 1877 he documented the historical heritage of Lithuania, Samogitia, Livonia and Belarus. In 1878 and 1879 he made a trip to Galicia, Greater Poland and Royal Prussia and finally in 1880 he portrayed the Kingdom of Poland. Approximately 260 of his sketches were turned into lithographies by Alojzy Misierowicz and published in Warsaw by Maksymilian Fajans in a series of 8 albums under the collective title Album of Polish Historical Landscapes (Polish: Album widoków historycznych Polski) between 1873 and 1883.
Napoleon Orda died April 26, 1883, in Warsaw but according to his last will he was buried in his native land, in Ivanava village, near Kobryn (currently Brest voblast of Belarus) in his family crypt. In 1997, a monument to Napoleon Orda was erected in the place of his burial by sculptor Ivan Golubev.