Portrait of Stanislaw Trembecki (1739-1812), seated, half-length, at a table holding a letter in his left hand

Influenced at first by the late Baroque style of Tiepolo, Lampi gradually adopted a more classical approach. Though he produced a number of altarpieces, his strength and success was found as a portrait painter. He travelled to Vienna in 1783 and became the foremost portrait painter in court circles; his reception piece into the Akademieder Bildenden Künste, Vienna, was a portrait of Joseph II in Coronation Regalia.

This portrait is thought to depict the poet Stanislaw Trembecki, an exponent of the Polish enlightenment. He served the king of Poland, Stanislaw August Ponitowski, as a chamberlain in 1773. His work varied from patriotic odes to the king and translations of Shakespeare and La Fontaine's Fables to obscene erotic poems. It was most likely to have been in Poland that Lampi and Trembecki met; Lampi being personally invited by the King to paint members of the Polish aristocracy. It has been said of Trembecki that his poetry has the balance, restraint and high polish of classicism, which can in turn be said of Lampi's depiction of the poet. Lampi's skillful technique and ability to convey the sitter's personality, are evident here.