The Great Painters
Leon Wyczółkowski
- master of speed
Leon Wyczółkowski (1852-1936)
He was an excellent portraitist, he painted for art's sake, but also to have something to eat - his paintings painted with even "factory" speed have become legendary. A great graphic artist and draftsman. He beautifully recreated Polish architecture and nature. His graphic works would have been enough for the whole and great work of another artist's life, and yet he left behind not only refined graphic works, but also plenty of paintings.
GRAPHIC
LANDSCAPIST
PIONEER OF IMPRESSIONISM IN POLISH PAINTING
EXTRAORDINARY COLOUR TALENT
TALENTED PORTRAITIST
LUMINIST
Leon Wyczółkowski
1852
On 11 April, in Huta Miastkowska near Garwolin, in the house of his grandfather, was born Leon Wyczółkowski, son of Mateusz (a petty nobleman and merchant of glass) and Antonina of Faliñska. The future painter went from Ostrów to a folk school in Kamionka near Lublin.
1861
the painter's father died
1863
He started his education in the gymnasium in Siedlce, but spent the period of the uprising in his grandparents' house. He spent his youthful years in Warsaw, very saddened by his mother's repeated unsuccessful marriage. After graduating from the gymnasium, the 17-year-old Leon Wyczółkowski entered the drawing class.
1869–1873
He studied in Warsaw's Drawing Class under Antoni Kamieński, Rafał Hadziewicz, and after 2 years became a pupil of Wojciech Gerson (an outstanding pedagogical talent). Leon Wyczółkowski received a silver medal for "Dying Gall".
1873
At the end of his studies he made a painting "St. Casimir and Dlugosz" (lost), which was purchased from an exhibition at the Society for the Encouragement of Fine Arts - it was a kind of examination essay of the primus.
1875-1877
He went to Munich and studied in the studio of Hungarian painter Alexander Wagner at the Academy of Fine Arts there. Leon Wyczółkowski's contact with the atmosphere of the Munich market and, at the same time, the misery he experienced after the exhaustion of funds, resulted in two currents in his work: the actual work of the artist and the production dictated by a compromise with the audience - sometimes this paid pseudo-creation gained the means to enable him to create true creativity.
1877-79
He studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow under the direction of Jana Matejki, and even lived in his house, he also made friends with another student of Master Jan - Jack Malczewski
1880
He lived in Lviv, where he met Adam Chmielowski. Under the influence of this artist, he created two paintings: "Girl and Basilisk" and "Podwawel Dragon". He also painted "Alina" and "Portrait of Dobrinski children".
1881
Leon Wyczółkowski came back to Warsaw, he was consumed by painting portraits and fashionable salon scenes
1883-1887
stay in Ukraine, where, among others, he undertook to restore a damaged painting Jana Matejko
1889
visited Paris (world exhibition), getting acquainted with Monet's works and Japanese art
1891
fishing paintings by Leon Wyczółkowski at the exhibition in Berlin won the favour of the critics
1895
on the proposal of Julian Fałat (1853-1929), the new rector of the Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow, accepted the position of lecturer at the Krakow Academy of Fine Arts, moved permanently to Krakow and started to paint Wawel Castle
1896-1913
he has been to Zakopane and the Tatra Mountains many times
1904
he received a bronze medal at an exhibition in Saint-Louis
1914
he returned to Warsaw, where he spent a year unable to get through to Krakow