Leon Kowalski (1870-1937), Sailboats, 1929

oil, thick cardboard, 43x32 cm

He began his studies at Nikolai Murashka's painting school in Kiev. He continued his studies in the years
1891-93 at the School of Fine Arts in Krakow under Władysław Łuszczkiewicz, Leopold Loeffler
and Leon Wyczółkowski. After receiving a scholarship from the National Department, he left for further
studies to Munich, where he attended the atelier of Karl Raupp (1894), and then to Paris,
where he studied with Jean Paul Laurens, Jean Paul Benjamin Constant and Ernest Girardot.
He then traveled around France, Italy and Germany. From 1905 he lived in
Krakow, where he became actively involved in artistic life - he was a co-founder of the Zero Group
(1908) and the Union of General Artists (1911). The years 1912-20 he spent in Kiev;
at that time he worked at the School of Fine Arts there, and was co-organizer of the Polish
School of Fine Arts (1917). After returning to Krakow, he founded the Society of Painters and
Sculptors Native Art (1921) and the Cracow Circle of Graphic Artists (1929) He painted realistic
portraits, genre and religious scenes, as well as landscapes, garden scenes, flowers and flowering
trees.