Czesław Idźkiewicz (October 21, 1889 – February 1, 1951) was a Polish landscape

painter Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called the "matrix" or "support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush, but other implements, such as knives, sponges, and ai ...

and art teacher. He was born in Różan, Poland to Piotr and Aleksandra ''

née A birth name is the name of a person given upon birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name, or the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a birth certificate or birth re ...

'' Magnuszewska. Idźkiewicz was one of six children of the local organist Piotr Idźkiewicz. He went to school in Pułtusk nearby. Between 1908 and 1912 Idźkiewicz studied drawing and painting at the School of Fine Arts in Warsaw. At the same time he assisted in the painting of frescoes at

Płock Cathedral Płock Cathedral ( pl, Katedra Płocka), or the Cathedral of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Masovia, is a Roman Catholic cathedral in the city of Płock, in central Poland. It is an example of 12th-century Romanesque architecture and is the oldest ...

. In 1912 he went to

Antwerp Antwerp (; nl, Antwerpen ; french: Anvers ; es, Amberes) is the largest city in Belgium by area at and the capital of Antwerp Province in the Flemish Region. With a population of 520,504,

to study at the Academie Royale de Beaux Arts, and in 1913 and 1914 he continued his studies in Kraków at the Academy of Fine Arts as a student of Józef Mehoffer and Józef Pankiewicz. During the First World War, the principal painter of the Masovian Blessed Virgin Mary Cathedral in Płock,

Władysław Drapiewski Władysław Drapiewski (12 November 1876, Gacki – 30 December 1961, Pelplin) was a Polish painter who was one of the best-known creators of religious paintings in the first half of the 20th-century in Poland. Biography He initially studi ...

, was exiled, and Idźkiewicz continued the work on the royal chapel there on his own. He made a living as teacher of fine arts at the local preparatory school and subsequently obtained high-school educator certification. After the invasion of Poland in 1939, the entire collection of oil paintings by Idźkiewicz was stolen by the Nazis and shipped to Germany. It was never recovered; only a few of his artworks remain. He was arrested and sent to

Dachau concentration camp , , commandant = List of commandants , known for = , location = Upper Bavaria, Southern Germany , built by = Germany , operated by = ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS) , original use = Political prison , construction ...

near Munich. Idźkiewicz survived the war, and settled back in Płock. He worked as an educator until his unexpected death on February 1, 1951, at the age of 61.

Notes and references

*Zienkiewicz H. (1963). "Czesław Idźkiewicz - Artysta malarz i wychowawca młodzieży", ''Notatki Płockie:'' 39-40 (Towarzystwo Naukowe Płockie). 1889 births 1951 deaths 20th-century Polish painters 20th-century Polish male artists Polish landscape painters Royal Academy of Fine Arts (Antwerp) alumni People from Płock Governorate Jan Matejko Academy of Fine Arts alumni Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw alumni Polish schoolteachers Polish male painters {{Poland-painter-stub