Edmund Cieczkiewicz (1872-1958) was a Polish painter and graphic designer. Best known for his Romantic landscapes, he is often dubbed "the last student of Matejko". Born in

Barszczowice Borshchovychi ( uk, Борщовичі, pl, Barszczowice) is a village in Lviv Raion of Lviv Oblast in Ukraine. It belongs to Novyi Yarychiv settlement hromada, one of the hromadas of Ukraine. First mentioned in 1442 in court documents of the nea ...

near

Lwów Lviv ( uk, Львів) is the largest city in western Ukraine, and the seventh-largest in Ukraine, with a population of . It serves as the administrative centre of Lviv Oblast and Lviv Raion, and is one of the main cultural centres of Ukraine ...

(modern Lviv, then in Austro-Hungarian Galicia), Cieczkiewicz graduated from a gymnasium in

Nowy Sącz Nowy Sącz (; hu, Újszandec; yi, Tzanz, צאַנז; sk, Nový Sonč; german: Neu-Sandez) is a city in the Lesser Poland Voivodeship of southern Poland. It is the district capital of Nowy Sącz County as a separate administrative unit. It has ...

and in 1887 joined the

Kraków Academy of Fine Arts The Jan Matejko Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków ( pl, Akademia Sztuk Pięknych im. Jana Matejki w Krakowie, usually abbreviated to ''ASP''), is a public institution of higher education located in the centre of Kraków, Poland. It is the oldest Pol ...

. There he studied painting under the tutelage of

Florian Cynk Florian Stanisław Cynk (3 May 1838 – 10 October 1912) was a Polish painter, notably of religious subjects, and a prominent art teacher. He also worked as an illustrator. Biography He was born in Kraków and began his studies at the Jan Mate ...

Władysław Łuszczkiewicz Władysław Łuszczkiewicz (September 3, 1828 – May 23, 1900) was a Polish historian and painter of the late Romantic era from Kraków, active in the period of the foreign partitions of Poland. He was a professor at the Academy of Fine Arts and ...

and

Leon Wyczółkowski Leon Jan Wyczółkowski (; 24 April 1852 – 27 December 1936) was one of the leading Painting, painters of the Young Poland movement, as well as the principal representative of Polish Realism (arts), Realism in art of Polish culture in the Inter ...

, as well as

Jan Matejko Jan Alojzy Matejko (; also known as Jan Mateyko; 24 June 1838 – 1 November 1893) was a Poles, Polish painting, painter, a leading 19th-century exponent of history painting, known for depicting nodal events from Polish history. His works includ ...

and

Teodor Axentowicz Teodor Axentowicz ( Armenian: Թեոդոր Աքսենտովիչ; 13 May 1859 in Brașov, Austrian Empire – 26 August 1938 in Kraków, Second Polish Republic) was a Polish- Armenian painter and university professor. A renowned artist of his times ...

. He graduated in 1898, along his better-known colleagues:

Józef Mehoffer Józef Mehoffer (19 March 1869 – 8 July 1946) was a Polish painter and decorative artist, one of the leading artists of the Young Poland movement and one of the most revered Polish artists of his time. Life Mehoffer was born in Ropczyce, ...

Stanisław Wyspiański Stanisław Mateusz Ignacy Wyspiański (; 15 January 1869 – 28 November 1907) was a Polish playwright, painter and poet, as well as interior and furniture designer. A patriotic writer, he created a series of symbolic, national dramas within ...

Xawery Dunikowski Xawery Dunikowski (; 24 December 1875 – 26 January 1964) was a Polish sculptor and artist, notable for surviving Auschwitz concentration camp, and best known for his Neo-Romantic sculptures and Auschwitz-inspired art. Biography Dunikowski ...

and

Wojciech Weiss Wojciech Weiss (4 May 1875 – 7 December 1950) was a prominent Polish painter and draughtsman of the Young Poland movement. Weiss was born in Bukovina to a Polish family in exile of Stanisław Weiss and Maria Kopaczyńska. He gave up music ...

. Although a skilled painter, his personal situation prevented him from devoting his life solely to art. Instead upon graduation he started working for

Imperial Royal Austrian State Railways The Imperial-Royal State Railways (german: k.k. Staatsbahnen) abbr. ''kkStB'') or Imperial-Royal Austrian State Railways (''k.k. österreichische Staatsbahnen'',The name incorporating "Austrian" appears, for example, in the 1907 official state ha ...

as a railway clerk. He continued to paint though, notably portraits and mountain landscapes of the

Beskids The Beskids or Beskid Mountains ( pl, Beskidy, cs, Beskydy, sk, Beskydy, rue, Бескиды (''Beskydŷ''), ua, Бескиди (''Beskydy'')) are a series of mountain ranges in the Carpathians, stretching from the Czech Republic in the west a ...

and

Tatra Mountains The Tatra Mountains (), Tatras, or Tatra (''Tatry'' either in Slovak language, Slovak () or in Polish language, Polish () - ''plurale tantum''), are a series of mountains within the Western Carpathians that form a natural border between Slovak ...

, as well as

Volhynia Volhynia (also spelled Volynia) ( ; uk, Воли́нь, Volyn' pl, Wołyń, russian: Волы́нь, Volýnʹ, ), is a historic region in Central and Eastern Europe, between south-eastern Poland, south-western Belarus, and western Ukraine. Th ...

and

Białowieża Forest Białowieża Forest; lt, Baltvyžių giria; pl, Puszcza Białowieska ; russian: Беловежская пуща, Belovezhskaya Pushcha is a forest on the border between Belarus and Poland. It is one of the last and largest remaining pa ...

. Among the best-known of his works are a series of paintings adorning the train stations of Tarnów and Nowy Sącz (finished around 1910). The Imperial Royal Austrian State Railways were so impressed with the series that it ordered a similar series of Alpine landscapes for the

Salzburg Hauptbahnhof Salzburg Hauptbahnhof (German for Salzburg main station; abbreviated Salzburg Hbf and occasionally translated as Central Station) is the main railway station in Salzburg, capital of the federal state of Salzburg in Austria. It is the most import ...

, however the outbreak of

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

prevented their completion. Apart from paintings, Cieczkiewicz also painted a series of promotional posters for the 1929

Polish General Exhibition Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Poles, people from Poland or of Polish descent * Polish chicken *Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin screenwr ...

in Poznań (1929) and numerous postcards. After the war Cieczkiewicz retired and settled in Wierchomla before moving to

Kamionka Wielka Kamionka Wielka is a village in Nowy Sącz County, Lesser Poland Voivodeship, in southern Poland. It is the seat of the gmina (administrative district) called Gmina Kamionka Wielka. It lies approximately south-east of Nowy Sącz and south-eas ...

, Piwniczna and finally to

Rytro Rytro ( uk, Ритро, ''Rytro'') is a village in Nowy Sącz County, Lesser Poland Voivodeship, in southern Poland. It is the seat of the gmina (administrative district) called Gmina Rytro. It lies approximately south of Nowy Sącz and sout ...

, where he spent the remainder of his life. He died 31 January 1958 in Rytro and was buried at the local Catholic cemetery.

References

Citations

Bibliography

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Cieczkiewicz, Edmund 1872 births 1958 deaths 19th-century Polish painters 19th-century Polish male artists 20th-century Polish painters 20th-century Polish male artists Jan Matejko Academy of Fine Arts alumni Polish male painters Painters from Austria-Hungary