Wojciech Weiss (4 May 1875 – 7 December 1950) was a prominent

Polish 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 ...

painter and

draughtsman A draughtsman (British spelling) or draftsman (American spelling) may refer to: * An architectural drafter, who produced architectural drawings until the late 20th century * An artist who produces drawings that rival or surpass their other types ...

of the

Young Poland Young Poland ( pl, Młoda Polska) was a modernist period in Polish visual arts, literature and music, covering roughly the years between 1890 and 1918. It was a result of strong aesthetic opposition to the earlier ideas of Positivism. Young Pola ...

movement. Weiss was born in

Bukovina Bukovinagerman: Bukowina or ; hu, Bukovina; pl, Bukowina; ro, Bucovina; uk, Буковина, ; see also other languages. is a historical region, variously described as part of either Central or Eastern Europe (or both).Klaus Peter BergerT ...

to a Polish family in exile of Stanisław Weiss and Maria Kopaczyńska. He gave up music training to study art at the

Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków 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 ...

under

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 ...

. Weiss originally painted historical or mythological paintings, but later switched to

Expressionism Expressionism is a modernist movement, initially in poetry and painting, originating in Northern Europe around the beginning of the 20th century. Its typical trait is to present the world solely from a subjective perspective, distorting it rad ...

after being profoundly influenced by

Stanisław Przybyszewski Stanisław Przybyszewski (; 7 May 1868 – 23 November 1927) was a Polish novelist, dramatist, and poet of the decadent naturalistic school. His drama is associated with the Symbolist movement. He wrote both in German and in Polish. Life Stanis� ...

. Weiss later became a member of the

Vienna Secession The Vienna Secession (german: Wiener Secession; also known as ''the Union of Austrian Artists'', or ''Vereinigung Bildender Künstler Österreichs'') is an art movement, closely related to Art Nouveau, that was formed in 1897 by a group of Austri ...

. He was one of the first Polish

Art Nouveau Art Nouveau (; ) is an international style of art, architecture, and applied art, especially the decorative arts. The style is known by different names in different languages: in German, in Italian, in Catalan, and also known as the Modern ...

poster designers. Near the end of his life, he made several significant contributions to paintings of the

Socialist realism in Poland Socialist realism in Poland ( pl, socrealizm) was a socio-political and aesthetic doctrine enforced by the pro-Soviet communist government in the process of Stalinization of the post-war Polish People’s Republic. The official policy was introduc ...

. File:Weiss Obsession.jpg, ''Obsession'' (1899-1900),

National Museum A national museum is a museum maintained and funded by a national government. In many countries it denotes a museum run by the central government, while other museums are run by regional or local governments. In other countries a much greater numb ...

Warsaw Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officia ...

External links

*
Short biography at Wojciech Weiss Foundation Museum

Numerous Wojciech Weiss paintingsWojciech Weiss links

1875 births 1950 deaths 19th-century Polish painters 19th-century Polish male artists 20th-century Polish painters 20th-century Polish male artists Polish draughtsmen Art Nouveau painters Romanian people of Polish descent People from Botoșani County Polish male painters {{Poland-painter-stub