Ludwik Konarzewski

Ludwik Konarzewski (senior)
The portrait of wife Jadwiga and their son Ludwik; Buzuluk 1918
Born	18 August 1885 Wilanów, Poland
Died	2 October 1954(1954-10-02) (aged 69) Istebna, Poland
Nationality	Polish
Known for	Painting,

Ludwik Konarzewski – senior (August 18, 1885, Wilanów – October 2, 1954, Istebna) was a Polish painter, sculptor and teacher of fine arts who worked in Upper Silesia and Cieszyn Silesia. He commenced his plastic arts’ education at the School of Fine Arts in Warsaw in the year 1904, where at the first he had his tuition under Stanisław Lentz and Karol Tichy. As a result of taking part in a youth manifestation against the Tsar’s rule in 1905 he was obliged to give up further studies in Warsaw. He continued his artistic study in Kraków between 1905-1910. He studied painting under the direction of (among others) the following artists painters, Stanisław Dębicki. Józef Mehoffer, Jan Stanisławski, Józef Unierzyski and Stanisław Wyspiański and sculpture under Konstanty Laszczka. L. Konarzewski Sr. was also a representative of the Polish school of Art Nouveau.

After completing his cource of studies with distinction in 1910, he spent the following two years on foreign travels and stays in four of the great centres of European art: Paris, Munich, Vienna and Rome. He undertook these journeys in the company of Jan Wałach, with whom he had become acquainted during his student days. Wałach, who came from Istebna in the Silesia-Cieszyn region, later became known as a graphics artist, draftsman and also painter and sculptor.

In 1913 Ludwik Konarzewski Sr. painted the interior of the Orthodox Church in Rozdół, near Stryj, from where he made frequent plein-air excursion to Czarnochora in the East Carpathians, where – after pattern of a few Polish painters – Sichulski, Pautsch or Jarocki – he made a painter’s record of the Hucul culture.