Artur Markowicz (1872 – 1934) was a Jewish realist painter and graphic artist born in

Podgórze Podgórze ( German: ''Josefstadt'') is a district of Kraków, Poland, situated on the right (southern) bank of the Vistula River, at the foot of Lasota Hill. The district was subdivided in 1990 into six new districts, see present-day districts o ...

district of

Kraków , officially the Royal Capital City of Kraków, is the List of cities and towns in Poland, second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city has a population of 804,237 ...

(Cracow), Poland. He is best known for his numerous pastels of street scenes in the historic Jewish town of

Kazimierz Kazimierz (; ; ) is a historical district of Kraków and Kraków Old Town, Poland. From its inception in the 14th century to the early 19th century, Kazimierz was an independent city, a royal city of the Crown of the Polish Kingdom, located sou ...

– now one of the largest central districts of Kraków. His works can be found at the National Museum in Gdańsk,

Warsaw Warsaw, officially the Capital City of Warsaw, is the capital and List of cities and towns in Poland, largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the Vistula, River Vistula in east-central Poland. Its population is officially estimated at ...

, and in other state museums in Poland and Israel.

Biography

He was born to a family of merchants and began his higher education with technical studies, but soon abandoned them, studying instead with professors Leopold Loeffler,

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 Academ ...

and

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

at the Kraków

Academy of Fine Arts The following is a list of notable art schools. Accredited non-profit art and design colleges * Adelaide Central School of Art * Alberta College of Art and Design * Art Academy of Cincinnati * Art Center College of Design * The Art Institute ...

in 1886–1895. From 1896 until 1903 he lived in Germany and studied art at the

Academy of Fine Arts, Munich The Academy of Fine Arts, Munich (, also known as Munich Academy) is one of the oldest and most significant art academies in Germany. It is located in the Maxvorstadt district of Munich, in Bavaria, Germany. In the second half of the 19th centur ...

with

Franz Stuck Franz Ritter von Stuck (February 23, 1863 – August 30, 1928), born Franz Stuck, was a German painter, sculptor, printmaker, and architect. Stuck was best known for his paintings of ancient mythology, receiving substantial critical acclaim with ...

. Then he went to Paris, finishing at the

École des Beaux-Arts ; ) refers to a number of influential art schools in France. The term is associated with the Beaux-Arts architecture, Beaux-Arts style in architecture and city planning that thrived in France and other countries during the late nineteenth centu ...

with

Jean-Léon Gérôme Jean-Léon Gérôme (; 11 May 1824 – 10 January 1904) was a French painter and sculptor in the style now known as Academic painting, academicism. His paintings were so widely reproduced that he was "arguably the world's most famous living art ...

. He also exhibited his paintings at the Salons of 1900, 1901, 1903 and 1904. Markowicz returned to Kraków in 1904 and set up a studio in the historic district of

. He traveled to

Jerusalem Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...

in 1907–1908 where the

Bezalel Academy Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design () is a public college of design and art located in Jerusalem. Established in 1906 by Jewish painter and sculptor Boris Schatz, Bezalel is Israel's oldest institution of higher education and is considered the ...

had just opened, then to other parts of Europe until 1914. He was also a member of the "

Kraków Society of Friends of Fine Arts The Kraków Society of Friends of Fine Arts (, TPSP) is a social group of artists, artisans and their supporters founded in Kraków in 1854, under the Austrian Partition of Poland. Today, the Society operates from the Art Nouveau Palace of Art ere ...

" and the "Society for the Encouragement of Fine Arts". After 1930, he was the honorary President of the "Jewish Society for the Promotion of Fine Arts". His Jewish scenes and character-studies show a unique originality of his style influenced by

symbolism Symbolism or symbolist may refer to: *Symbol, any object or sign that represents an idea Arts *Artistic symbol, an element of a literary, visual, or other work of art that represents an idea ** Color symbolism, the use of colors within various c ...

with elements of

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 ...

. Markowicz died in Kraków in 1934 at the age of 62, and is buried at the local New Jewish Cemetery.

Selected paintings

File:Artur Markowicz W salonie - Portret żony 1924.jpg, Portrait of His Wife Artur Markowicz Brugge ulica w sloncu 1920.jpg, Ray of Sunlight
in the Streets of Brugge File:Artur Markowicz Poswiecenie nowiu ksiezyca 1933.jpg, Blessing of the New Moon Artur Markowicz Chess players 1926.jpg, Chess Players

References

External links

ArtNet: More works by Markowicz.More works by Markowicz at Central Jewish Library.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Markowicz, Artur 1872 births 1934 deaths Jewish Polish artists 20th-century Polish painters 20th-century Polish male artists Artists from Kraków Polish genre painters Polish male painters Painters from Austria-Hungary

Biography

Selected paintings

References

Further reading

External links