Eligiusz Józef Niewiadomski (1 December 1869 – 31 January 1923) was a Polish
modernist
Modernism was an early 20th-century movement in literature, visual arts, and music that emphasized experimentation, abstraction, and Subjectivity and objectivity (philosophy), subjective experience. Philosophy, politics, architecture, and soc ...
painter
Painting is a Visual arts, visual art, which is characterized by the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called "matrix" or "Support (art), support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with ...
and
art critic
An art critic is a person who is specialized in analyzing, interpreting, and evaluating art. Their written critiques or reviews contribute to art criticism and they are published in newspapers, magazines, books, exhibition brochures, and catalogue ...
who sympathized with the
right-wing
Right-wing politics is the range of political ideologies that view certain social orders and hierarchies as inevitable, natural, normal, or desirable, typically supporting this position based on natural law, economics, authority, property ...
National Democracy National Democracy may refer to:
* National democratic state, a state formation conceived by the Soviet concept of national democracy
* National Democracy (Czech Republic)
* National Democracy (Italy)
* National Democracy (Philippines)
* National De ...
movement. In 1922, he
assassinated
Assassination is the willful killing, by a sudden, secret, or planned attack, of a personespecially if prominent or important. It may be prompted by political, ideological, religious, financial, or military motives.
Assassinations are orde ...
Poland's first President,
Gabriel Narutowicz
Gabriel Józef Narutowicz (; 29 March 1865 – 16 December 1922) was a Polish people, Polish professor of hydroelectric engineering and politician who served as the first president of Poland from 11 December 1922 until Assassination of Gabriel Na ...
, in his first week in office as president.
Life
Niewiadomski was born into a family of
gentry
Gentry (from Old French , from ) are "well-born, genteel and well-bred people" of high social class, especially in the past. ''Gentry'', in its widest connotation, refers to people of good social position connected to Landed property, landed es ...
descent. His father, Wincenty Niewiadomski, of the
''Prus'' coat-of-arms, was a
veteran
A veteran () is a person who has significant experience (and is usually adept and esteemed) and expertise in an job, occupation or Craft, field.
A military veteran is a person who is no longer serving in the military, armed forces.
A topic o ...
of the
January Uprising
The January Uprising was an insurrection principally in Russia's Kingdom of Poland that was aimed at putting an end to Russian occupation of part of Poland and regaining independence. It began on 22 January 1863 and continued until the last i ...
and a worker at the Warsaw
mint
Mint or The Mint may refer to:
Plants
* Lamiaceae, the mint family
** ''Mentha'', the genus of plants commonly known as "mint"
Coins and collectibles
* Mint (facility), a facility for manufacturing coins
* Mint condition, a state of like-new ...
. At the age of two, Eligiusz lost his mother Julia, and was raised by his elder sister Cecylia. After graduating from a local trade school in 1888, Niewiadomski moved to
St. Petersburg, where he continued his studies at the
Imperial Academy of Arts. He graduated in 1894 with honors, and won a scholarship to the ''École Supérieure des Beaux-Arts'' in
Paris
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...
. After his return to Warsaw, he became a student of
Wojciech Gerson
Wojciech Gerson (; 1 July 1831 – 25 February 1901) was a Polish painter, educator, architect and art critic who was one of the foremost representatives of the Polish school of Realism during the foreign Partitions of Poland. He served as long ...
, one of the best-known Polish artists of the age.
After 1897, he taught drawing at the
Warsaw Polytechnic. He also collaborated with a number of
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 ...
-based magazines and newspapers as a journalist and
art critic
An art critic is a person who is specialized in analyzing, interpreting, and evaluating art. Their written critiques or reviews contribute to art criticism and they are published in newspapers, magazines, books, exhibition brochures, and catalogue ...
, which gave him considerable notoriety, mostly among the artists themselves. He became involved in various artistic movements, among them the "re-discovery" of the
Tatra Mountains, which at the time attracted some of the most renowned Polish painters, poets and writers as a source of inspiration. Niewiadomski prepared and published a map of the Tatras, one of the first tourist maps of the area. He also prepared a set of historical maps of Poland, ''Album of the History of Poland'' (1899). He also became involved in the reorganization of the
Zachęta art society. Using contacts acquired there, he promoted the idea of creating a separate
Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw
Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw () is a public university of visual arts and applied arts located in the Polish capital. The academy traces its history back to the Department of Arts founded at the Warsaw University in the Duchy of Warsaw in 18 ...
. However, when the school was finally opened in 1903, Niewiadomski was not invited to teach there.
Politically, Niewiadomski was a strong supporter of
nationalism
Nationalism is an idea or movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the state. As a movement, it presupposes the existence and tends to promote the interests of a particular nation, Smith, Anthony. ''Nationalism: Theory, I ...
, particularly the
National League
National League often refers to:
*National League (baseball), one of the two baseball leagues constituting Major League Baseball in the United States and Canada
*National League (division), the fifth division of the English football (soccer) system ...
. In 1901 he was arrested by the Tsarist police for
smuggling
Smuggling is the illegal transportation of objects, substances, information or people, such as out of a house or buildings, into a prison, or across an international border, in violation of applicable laws or other regulations. More broadly, soc ...
nationalist
propaganda
Propaganda is communication that is primarily used to influence or persuade an audience to further an agenda, which may not be objective and may be selectively presenting facts to encourage a particular synthesis or perception, or using loaded l ...
booklets from
Galicia into
Vistula Land
Vistula Land, also known as Vistula Country (; ), was the name applied to the lands of Congress Poland from 1867, following the defeats of the November Uprising (1830–1831) and January Uprising (1863–1864) as it was increasingly stripped of ...
. Though released after several months in the
Pawiak Prison
Pawiak () was a prison built in 1835 in Warsaw, Congress Poland.
During the January 1863 Uprising, it served as a transfer camp for Poles sentenced by Imperial Russia to deportation to Siberia.
During the World War II German occupation of ...
, he lost his job at
Warsaw Polytechnic and fell into an impoverished state. This further radicalized his political beliefs. During the
Russo-Japanese War
The Russo-Japanese War (8 February 1904 – 5 September 1905) was fought between the Russian Empire and the Empire of Japan over rival imperial ambitions in Manchuria and the Korean Empire. The major land battles of the war were fought on the ...
he promoted the idea of perpetrating anti-Russian
sabotage
Sabotage is a deliberate action aimed at weakening a polity, government, effort, or organization through subversion, obstruction, demoralization (warfare), demoralization, destabilization, divide and rule, division, social disruption, disrupti ...
, for which he was excluded from the National League.
To make a living, Niewiadomski began teaching art classes at numerous schools and churches in Poland. He also made frescoes in
Konin
Konin () is a city in central Poland, on the Warta River. It is the capital of Konin County and is located within the Greater Poland Voivodeship. In 2021 the population of the city was 71,427, making it the fourth-largest city in Greater Poland af ...
's St. Bartholomew's Church. However, his two-volume monograph ''On Mediaeval Art'' sold poorly, and Niewiadomski was on the verge of being forgotten by his contemporaries.
After the outbreak of
World War I
World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
he remained in Warsaw, where he published
brochure
A brochure is an promotional document primarily used to introduce a company, organization, products, or services and inform prospective customers or members of the public of the benefits. Although, initially, a paper document that can be folded ...
s and
manifesto
A manifesto is a written declaration of the intentions, motives, or views of the issuer, be it an individual, group, political party, or government. A manifesto can accept a previously published opinion or public consensus, but many prominent ...
s describing his views on the role of art. He also continued teaching art history and artistic technique at various schools. On 1 March 1918 he was appointed director of painting and sculpture at the
Regency Council's Ministry of Culture, a post that had previously been turned down by numerous artists.
After Poland regained independence, Niewiadomski joined the newly reborn country's Ministry of Culture. In 1920, during the
Polish-Soviet War, he tried to join the
Polish Army
The Land Forces () are the Army, land forces of the Polish Armed Forces. They currently contain some 110,000 active personnel and form many components of the European Union and NATO deployments around the world. Poland's recorded military histor ...
but was turned down as too old. However, he was accepted by
Polish intelligence and served as a translator of Russian documents. During the last months of the war, he finally managed to convince his superiors to transfer him to
front-line service and fought in the
5th Legions' Infantry Regiment.
Demobilized in 1921, Niewiadomski returned to the Ministry of Culture and continued his work there as a clerk. However, on 8 November 1921, after
Antoni Ponikowski's government refused to grant Niewiadomski's department a higher budget, he resigned his post. He then devoted himself to writing and prepared several monographs on 19th- and 20th-century Polish painting, and on the theory of art. He made his living illustrating books.
Assassin

On 9 December 1922
Gabriel Narutowicz
Gabriel Józef Narutowicz (; 29 March 1865 – 16 December 1922) was a Polish people, Polish professor of hydroelectric engineering and politician who served as the first president of Poland from 11 December 1922 until Assassination of Gabriel Na ...
was elected by the National Assembly as the first President of Poland. After a heated debate, Narutowicz's candidacy managed to gather 289 votes, including 113 votes of various national minority MPs. The defeated candidate of the
National Democratic Party Maurycy Zamoyski gathered 227 votes, yet the National Democrats decided to boycott the President and announced that he was elected by the "Reds, Jews, and Germans" rather than Poles. This started a period of civil unrest in Warsaw, where the supporters of nationalist ideas protested against the election of their president.
On 16 December 1922 the newly elected president attended the opening of an art exhibition at the
Zachęta Art Gallery. Niewiadomski, a frequent guest at such gatherings, pulled out his
pistol
A pistol is a type of handgun, characterised by a gun barrel, barrel with an integral chamber (firearms), chamber. The word "pistol" derives from the Middle French ''pistolet'' (), meaning a small gun or knife, and first appeared in the Englis ...
, approached Narutowicz, and shot him. The president died instantly. Arrested on December 30, Niewiadomski demanded a death sentence for himself and was sentenced to death by
firing squad
Firing may refer to:
* Dismissal (employment), sudden loss of employment by termination
* Firemaking, the act of starting a fire
* Burning; see combustion
* Shooting, specifically the discharge of firearms
* Execution by firing squad, a method of ...
. The sentence was carried out at the
Warsaw Citadel
Warsaw Citadel (Polish language, Polish: Cytadela Warszawska) is a 19th-century fortress in Warsaw, Poland. It was built by order of Tsar Nikolay I of Russia, Nicholas I after the suppression of the 1830 November Uprising in order to bolster im ...
on 31 January 1923. He was 53 years old. His body was interred at
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 ...
's
Powązki Cemetery.
A few months after his death, a renowned psychiatrist, Maurycy Urstein, called Niewiadomski's execution a judiciary homicide, as the perpetrator was mentally ill and clinically insane but the court had disregarded the need for expert psychiatric testimony.
After his execution, Niewiadomski remained a controversial figure. His funeral was attended by 10,000 people.
[ Bartłomiej Kozłowski]
"Proces o zabójstwo prezydenta Narutowicza"
, Polska.pl: Kalendarium, Wydarzenia; 2003
Movie
In 1977 director
Jerzy Kawalerowicz
Jerzy Franciszek Kawalerowicz (19 January 1922 – 27 December 2007) was a Polish film director, screenwriter and politician, having been a member of Polish United Workers' Party from 1954 until its dissolution in 1990 and a deputy in Polish pa ...
made the film ''
Death of a President''. The role of Gabriel Narutowicz was played by
Zdzisław Mrożewski, and Eligiusz Niewiadomski - was played by
Marek Walczewski.
See also
*
List of Poles
This is a partial list of notable Polish people, Polish or Polish language, Polish-speaking or -writing people. People of partial Polish heritage have their respective ancestries credited.
Physics
*Miedziak Antal
* Czesław Białobrzesk ...
Notes
References
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Niewiadomski, Eligiusz
1869 births
1923 deaths
20th-century murderers
Artists from Warsaw
Burials at Powązki Cemetery
National League (Poland) members
19th-century Polish painters
19th-century Polish male artists
20th-century Polish painters
20th-century Polish male artists
Polish assassins
Nationalist assassins
Academic staff of the Warsaw University of Technology
Executed assassins
Executed people from Masovian Voivodeship
People from Congress Poland
Polish anti-communists
Polish male painters
Polish nationalists
Polish people of the Polish–Soviet War
Polish people convicted of murder
People convicted of murder by Poland
People executed by the Second Polish Republic
People executed by Poland by firing squad
Assassins of presidents
20th-century Polish criminals