Signature p.d.: Stefan Filipkiewicz | 1934
Image reproduced in:
- Great Masters of Painting in the Juroszek Family Collection, Cieszyn 2021, p. 207.
Stefan Filipkiewicz (Tarnów 1879 - Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp 1944) - painter and printmaker, landscape painter; studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Cracow from 1900-1908 with Józef Mehoffer, Leon Wyczółkowski, Józef Pankiewicz and Jan Stanisławski. Already during his studies, he took part in exhibitions of the Cracow TPSP, and later participated in many national and international exhibitions. He was primarily a landscape painter, considered one of the most outstanding students of Stanislavsky and his school of landscape. He painted landscapes of the Tatra and Podhale mountains, landscapes from Radziszów near Krakow, where he spent his vacations, and in later years also seaside views. He also painted decorative still lifes with bouquets of flowers. He was involved in printmaking, illustration, poster and medal design. From 1908 he was a member of the Society of Polish Artists "Art". In 1913-1914 he taught a course in decorative painting at the Industrial School in Cracow, from 1930 he taught at the Academy of Fine Arts in Cracow, and from 1937 he was a professor at the Academy. He participated in many exhibitions; in 1929 he received a gold medal at the General National Exhibition in Poznań, and in 1933 he received the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences award for lifetime achievement. In 1914-1917 he served in the Legions, and during World War II he was active in the underground. He was Secretary of the Civic Committee for the Care of Polish Refugees in Hungary and the Budapest Outpost - a representation of the Polish Government in Exile. Arrested by the Gestapo, probably at the end of July 1944, he was deported to the Mauthausen-Gusen camp, where he was murdered on August 23 along with his fellow conspirators - Henryk Slawik, Edmund Fietz-Fietowicz, Kazimierz Gurgul and Andrzej Pysz.