André Slomszynski

André Amédée Gustave Slomszynski, Słomczyński or Slomczynski, known professionally as Slom (9 July 1844 – 27 December 1909 ), was a French painter, engraver, illustrator and cartographer of Polish origin. A former communard, he lived from 1871 to 1880 in exile in Switzerland.

Biography Slomczynski was born in Bordeaux, the son of Stanislas Słomczyński, a refugee Polish officer, and an unknown mother. He went to Paris during the Second Empire to learn painting. From 1855 to 1861 he was a pupil at the École polonaise de Paris at Batignolles.

He took part in the Paris Commune in 1871. As the secretary of Raoul Rigault, he was with him on 23 May 1871 when he was imprisoned in the prison of Sainte-Pélagie, at the moment when Gustave Chaudey, a former deputy mayor (adjoint) of Paris, was executed together with three gendarmes, the next day in the hôtel of the Rue Gay-Lussac, and when Rigault himself was shot dead by Versailles troops in the same street. After the Bloody Week in May 1871, he was sentenced to death by the Versailles army who accused him of inciting the Gardes nationaux to execute the three hostage gendarmes.

He lived with his wife Emma (née Blank) at 26 Avenue des Gobelins, where he died on 27 December 1909. His daughter Olga Słomczyński (1881-1940), who stayed in Geneva with her mother, was a well-known illustrator in Switzerland.

Works featuring Slom's illustrations Georges-Louis Rose, Les amoureux de Titine: chansonnette, words by Augustin Roussel; music by Georges Rose; sung by Melle Laure, P. Tralin, 1865, cover of score Populations de l'Asie du Nord, cartography by A. Slom, 1881 Albert Pinard, Pile-de-Pont, Jules Lévy, 1886, collectif M. Génin [Mme de Roisel], Un petit héros, coll. "Petite Bibliothèque Blanche", Hetzel, , with Adrien Marie J. Colomb [Joséphine-Blanche Bouchet], Histoires de bêtes, Hachette, 1890 Olympe Gevin-Cassal, Mauviette chérie, May and Motteroz, Jeanne Cazin, Les aventures de Jean Le Savoyard: scènes de la montagne, Hachette, 1891 Hans Christian Andersen, Contes, translation by Jules Gourdault, Hachette, 1892 Albert Cim, Mes amis et moi, Hachette, 1893, with Alexandre Ferdinandus Marie Delorme, Le Théâtre chez grand'mère: saynètes, petites pièces de salon, proverbes, monologues, souhaits, etc., Armand Colin, 1895 Charles Rabot, Un hiver à Corfou, Hachette, 1896, collectif Marcel Monmarché, Rocamadour et ses environs. Guide artistique du touriste et du pélerin, 1898 Amélie Mesureur, Le Dernier des Pifferari; followed by Le Petit Mousse, Société française d'éditions d'art, 1904 Albert Cim, Le roman d'un bon garçon Jacques Rinet, Daki, le romanichel, Albin Michel, no date La Nouvelle Géographie universelle, a 19-volume collection of geographical writing by Élisée Reclus published 1876-1894.