Rafał Malczewski

Rafał Marceli Ludwik Fortunat Józef Malczewski (24 October 1892 – 15 February 1965) was a Polish landscape and portrait painter, draughtsman, author and columnist. He was a noted Tatra mountaineer, skier and populariser of the Tatra Mountains.

Life

He was born in Kraków, four years after his sister, Julia, the son of Maria, née Gralewska, and her husband the celebrated Symbolist painter and professor of Fine Art, Jacek Malczewski. He graduated from the Saint Jacek High School in the city. From 1910 to 1915, he studied at the University of Vienna. He took courses in philosophy, architecture and agronomy. On his return to Kraków he entered the Jan Matejko Academy of Fine Arts, and was also apprenticed in his father's studio. In 1915 he began to travel frequently to Zakopane where he spent extensive periods, to climb, ski and paint, until the outbreak of World War II. He joined the local Mountain rescue team, TOPR. However, in 1917 on the south face of "Zamarła Turnia" he and his climbing companion, Stanisław Bronikowski, were caught in a climbing accident in which his friend died, while Malczewski clung to a hook all night awaiting rescue.

In October 1917, he married Bronisława Dziadosz, an English teacher four years his senior and a US citizen of Polish descent who had immigrated into Poland. In November of the same year, their son Krzysztof was born. Despite an unhappy partnership, the couple went on to have a second child, Zofia. Their poor financial situation led to Rafał's artist father helping them out. In 1923, he bought for them a chalet called "Marysin".

Rafał Malczewski was an associate and friend of a group of artists, musicians and intellectuals who would congregate in the Mountain resort of Zakopane in the early part of the 20th century. They included Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz, Karol Szymanowski, Kornel Makuszyński, and Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz. In 1932, he joined the "Rhythm" Association of artists (Stowarzyszenie Artystów Polskich "Rytm") and was a set designer for productions of Strindberg and Stanisław Witkiewicz at the Formistyczny Theatre in Zakopane. In 1937, he was awarded the "Wawrzyn Akademicki" award from the Polska Akademia Literatury "for services to Polish art". In 1938, he donated part of his artistic output to the newly re-opened National Museum of Warsaw to which, several years earlier on account of his material difficulties, he had sold the entirety of his father's work left to him by Malczewski Sr.

Travels

In 1939, after the outbreak of World War II, having already abandoned his wife and children, he escaped over the Slovak border, with his partner Zofia Mikucka, and via Budapest and Venice made his way to Paris. There he fell on the generosity of the Polish embassy to help him out of another financial difficulty. In 1940, they travelled on to Spain and Portugal, where they stayed for four months. At the beginning of 1941 they moved to Brazil. At first they stayed in Rio de Janeiro where he was able to sell some of his paintings which consisted of water colour landscapes of Rio, Curitiba and of Parana. A stroke in 1957 led to a partial paralysis which obliged him to give up painting in oils, but he was able to continue with water colours. He managed to obtain sponsorship from the CIA-controlled Radio Free Europe and from Quebec City. In 1959, the daughter of Zofia Malczewska-Kondracka invited him to visit Poland. Despite great nostalgia for the south of the country, he resolved to remain in Canada, but his journey was described in his memoir, Wspomnieniach z Polski and serialised in the London émigré paper, Wiadomości. From 1961 he was kept by his daughter, Zofia, and three years later, in 1964 his last exhibition took place in Montreal. He died and was buried there in 1965.

His work was part of the art competitions at the 1932 Summer Olympics and the 1936 Summer Olympics.

Selected exhibitions and awards Malczewski's first public show was with Witkacy at Garlinski's Salon in Warsaw in 1924.