Axentowicz, Theodor

Teodor Axentowicz (Armenian: ?????? ?????????? ; born May 13, 1859 in Brasov, Romania – August 26, 1938 in Kraków) was a Polish-Armenian painter and university professor. A renowned artist of his times, he was also the rector of the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków. As an artist, Axentowicz was famous for his portraits and subtle scenes of Hutsul life, set in the Carpathians. Axentowicz was born May 13, 1859 in Brasov, Hungary (now Romania), to a family of Polish-Armenian ancestry. In 1893 in Chelsea, London, he married Iza Henrietta Gielgud, aunt of Val Gielgud and John [Arthur] Gielgud of the theatrical dynasty. A son, Philip S.A.D. Axentowicz was born in Chelsea in 1893. Between 1879 and 1882 he studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich. From there he moved to Paris, where he continued his education until 1895. During that time he started a long-time cooperation with various journals and started his career as a copyist, duplicating the works of Tizian and Botticelli. He also made numerous travels to London and Rome, where he prepared a set of portraits, one of the first in his career. Career In 1894 he started collaboration with Wojciech Kossak and Jan Styka during the preparation of the Raclawice Panorama, one of the largest panoramic paintings in the history of Polish art. The following year he moved to Kraków, where he became a professor at the local Academy of Fine Arts. He was also active in the local society and cooperated with various societies devoted to propagation of arts and crafts. In 1897 he founded an artistic conservatory for women and soon afterwards became one of the founders of the Sztuka society, whose members were such artists as Józef Chelmonski, Julian Falat, Jacek Malczewski, Józef Mehoffer, Jan Stanislawski, Wlodzimierz Tetmajer, Leon Wyczólkowski and Stanislaw Wyspianski. In 1910 he became the rector of the Academy and since 1928 was also an honorary member of the Zacheta Society. He died August 26, 1938 in Kraków. Throughout his life he had numerous exhibitions, both in Poland and abroad. The most notable were organized in: Berlin (1896, 1913), St. Louis (1904), Munich (1905, 1935), London (1906), Vienna (1908), Rome (1911), Venice (1914, 1926), Paris (1921), Chicago (1927) and Prague (1927).His paintings can be found in almost all public collections in Poland and in numerous private ones there and abroad. .