Ludomir BENEDYKTOWICZ (1844 -1926), Oaks, 1882

woodcut, paper, 31 x 22 cm (clear passe-partout), 42 x 33 cm (passe-partout); signed and dated on matrix p. d.: L. Benedyktowicz / 1882

Ludomir Ludwik Dominik Benedyktowicz - Polish forester, painter, participant in the January Uprising. He was a chess enthusiast and a distinguished chess activist. Knight of the Order of War Virtuti Militari, second lieutenant of the Polish Army.He was in his second year of study when the January Uprising broke out. He took an active part in it, fighting in a partisan unit under the command of Wladyslaw Cichorski "Zameczek" (later in the unit of Wilkoszewski "Wirion"). During a melee with Cossacks he was wounded. In addition, one of the attackers cut off his right hand with a saber. The first aid was given to the insurgent by Nepomucena Sarnowiczowa, owner of Kaczkowo, the village where the skirmish took place. The wounded man was taken to the rectory in Ostrow Mazowiecka. Here, under difficult conditions, an operation was performed and his left arm was amputated. In order not to expose him to persecution, it was announced that he had died in a skirmish with Cossacks and a grave was paved, which exists to this day. His disability did not allow him to continue his education as a forester. He decided to devote himself to painting. Ludomir took his first steps to the Warsaw School of Drawing under the direction of Professor Wojciech Gerson. He painted his works with a brush attached to a metal ring. It was worn on the forearm of his right hand and a brush, pen or charcoal, which he loved to use, was slipped behind it.He was educated at a school in Munich. He was accepted as a student at the Academy of Fine Arts there on the basis of his works (at the end of October 1868 he applied to the Academy - Antikenklasse: matriculation on May 9, 1869). After completing his studies, he returned to Poland. Despite taking precautions, the Cossacks got on his trail, arrested him and imprisoned him in the Warsaw Citadel. When he got out he found himself at Jan Matejko's School of Composition in Cracow. He then opened his own painting studio. He lived in Krakow for forty years. In connection with the growing criticism by Young Poland artists of the paintings of, among others, the "Munichists" to whom he belonged, in April 1913 he sent an open letter to the artistic world under the title "In the Name of Truth." Even before World War I, he moved with his family to Lviv. There he died before December 2, 1926 at the age of 82. His corpse was transported to Krakow and buried in Rakowicki Cemetery.