about
Leon Makielski

1885 – 1974

In 1881 Leon Makielski’s parents left Poland and migrated to the United States, first settling in the small mining town of Morris Run, Pennsylvania. Leon was born there on May 17, 1885 and resided in the small town until 1890 when his family moved west to South Bend, Indiana. After three years in South Bend, Makielski moved to Chicago which was, at the time, a major artistic center and home to the influential five Hoosier Impressionists – Theodore C. Steele, Otto Stark, William J. Forsyth, Richard B. Gruelle and John Otis Adams. While in the city, Makielski would have observed the works of the Hoosier Impressionists at the annual exhibitions of the Society of Western Arts; additionally, he honed his artistic abilities at the Art Institute of Chicago.

During his studies at the Art Institute of Chicago, Makielski spent the summer months just outside of the city at Eagle’s Nest Art Colony, the most important summer art center in Illinois. Eagle’s Nest Art Colony attracted a wide diversity of influential artists including Chicago sculptor Larado Taft, painters Ralph Elmer Clarkson and Charles Francis Browen, as well as writers Hamlin Garland and Henry B. Fuller.

In 1908, after five years of study, Makielski joined the faculty at the Art Institute of Chicago, serving as an assistant professor of art. That same year, Makielski was awarded the Art Institute’s top honor, the John Quincy Adams Traveling Scholarship. The following year he set sail for Paris and made the city his home for the next four years. Makielski’s life in Paris was full of excitement; he studied at the Academie Julian and the Grande Chaumiere, as well as studying under the tutelage of Henri Martin and Richard E. Miller. Perhaps Makielski’s best recognized accomplishment during these years was having paintings accepted into the esteemed Salon de Paris of 1911 and 1912. Although busy with his artwork, Makielski took time to relax and gain inspiration by visiting the Parisian parks lining the Seine as well as those in the countryside just outside of Paris; he especially enjoyed visiting Giverny and Versailles. Makielski’s European escapade also took him to Italy, England, Germany, Poland, Belgium, Holland and Austria where he visited museums and painted scenes from the cities, towns and surrounding landscapes.

While studying and living in Paris, Makielski was offered continual financial and moral support by his friend and mentor Mr. J.M. Studebaker, president of Studebaker Brothers Manufacturing Company. In a correspondence Studebaker sent to Makielski in Paris, he asked the artist about two paintings which had been sent to the U.S. via the steamer Titanic. Unfortunately, both of the paintings went down with the ship. This was a small loss compared to what would have resulted if Makielski had not cancelled his ticket on the Titanic so that he could remain in Paris for one month longer.

After five years abroad, Makielski returned home to South Bend in 1913. Two years later he moved to Ann Arbor, Michigan to become a professor of fine arts at the University of Michigan. Once at UofM Makielski began a two year painting and drawing project during which he created portraits of many of the University professors and their families. One of Makielski’s most famous portrait paintings that resulted from this project is that of his dear friend and famous poet, Robert Frost; this portrait currently hangs in the Museum of Art at the University of Michigan. Approximately 50 of his other faculty portraits presently hang in other University buildings. Aside from portraits, Makielski also worked at perfecting his landscape painting skills which he devoted time to while at his second studio, located in Detroit. For the remainder of his life, Makielski divided his time between Ann Arbor and Detroit. While in Detroit, he taught drawing and painting at the Meinsinger Art School, as well as portraiture at the Scarab Club. With regards to his Detroit portraiture, he painted many of the city’s elite business leaders, including the Kresge family and Ralph Modieski, designer of the Ambassador Bridge that links Detroit and Windsor, Ontario.

Throughout his life Makieski received many of the annual awards given at art exhibitions in the states of Illinois, Indiana and Michigan. His works also earned many honors from the Art Institute of Chicago, the Detroit Art Institute and the St. Louis Museum of Art. Upon his death in 1974, at the age of 89, approximately 460 works of art were found in his studios. The paintings became the property of his heirs and were placed in storage for several years until making their way to Elder Gallery were they are currently displayed for sale. Elder Gallery is the exclusive representative for Leon A. Makielski’s works.

A brief biography and a few selected works of Makielski are presented in William Gerdts’ book Monet’s Giverny: An Impressionist Colony (New York: Abbeville, 1993), p. 218, 260.