Elder Gallery
presents

Leon A. Makielski (1885 – 1974),
The Artist’s Collection

October 6 – November 18, 2006

Elder Gallery has obtained a number of paintings from the collection of Leon A. Makielski and will exhibit them in the gallery during the months of October and November.

The paintings were held in the artist’s personal collection until his death in 1974 and later were transferred to family members. The Artist’s Collection will include a number of paintings completed between 1909 and 1913 when Makielski was studying in Paris at Academie Julian and the Grande Chaumiere. In addition, American portraits and landscapes from 1915 through 1950 will be included.

Makielski was a member of a number of art colonies, both in the United States and in Europe. His earliest works were done at Eagle’s Nest Camp in Oregon, Illinois. He also painted in Paris, Giverny and Venice and later established his permanent home in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Leon Makielski’s parents came from Poland in 1881 and first settled in Morris Run, a small mining town in eastern Pennsylvania. Leon was born there on May 17, 1885. When he was five years old, his parents moved to South Bend, Indiana, where he received his early education. In 1903 Makielski left South Bend to study at the Art Institute of Chicago. At the turn of the century Chicago was a major artistic center and the five Hoosier Impressionists – Theodore C. Steele, Otto Stark, William J. Forsyth, Richard B. Gruelle, and John Otis Adams – were the most prominent artistic force in the Midwest. Makielski would have seen their work in the annual exhibitions of the Society of Western Artists.

While a student in Chicago, Makielski spent the summer months at the Eagle’s Nest Art Colony in Oregon, Illinois. Eagle’s Nest Camp, situated west of Chicago, was the most important summer art center in Illinois and attracted such notables as the Chicago sculptor Larado Taft, the painters Ralph Elmer Clarkson and Charles Francis Browne, and the influential writers Hamlin Garland and Henry B. Fuller.

In 1908, Makielski became an assistant instructor at the Art Institute of Chicago and was awarded the school’s top prize, the John Quincy Adams Traveling Scholarship. On April 19, 1909 he sailed for Paris, which he made his headquarters for the next four years. He enrolled at the Academie Julian and the Grande Chaumiere, studied with Henri Martin and Richard E. Miller, and exhibited his work at the Paris Salons of 1911 and 1912. He spent his spare time painting in the city’s parks, on the Seine, and in the countryside around Paris, especially Giverny and Versailles. He also visited the museums of Italy, England, Germany, Poland, Belgium, Holland, and Austria. He painted towns, cities, and landscapes along the way.

Makielski returned to South Bend in 1913. In 1915 he moved to Ann Arbor, Michigan to take a position as instructor of fine arts at the University of Michigan. His move to Ann Arbor launched his career as a portrait and landscape painter. During the rest of his life, Makielski divided his time between his Ann Arbor studio and another he maintained in Detroit. In Detroit, he taught drawing and painting at the Meinsinger Art School and portraiture to fellow members of the Scarab Club.

Makielski died at his studio in Ann Arbor in 1974 at the age of 89. His studio was closed and his personal collection was placed in storage. The family still owns these paintings and Elder Gallery is the exclusive representative for the works by Leon Makielski.

Makielski was included in William Gerdts’ book, Monet’s Giverny: An Impressionist Colony (New York: Abbeville, 1993), p. 218, 260.

Following are a few of the paintings and drawing included in the exhibition: