GAJEWSKI, Pawel (1889-1950) - Family Portrait; 1942. oil on panel 75x74 cm, signed l. g.: P. Gajewski 1942.
Attended the Industrial School in Cracow and the State Institute of Fine Arts in Lvov, from 1908 to 1913 he studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Cracow in the studio of Wojciech Weiss, several times awarded and honored, after graduating from the academy he received the J. Simmler Society for the Encouragement of Fine Arts and the additional J. Simmler Scholarships in Warsaw. Julia Simmler, thanks to which he went to Paris for a year's study, and took part in many exhibitions in Warsaw, Lvov, Poznan and Krakow; see Słownik artystów polskich vol. 2, p. 29. "During World War II, Gajewski and his family hid in the surrounding country estates [in the Hrubieszow and Zamosc area] earning a living by painting pictures, and these were mostly portraits. However, he did not escape arrest." - See Dorota Grzymała - Paintings by Paweł Gajewski in the collection of the Rev. Stanisław Staszic Museum in Hrubieszów, Hrubieszów 2016, p. 46. He was imprisoned by the Germans in Zamość, then in the castle in Lublin and in the concentration camps in Oranienburg and Dachau. After World War II, he was a professor at the State Higher School of Fine Arts in Gdansk. "Most of his artistic output was lost". - Słownik artystów polskich vol. 2, p. 269. painting in an impressive 97x95 cm frame also made by Pawel Gajewski? "He often made the frames for his paintings himself". - D. Grzymała, p. 52.
