Józef Czapski was a writer and painter. He was born in 1896 in Prague and died in 1993 in Maisons Laffitte near Paris. He studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw, and later at the Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow. He fought in the Polish-Bolshevik war and was awarded the Order of Virtuti Militari. During World War II, imprisoned in POW camps in the USSR – interned in Starobelsk, Pawliszczew Bór and Griazowiec. After his release in 1941, he joined the army of General Władysław Anders, with whom he reached Italy. From 1945 he lived in Paris. He was one of the co-founders of the Literary Institute.
He painted still lifes, landscapes and portraits. He published, inter alia:
- “Wspomnienia starobielskie” (“Old Bielsko memories”),
- “Na nieludzkiej ziemi” (“On inhuman soil”),
- “Patrząc” (“Looking”),
- “Czytając” (“Reading”).
In 1993, the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków awarded him the title of honorary professor of the Academy of Fine Arts. After the artist’s death, his niece, Elżbieta Colin-Łubieńska, handed over the legacy of Józef Czapski to the National Museum in Krakow – sketches, notes, easels, palettes, etc.