Czeslaw Znamierowski

Czeslaw Znamierowski
portrait of Czesław Znamierowski
Born	23 May 1890 Zatišje, Ludza, Latvia, Russian Empire
Died	9 August 1977 Vilnius, Lithuania, Soviet Union
Nationality	Polish
Education	Imperial Academy of Arts, Vilnius University Faculty of Art
Known for	Painting
Notable work	Panorama of Vilnius City, The Green Lake
Movement	Realism, Socialist realism
Awards	Honorable Artist of LSSR
Patron(s)	Ferdynand Ruszczyc, Arkady Rylov, Nicholas Roerich

Czeslaw Znamierowski (23 May 1890 – 9 August 1977) was a renowned Soviet Lithuanian painter, known for his large artworks and love of nature. Znamierowski combined these two passion to create some of the most notable paintings in the Soviet Union, earning a prestigious title of "Honorable Artist of LSSR" in 1965.

Znamierovsky was born in Zatišje, Ludza, in eastern Latvia, to a father who worked as a land-surveyor and a mother who was a music teacher. He attended the St. Petersburg Academy of Art twice between 1912 and 1917, and then attended Vilnius University from 1926 to 1929. He studied under Ferdynand Ruszczyc,Arkady Rylov, and Nicholas Roerich. Znamierovsky lived in Vilnius the remainder of his life, and often painted images of the cities landscapes. By 1965, he painted around 1400 landscapes and made 800 sketches and over 3000 artworks in his entire 50-year career as an artist.

Czeslaw Znamierowski was born on May 23, 1890 in Latvia in a small village of Zatishye (Lithuanian: Zatišje // Polish: Zacisze). The village itself was part of the rural district of Pilden, Ludza region, which bordered Latvia and Belarus. He was born into a poor but very artistic working-class Polish family. His father was a land-surveyor, and his mother was music and singing teacher, who occasionally painted as well. His grandfather, on the mother’s side, was a sculptor, and his aunt (A. Bobrowicz) was a painter. As a child, growing up in rural Latvia, Czeslaw was surrounded by nature. The farmhouse where he lived was always abundant in flowers. His mother adored art and it was under her influence that Czeslaw first discovered painting. From that point on he never stopped. When he entered high school, in Daugavpils (Polish: Dzwinsk), his aunt was guiding him further in his art education. Being in high school, he met a student (A. Pliszko) from St. Petersburg Arts Academy. Pliszko perceived a talent in Czeslaw’s artworks and invited him to St. Petersburg. After finishing high school Czeslaw collected all the money he could from selling his belongings and savings from various jobs to move to St. Petersburg. In 1911 Czeslaw Znamierowski arrived in St. Petersburg to continue his art education. In Znamierowski’s words: "I did not hesitate much, I sold my bicycle, with the cash collected I bought a railway ticket and in 1911 I found myself in a building at Moika…"