He was born on 11 October 1849 in Suwałki to father Teofil Kowalski of the Wieruszowa coat of arms and mother Teofilia (née Siewierska).

[1] He studied for a year at the Munich Academy of Fine Arts,[2] and worked under Józef Brandt and Alexander von Wagner.

His works were sold mostly on the German market and many of them ended in private collections in Germany and the United States.

Kowalski's Lone Wolf was the most famous and one of his most reproduced paintings, which gained great popularity especially in the United States.

[2][4] He died on 16 February 1915 and was initially buried at the Munich Waldfriedhof Cemetery.