[1] It was there he met Franciszek Kostrzewski, who gave him his first drawing lessons and helped convince his father to let him pursue a career in art.

With some assistance from Zieliński, he enrolled at the School of Fine Arts in Warsaw, which he attended from 1853 to 1857, studying with Chrystian Breslauer and Juliusz Kossak.

He also worked for a steamship company, providing decorations for their passenger ships and participated in the first National Exhibition of Fine Arts, in Warsaw.

[1] They remained in Paris during the Franco-Prussian War and the Commune but, without any patrons, he soon began to suffer financially and his health worsened due to hunger and various other hardships.

Although he had another son and won a medal at an exhibition in London, he never recovered, physically or financially, which led to his premature death, at the age of forty-three.