Leon Alexander Makielski (May 17, 1885 – November 1974) was an American artist and art instructor, best known for his French Impressionist inspired landscapes and distinct portraits of his contemporaries.
[1] Born to Polish immigrants in 1885 in Morris Run, Pennsylvania, Makielski spent the greater part of his youth in South Bend, Indiana, but eventually relocated to Illinois to pursue his education in art.
From 1903 until 1909 he studied at the Art Institute of Chicago; it was there that he was the recipient of the "John Quincy Adams Traveling Fellowship" four times consecutively, and, at the age of 23, became an instructor.
[4][5] In the village of Giverny he was able to establish himself as an artist, but it was through his travels throughout Europe that he found inspiration in the romantic countryside as depicted by the French Impressionists, and became prolific in creating eye-catching landscapes which he captured in plain air.
He was also a Works Progress Administration painter, and in 1934 Leon and his brother, architect Bronislau Makielski, were commissioned to paint a mural in the Lincoln Consolidated School District.
[11]Some of his best known portraits were of other noteworthy subjects such as architect Eliel Saarinen, bridge builder Ralph Modjeski, Jessie Bonstelle, S. S. Kresge, Harlan Hatcher (former U of M president), and Laura F. Osborn (board member for Detroit Public Schools).