Born in Libawa (now Liepāja in Latvia) to Witold Grabowski (a customs official and long-time deputy on Liepāja City Council) and Karolina Missan (born in Kaluny, great-grandson of Konstancja Gładkowska, the first love and muse of Fryderyk Chopin), Grabowski attended the School of Commerce, where his first drawing teacher was Kajetan Szklerys, under whose supervision he copied Józef Pankiewicz's paintings and painted landscapes.
After the outbreak of the October Revolution he stayed in Saint Petersburg, encountering European painting for the first time on his visits to the Hermitage Museum.
[citation needed] In 1919 he left to study at the Warsaw School of Fine Arts under Karol Tichy, Władysław Skoczylas and Wojciech Jastrzębowski.
In 1926 the couple left for Paris where they continued their studies at the Academie Moderne under the supervision of Fernand Léger and Amédée Ozenfant.
After the end of the war, he returned to Paris and settled at the famous 'La Ruche' at 2 du passage de Dantzig in the city's 15th arrondissement.