Władysław Ślewiński

His cousin, the painter Józef Chełmoński, noticed his artistic talent and advised his father to enroll him at the drawing school operated by Wojciech Gerson.

Two years later, hounded by Russian tax collectors, he fled to Paris,[citation needed] where he first decided to take up painting as a career.

[3] In 1889 he made friends with Paul Gauguin and became associated with the School of Pont-Aven; spending most of his time at Le Pouldu in Brittany.

Ślewiński's philosophy of art seems to stem from an excerpted statement of his about Gauguin: "He is so much an artist that he has to be wholly accepted or else rejected.

Perhaps more important for Ślewiński than the selective application of synthetism was his search – inspired by Gauguin – for simplicity and sincerity in places untouched by modern civilization as well as in objects of daily use.