Wilhelm Kotarbiński

Wilhelm Kotarbiński (30 November 1848 – 4 September 1921) was a Polish artist and painter[1][2] of historical and fantastical subjects, who spent most of his life in Kyiv and the Russian Empire.

[3] Afterward, he enrolled at the University of Warsaw, urged on by his parents who were opposed to an artistic career, but stayed for only a short time before borrowing money from his uncle and moving to Italy.

The following year, he was able to arrange a stipend from the Imperial Society for the Encouragement of the Arts and enrolled at the Accademia di San Luca, where he studied with Francesco Podesti until 1875,[3] living in poverty and barely surviving a case of typhoid.

[3] Although he was Catholic, he did decorative work at the Orthodox St Volodymyr's Cathedral from 1889 to 1894, with several other well-known Russian and Ukrainian artists, notably Viktor Vasnetsov.

[3] During World War I, he turned some of his paintings into postcards, which were sold for the benefit of soldiers' families, and created posters promoting donations to help victims of the Polish occupation.