Feature Articles

October Issue 2002

ElderArt Gallery in Charlotte, NC, Presents Exhibition by American Impressionist, Leon A. Makielski

Leon A. Makielski (1885 - 1974) was a noted American portrait and landscape painter who painted international diplomats and American business leaders during the first half of the 1900s. He painted portraits of mid-western business leaders including the Kresge family an the Studebaker family. In addition, Malielski painted government leaders such as Benito Mussolini, The Prince of Wales, United States Secretary of State, Polish Ambassador to the United States and other well-known educators, entertainers and business leaders. During his teaching days at the University of Michigan he painted a portrait of his friend, Robert Frost. This portrait of Frost that normally hangs in the Museum of Art at the University of Michigan is on display, among other works, at ElderArt Gallery in Charlotte, NC, through Oct. 26, 2002.

Makielski studied and taught at the Art Institute of Chicago and was awarded the school's top prize, the John Quincy Adams Traveling Scholarship. In 1909, he sailed for Paris, which he made his headquarters for the next four years. Makielski enrolled at the Academie Julian and the Grande Chaumiere, studied with Henri Martin and Richard E. Miller, and exhibited his work at the Paris Salons of 1910 and 1911. He spent his spare time painting in the city's parks, on the Seine, and in the countryside around Paris, especially Giverny and Versailles. Makielski also visited the museums of Italy, England, Germany, Poland, Belgium, Holland, and Austria. He painted towns, cities, and landscapes along the way.

Makielski's passion for painting landscapes is evident in ElderArt's exhibition that features approximately 100 of his oil paintings, watercolors, drawings and etchings. The influence of the French Impressionists is obvious in his paintings which were completed during his four-years in Paris and Giverny. His later landscapes show a great deal of experimentation in style, color and texture.

A prominent painting in the exhibition is The Red Tree which was painted for Robert Frost in 1923. The use of simple brush strokes on a sparse canvas reflects his sensitive views of the fall countryside in Michigan. The painting is on loan to ElderArt Gallery from Elinor Wilbur, granddaughter of Robert Frost.

While a student in Chicago, Makielski spent the summer months at the Eagle's Nest Art Colony which is situated west of Chicago. Eagle's Nest was the most important summer art center in Illinois and attracted such notables as the Chicago sculptor Larado Taft, the painters Ralph Elmer Clarkson and Charles Francis Browne, and the influential writers Hamlin Garland and Henry B. Fuller. Makielski's painting, Eagle's Next Colony, is unlike most of the paintings in the show in that it was painted using a pallet knife and subtle colors found in the mid-western landscape.

The paintings being shown at ElderArt Gallery are part of the artist's personal collection that is being made available to the public by his surviving family members.

Makielski was included in William Gerdts' book, Monet's Giverny: An Impressionist Colony (New York: Abbeville, 1993), p. 218, 260.

The exhibit runs in conjunction with Charlotte Shout, a thirty-day celebration of the culinary, visual and performing arts, which is sponsored by Charlotte's Center City Partnership.

For further information check our NC Commercial Gallery listings, call the gallery at 704/370-6337 or at (www.elderart.com).

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