Image size of this print is 22 1/2 X 28.

UNDINE'S POOL, VERSAILLES by Leon A. Makielski (American 1885-1974) The Red Piano Art Gallery, Hilton Head Island, S.C.

Leon Makielskis parents came from Poland in 1881 and first settled in Morris Run, a small mining town in eastern Pennsylvania. Leon was born there on May 17, 1885. When he was five years old, his parents moved to South Bend, Indiana, where he received his early education. In 1903 Makielski left South Bend to study at the Art Institute of Chicago. At the turn of the century Chicago was a major artistic center and the five Hoosier Impressionists � Theodore C. Steele, Otto Stark, William J. Forsyth, Richard B. Gruelle, and John Otis Adams� were the most prominent artistic force in the Midwest. Makielski would have seen their work in the annual exhibitions of the Society of Western Artists.

While a student in Chicago, Makielski spent the summer months at the Eagles Nest Art Colony in Oregon, Illinois. Eagles Nest Camp, situated west of Chicago, 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.

In 1908, Makielski became an assistant instructor at the Art Institute of Chicago and was awarded the schools top prize, the John Quincy Adams Traveling Scholarship. On April 19, 1909 he sailed for Paris, which he made his headquarters for the next four years. He 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 citys parks, on the Seine, and in the countryside around Paris, especially Giverny and Versailles. He also visited the museums of Italy, England, Germany, Poland, Belgium, Holland, and Austria. He painted towns, cities, and landscapes along the way.

The artist was mentored by Mr. J.M. Studebaker, president of Studebaker Brothers Manufacturing Company. Mr. Studebaker provided Makielski with his financial and moral support during his studies and travels in Europe. In one of his letters of support to the artist who was painting in Paris, Studebaker inquired about two of his paintings which were shipped to the United States via the steamer, Titanic. As he suspected, the paintings went down with the ship while the artist cancelled his passage on the Titanic to stay on in Europe to paint for another month.

Makielski returned to South Bend in 1913. In 1915 he moved to Ann Arbor, Michigan to take a position as instructor of fine arts at the University of Michigan. His move to Ann Arbor launched his career as a portrait and landscape painter. During the rest of his life, Makielski divided his time between his Ann Arbor studio and another he maintained in Detroit. In Detroit, he taught drawing and painting at the Meinsinger Art School and portraiture to fellow members of the Scarab Club. He painted portraits of Detroits elite business leaders including the Kresge family, Ralph Modjeski, designer of the Ambassador Bridge that links Detroit & Windsor, Ontario. During his teaching days in 1923 he painted a portrait of his friend, Robert Frost. This portrait of Frost now hangs in the Museum of Art at the University of Michigan. Some 50 of his oil portraits of faculty members hang in other University buildings.