One Morning

Leon Makielski, American, 1885-1974. A 1918 oil on wood panel Ann Arbor, Michigan, summer landscape with a view of the Huron River near Geddes road prior to the building of the Geddes Dam in 1919, titled “One Morning”. Signed “Leon A. Makielski” lower right, titled and dated “1918” with artist inventory number "1098" verso. Image 15 1/2 x 12 1/2" high, framed 21 x 18" high overall.

Born to Polish parents in Morris Run, Pennsylvania, Leon Makielski grew up in South Bend, Indiana. He studied at the Art Institute of Chicago from 1903 until 1909 under Ralph Clarkson and Rene Menard. He was awarded the Institute’s “John Quincy Adams Traveling Fellowship” four times.

Makielski spent the summer and autumn months of 1907 and 1908 in the Eagle’s Nest Art Colony in Oregon, Illinois. Eagle's Nest was the most important summer art center in the Midwest and attracted such notables as the painters Ralph Elmer Clarkson and Charles Francis Browne, as well as the influential writers Hamlin Garland and Henry B. Fuller. In 1908 he exhibited seventy-eight paintings in the Art Room of the Oregon Public library.

In 1909, under the patronage of John M. Studebaker, he went to Paris to study at the Académie Julian and de la Grande Chaumière. While in France, he painted in Monet's Giverny Colony and exhibited in Le Salon in 1911 and 1912. Before returning to the United States, he traveled to Germany, Italy, England, Poland, and Belgium. He originally booked his return passage on the Titanic but was unable to make the voyage - Unfortunately, two of his paintings were lost in the sinking.

In 1915, Makielski moved to Ann Arbor, Michigan, to take a position as Instructor of Fine Arts at the University of Michigan’s newly established College of Architecture. He is credited with helping to launch the University of Michigan School of Art. Within two years of his arrival, he moved an old barn that overlooked the Huron River to a two-acre lot off Geddes road and converted the barn into his home and studio. He taught, painted furiously, and installed high windows in the two-story hayloft to give his studio a soft northern light.

He retired from the University of Michigan in 1927, after which he devoted himself full time to his art and began painting portraits of notable figures in American business and politics. He painted portraits of the Kresge family, Ambassador Bridge designer Ralph Modjeski, Michigan governor Frank Murphy, architect and designer Eliel Saarinen, and many more. In 1923 he painted a portrait of his friend, Robert Frost. This portrait now hangs in the University of Michigan Museum of Art, and Frost acquired a large collection of Makielski’s landscapes. Today, over fifty of Makielski’s portraits of faculty members hang in other University buildings.

In Detroit, Makielski maintained studios at 3408 Woodward Avenue and 2932 Gratiot Avenue. He taught drawing and painting at the Meinzinger Art School and the Scarab Club, where he was a frequent exhibitor.

He viewed Michigan as an ideal location to test new methods and refine his craft. While he employed new techniques, he seemed to always return to his own colorful expression of nature’s beauty. His rigorous academic training, combined with the Impressionist influences he absorbed in Europe and his deep attachment to the distinctly American Midwest environment, indelibly shaped his approach to landscape painting. His works feature disciplined compositions, rich seasonal colors, and poetic interpretations, reflecting his belief that art should capture nature’s message rather than merely depict its individual elements.

He chose to remain in Ann Arbor until his death in 1974.

Solo Exhibitions (Partial List):

1908 The Eagle’s Nest, Oregon Public Library, Oregon, IL

1914 South Bend Art Center, South Bend, IN

1915 Alumni Memorial Hall, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI

1920 Ann Arbor Art Association, Ann Arbor, MI

1926 John Hanna Galleries, Detroit, MI

1927 Bonstelle Playhouse, Detroit, MI

1930 Park Central Hotel, New York, NY

1931 J.L. Hudson Gallery, Detroit, MI

1938, 1948 Scarab Club, Detroit, MI

1957, 1964 Hamtramck Public Library, Detroit, MI

1963 Anna L. Werbe Galleries, Detroit, MI

1978 Slusser Gallery, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI

Group Exhibitions (Partial List):

1908 Oil Paintings, Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL

1911, 1912 Le Salon, Paris, France

1912 American Painting and Sculpture, Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL

1917-35, 1937-38, 1942, 1946, 1950, 1955 Exhibition for Michigan Artists, Detroit Institute of Arts,

Detroit, MI. (2nd Prize 1917, 1st Prize 1919, 3rd Prize 1921, Hecker Prize 1924-25, Popular Prize

1950)

1919-23, 1925-29 American Artists Annual, Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, MI

1922, 1924-25 Michigan State Fair Exhibition. (2nd Prize 1922, 1st Prize 1924)

1929-1934, 1938, 1942-46, 1952, 1955 Scarab Club, Detroit, MI

1933 Chicago World’s Fair, Chicago, IL

1936 Exhibition of American Art, Rockefeller Center, New York, NY

1945 Polish Paintings, Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, MI

1955 Michigan Art Through 50 Years, University of Michigan Museum of Art, Ann Arbor, MI

1955 Portraits by Michigan Artists, Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, MI