Edward Okuń (1872-1945), Song 2, illustration to "Master Twardowski" by L. Staff, Lviv, 1902

color tintype, paper, 15x20.5 cm, signedmonogram p.d.: EO, published in Lviv, by the Polish Bookstore.

The work is framed.

Polish painter and illustrator creating in the Art Nouveau style.He was born into a noble family of the Belina coat of arms. As a child orphaned by his father and mother, he grew up with his grandparents on his mother's side. Having inherited a large estate, he began early to take drawing lessons from eminent painters. In 1890-1891 he studied in Warsaw at Wojciech Gerson's Drawing Class, and in 1891-1893 under Izydor Jablonski and Jan Matejko at the School of Fine Arts in Krakow. He continued his studies in Munich and Paris. In 1897 he went to study at Hollósy's school, and also stayed in Hungary, where Hollósy established an art colony. From 1898 he lived in Rome for 20 years, and also traveled to Sorrento, Amalfi, Capri, visited Venice, Padua, Ravenna, Florence and Siena. He participated in the life of the Polish art colony in Rome and was a co-founder of the "Polonia" freemason lodge.

He returned to Poland in 1921 and settled in Warsaw. Since 1925 he was a professor at the W. Gerson School of Fine Arts in Warsaw, and in 1933-1934 - its director. He was a member of the Society of Polish Artists "Art". Together with friends, he founded the Masonic lodge "Copernicus". He was vice-president of the Society for the Encouragement of Fine Arts. During the annual opening of the Zachęta Salon, he witnessed the assassination attempt of painter Eligiusz Niewiadomski on President Gabriel Narutowicz and, together with one of the president's aides, captured Niewiadomski. During World War II, he stayed in Warsaw. After the Warsaw Uprising, he moved to Skierniewice, where he was killed in January 1945 by an accidental bullet on the street of the