Ksawery PILLATI (1843–1902), Alms, 1880

woodcut, paper, 16 x 12 cm (inside the passe-partout); signed on the block, lower left: Xawery Pillati

Ksawery Franciszek Pillati (born 1843 in Warsaw, died January 31, 1902, in Zakopane) – Polish painter, draftsman, and book illustrator. He married (in 1869) Maria Bagniewska, with whom he had two sons: Stefan (a sculptor) and Gustaw (a painter, draftsman, and educator). He studied at the School of Fine Arts in Warsaw, then continued his studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich under Herman Anschütz and Alexander Wagner (in late October 1868, he enrolled in the Antikenklasse: enrolled on November 18, 1868)[3]. He was a member of the local artists’ association (“Münchner Kunstverein”). Upon his return to Warsaw, as a contributor to local periodicals, he was, alongside Michał Elwiro Andriolli, one of the most prolific and highly regarded illustrators. He was a painter of genre scenes, portraits, and religious paintings. However, he is best known as an illustrator of books and magazines. He worked, among others, for *Tygodnik Ilustrowany* and the weekly *Kłosy*. Among his major works, he illustrated the *Encyklopedia powszechna*, published between 1898 and 1903 by Samuel Orgelbrand, and *Portraits of Polish Princes and Kings* (1888), with text by Józef Ignacy Kraszewski.