Leopold Pilichowski was born to a poor Jewish farming family in Piła in the Congress Kingdom of Poland, Russian Empire (now Poland) in 1869. He was taught to draw by Samual Hirszenberg in Poland and Benjamin Constant in Paris, and exhibited internationally. After moving permanently to London in 1914, Pilichowski is most known for his paintings of Jewish life and as the President of the Ben Uri Art Society from 1926–32.
Painter and lecturer Leopold (né Lewek) Pilichowski was born to a poor Jewish farming family in Piła in the Congress Kingdom of Poland, Russian Empire (now Poland) on 23 March 1869. He was taught to draw by the respected Jewish painter Samuel Hirszenberg (to whom he was distantly related), and studied further in Munich, holding his first exhibition in Łódź in 1894. Around 1895 he began to address Jewish themes in his work, particularly the poverty of Jews in the cities. This commitment to social commentary led him to depict Jewish immigrants, wanderers and pedlars. In 1904 he moved to Paris to study with Benjamin Constant, accompanied by his wife, who became known as the artist Mme Lena Pillico; their four children were born in Paris. An active Zionist from this period onwards, Pilichowski painted a celebrated portrait of the Zionist leader Theodor Herzl in 1908 (two versions exist, one in the Central Zionist Archives, Jerusalem, another in the Ben Uri Collection). In 1914, at the age of 45, he moved to London with his family, aided by the Hebrew writer David Frischmann.
Pilichowski travelled frequently between Paris and Łódź in 1914, and on his return to London concentrated on painting the impoverished Jews of London's Whitechapel ghetto. He also started lecturing, presenting, ‘The Art of the Russian and Polish Jews’, at the West Central Jewish Girls’ Club, Alfred Place, Tottenham Court Road in 1916. In this lecture he asserted 'that it would not be difficult for him to dispose of the erroneous assertion frequently made that the Jews were not an artistic people and possessed no art of their own’ (Jewish Chronicle, 1916). He illustrated his talk with examples of Jewish art and praised institutions which researched and fostered it, including the Ben Uri Art Society which had been founded the previous year. Pilichowski lectured at Ben Uri the same year, and also in 1921, becoming Hon. President in 1926, a position he held until 1933. In 1927, reflecting on a visit made two years previously, he lectured at Ben Uri on 'Palestine As Seen by An Artist', describing the close connection of the Jewish soul and spirit to the holy city of Jerusalem. He also served as president of the Association of Polish Jews in London.
Pilichowski exhibited regularly in London. In 1924 the Exhibition of Portraits, Landscapes, Jewish Life Studies, &c. by Leopold Pilichowski was held at the Goupil Gallery, his first public, solo show since taking up residence in England. His work was described as striking ‘a familiar note’, with paintings showcasing his ‘wonderful skill’. The Daughters of Israel (1922) was singled out as ‘his best and tenderest’ painting, for which his wife and daughters modelled (M., 1924). An interview published in the Jewish Chronicle, praised his commitment to Jewish movements and the opening up of his home as ‘a favourite meeting place for Jewish leaders of thought’, but emphasised that he was 'an artist above everything else’, with his 'Jewish studies [...] but a phase in his artistic productions. He is a painter of many moods and universal interests’ (‘A Famous Jewish Artist’, 1924). In 1925 his work was including in Ben Uri's inaugural collection exhibition at its new premises in Museum Street, and documented in the accompanying catalogue. Together with his wife Lena Pillico, Pilichowski exhibited at the exhibition of Jewish Art at the Whitechapel Art Gallery in 1923, and lectured on 'Jewish Art', also showing at the subsequent Exhibition of Jewish Art and Antiquities, also at the Whitechapel, in 1927. The same year, one of Pilichowski’s most well-known paintings, The Opening of the Hebrew University in Palestine, was viewed by King George V and Queen Mary, while on display in the throne room of Buckingham Palace for several days in July. In 1928 husband and wife were among the 16 artists who exhibited work at the Brooklyn Museum exhibition of 'Paintings, Sculpture and Drawings by American and European Artists' with Pilichowski showing 17 paintings (including a portrait of British Conservative politician Lord Balfour, architect of the 'Balfour declaration') to 29 by Pillico; the couple travelled to New York the same year. In 'The Catalogue and Survey of Activities', published by the Jewish Art and Literary Society Ben-Uri in 1930, it was recorded that 'Mr. Pilichowski is one of the most popular Jewish painters of the older generation, and is at the present time, the President of the Ben Uri. Mr. Pilichowski, as already alluded to, has been of great assistance to the Society by reason of his expert advice and lectures on Jewish art which always attract large and eager audiences'. The minutes for 1931 refer to his donation of 30 pictures, at a nominal charge, including those by Josef Israels, Leopold Gottlib, Hermann Struck and Leon Hirszenberg.
Leopold Pilichowski died in London, England on 28 July 1933 at the age of 64. His obituary in the Jewish Chronicle states that his ‘most successful works have been those in which he has depicted scenes of Jewish life, of the ceremonial of Synagogue and home and of the suffering and, too, the exaltation inseparable from the Jewish character and circumstances. He was not, however, exclusively a painter of Jewish subjects: for his landscapes, in many moods, and portraiture were on the same high level of technical and artistic achievement’ (‘Obituary’, 1933). In the UK public domain, three of his paintings are held in the Ben Uri Collection. Ben Uri Gallery and Museum has shown his work posthumously in a range of exhibitions, most recently in Art Out of the Bloodlands: A Century of Polish Artists in Britain (2017), with its associated publication (2020).
Leopold Pilichowski in the Ben Uri collection
Consult items in the Ben Uri archive related to [Leopold Pilichowski]
Publications related to [Leopold Pilichowski] in the Ben Uri Library