Autumnal Scene

Description

President's House object Summary
Leon Makielski's parents emigrated from Poland in the 1880's. First settling in Pennsylvania, they moved to South Bend Indiana when Leon was five years old. After receiving his early education in the South Bend, he left for Chicago and the Art Institute. There, Makielski's talent was recognized, and he was awarded the school's top prize, enabling him to proceed to Paris. While studying in Paris, he exhibited in the Paris Salons and came under the influence of the french Impressionists.
In 1915, Makielshi moved to Ann Arbor, where he became an instructor of fine arts at the University of Michigan. He also taught drawing and painting at the Meinsinger Art School in Detroit. His career was established after he painted portraits of Detroit's business leaders, including the Kresge family, the Studebakers, and Modjeski, designer of the Ambassador Bridge. He painted fifty of his portraits of faculty members at the University of Michigan, including one of Robert Frost, and some of these are still displayed in buildings around the campus.
This work is an example of Makielski's skill as a landscape artist. The painting is a sensitive depiction of the fall countryside, probably somewhere in Michigan, done with simple brushstrokes.
Makielski lived form many years at the house and studio he built at 5 Geddes Avenue in Ann Arbor. He died there in 1974.
(Katie Aldrich)