Lot 9: Stanislaus von Chlebowski (Polish, 1835-1884)

Chess Players, Cairo
signed 'St. Chlebowski' (lower left)
oil on canvas
23 1/2 x 18 3/4 in. (59.7 x 47.6 cm.)

Chlebowski was born in Podolia, the Ukraine, and began his artistic career training at the St. Petersburg Academy. His talent soon brought him recognition and he was awarded a six year Imperial Scholarship for foreign study by Tsar Alexander II. He first travelled to Munich before moving to Paris where he entered the Ecole des Beaux-Arts as a student of Jean-Léon Gérôme.

By the early 1860's, Chlebowski had become a successful artist, whose painting Joan of Arc in Amiens had been purchased by Napoleon III for the French State, a great honour for any artist of the time. His work came to the attention of the Sultan Abdul Aziz in 1864, who promptly appointed him Court Painter to the Ottoman Empire. Chlebowski held the position for twelve years during which time he had a study in the Dolmabahçe Imperial Palace on the Bosphorus. Other notable artists serving in the Sultan's court at the time were Ivan Constantinovitch Aivazovsky and Pierre Désiré Guillemet.

There was a strong bond between Poland and Turkey after the failed Polish rising against the Russians in 1831 led to Constantinople becoming a centre for Polish exiles. Poland's national poet, Adam Mickiewicz, wrote: 'We Poles cherish the Turks for not having yielded in front of our enemy'. Chlebowski flourished during the period of this renewed Ottoman-Polish friendship and his pictures, such as The Entry of Faith into Constantinople and his frescos of the Sultan's battleships still decorate the palaces today. After a short stay in Paris (1876-1880), Chlebowski moved to Krakow and remained there until his death in 1884. The Museum in Krakow houses some of his other important Orientalist works such as Entrée de Mahomet II à Stamboul.