Zdzislaw Ruszkowski
Chronology

1907
5 February: born in Tomaszow, Poland, to Karolina nee Gorska and Waclaw Ruszkowski, a professional artist and art teacher. The eldest of three children.

1909
Family moves to Kalisz, where he is to spend his childhood. A sister, Jadwiga, is born.
During the summer months, the family stay at their home in Branszczyk on the River Bug near Warsaw. From an early age, he shows great interest in drawing, especially battle scenes and horses.

1914
Outbreak of the First World War. The Germans occupy Kalisz, while Ruszkowski's family is in Branszczyk, unable to return home.

1915
Germans advance towards Warsaw and the family is forced to move farther east to Russia, where his father finds work as an art teacher in Smolensk. A brother, Witold, is born.

1916
Ruszkowski's sister dies of scarlet fever. He begins to experiment with watercolours.

1917
Outbreak of the Russian Revolution. Food and water are difficult to obtain and life becomes impossibly hard.

1918
Germans evacuate Kalisz, and the family returns home in a cattle truck; the journey takes three months. In Kalisz his father resumes his old job as professor of art at the Lycee.

1920-24
Ruszkowski begins to paint landscapes from nature in oils, and frequently accompanies his father on painting excursions.

1924
Passes the Baccalaureat. Persuaded by parents to begin law studies at university in Cracow. After one term, abandons legal studies, submits his paintings to the Cracow Art Academy and is accepted as a student.

1925
His first year at the Academy is spent in life-drawing, mainly in charcoal. After this he enrolls in the class of Professor Mehoffer for a year, then enrolls in the class of Professor Weiss, who paints in an Impressionistic style, and where he remains until he graduates from the Academy in 1929.

1927
The Academy rents an old villa in the mountains at Poronin, where groups of students are sent to paint. There is very little supervision, and from the freedom to choose subjects and the influence the students have on each other, the group of Pryzmat is evolved.

1929-30
In the period 1929-30 a year is taken up by military service in the artillery school for reserve officers.

1930
After military service, he moves to Warsaw.

1931
In Warsaw he tries to forget certain rules and principles that were taught at the Academy. Under the influence of Van Gogh's work he begins to develop a new approach to nature, with greater freedom of interpretation and bolder colour and design.

1932
Commissioned to paint murals in the small village church at Iwanowice.

1933
First exhibition of the Pryzmat group at the Institute for the Promotion of Art (I.P.s.).
Exhibits at the Annual Salon, Warsaw.

1934
His father dies unexpectedly of peritonitis at the age of 63, and Ruszkowski returns to Branszczyk to spend the winter with his mother.

1935
In October, he leaves Poland to work in Paris. Devotes the first few months to daily excursions to the Louvre and other art galleries. A small legacy from his father is sufficient to finance a year's stay in Paris.

1936
Start to paint in Paris. In spring, visits a large exhibition of Cezanne's paintings at the Orangerie and decides to go to Aix-enProvence to experience for himself the countryside where cezanne painted. While in Aix he meets a Polish painter, Zavadowski (Zavado). Several months are spent painting landscapes. October: returns to Paris, with only enough money for the fare to Poland. Decides, however, to risk poverty and remain in Paris. In October 1936 he sells a painting for 500 francs, which enables him to pay three months rent in advance for a studio at 7 rue Daguerre in Montparnasse. With hardly any money for fuel or food and with winter approaching, he takes his mind off hunger and cold by painting as much as he can.

1937
Eases extreme poverty by working during the spring as a laborer on the World Exhibition site in Paris. In June, accepts an invitation to the south of France to visit Zavadowski, who offers him the use of a laborer’s cottage as a studio, on an estate called Domaine d'Orcel (Provence). He spends four productive months painting while living on the garden produce. He meets there the English painter Matthew Smith. Returns to Paris in Autumn and learns that two paintings sent to the Warsaw Spring Salon earlier in the year had received the award of a cash prize. Begins work on "Market at rue Daguerre", which is exhibited that year at the Salon des Independants. (The picture was destroyed by fire in 1939 at the I.P.s. Gallery in Warsaw.)

1938
Spring: exhibits eight paintings at the Bernheim Jeune Gallery at an exhibition entitled Six Peintres Polonais. As a result, receives a grant from the French Government for the 1938-39, extended to 1939-40. He was sponsored by Albert Marquet. In summer visits Orgon to paint and stays for three months.
September: returns to Paris with many completed canvases, two of which are exhibited at the Salon des Tuileries. Again exhibits six paintings at the Warsaw Institute for the Promotion of Art (I.P.s.). Second Exhibition of the Pryzmat group.

1939
Spring: travels with the French artist Robert Humblot to Malesherbes in the forest of Fontainebleau, where he paints many landscapes.
On his return, with the clouds of war gathering over Europe, he stays in Versailles in order to be close to Paris. In September, joins the Polish army, which is organized on French soil, as a second lieutenant and is sent to an army camp in Brittany.

1940
On the collapse of the French front, Ruszkowski escapes from occupied France, walks across the Pyrenees into Spain from where he travels to Portugal and Gibraltar, and finally rejoins the Polish army reorganizing in Scotland, where he remains till 1944. (See Unofficial War Artist by Michael Simonow, 1984, an illustrated account of his adventures.)

1941
While in the army in Scotland, Ruszkowski meets and marries Jenifer McCormack.
Exhibits at the Royal Scottish Academy and then at the National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh, Exhibition of Works by Artists of our Allies, both in May.

1942
Birth of his daughter, Anna.

1943
Exhibits one painting at the Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh.

1944
Birth of his son, Christopher.
Leaves his unit and moves to London, staying at his wife's parents' house at 18 Rosecroft Avenue, Hampstead, where he sets up his studio in the billiard room and resumes painting.

1945
A fire destroys his studio, and deprived of a place to paint and in order to occupy himself and amuse his children, he decides to write and Illustrate two children's books, one of which was published in Warsaw, Poland.

1946
Repairs to 18 Rosecroft Avenue completed. Ruszkowski sets up his studio at the top of the house. In this period, he paints many views of Hampstead Heath as well as portraits and family scenes. Early in the year, exhibits two paintings at the Royal Academy, The London Group Exhibition. They attract the attention of Dr Henry Roland of the Roland, Browse and Delbanco Gallery and subsequently leads to his first one-man show, in 1948. Exhibits two paintings at the UNESCO Exhibition in the Musee d'Art Moderne, Paris.
Executes book jacket and 23 illustrations in aquatint for the book River of Singing Fish by Arkady Fiedler, published by Hodder and Stoughton in 1948. From 1946 an important transformation starts to take place in Ruszkowski's attitude to his painting. Up to that point, he had followed Post-Impressionist traditions by painting directly from nature. Now he begins the struggle to find new methods of realization in his work.

1948
First one-man show at the Roland, Browse and Delbanco Gallery. Exhibits sixteen oils and six aquatints. Exhibition well received by the critics. Rents a cottage between Hawkhurst and Benenden, Kent for the summer.

1949-50
Rents a studio in Newlyn near Penzance from the art critic J. P. Hodin. Spends two summers painting in the region, and befriends many of the colony of artists living there at the time.
It is an important stage in his career as it reflects his new approach to painting, moving away from visual immediacy into his own personal vision of nature.

1950
October: the second one-man show at the Roland, Browse and Delbanco Gallery, where he exhibits sixteen oils and five aquatints. Accepts a part-time post as art teacher at the art school run by the Hampstead Arts Council.
Exhibits one painting at the Arts Council in the Observer exhibition Portraits of children.

1951
Completes a landscape entitled St Ives, which is sent to an exhibition at Roland, Browse and Delbanco called The English Scene, Important British Paintings from Three Centuries. The painting is noticed by Tom Laughton, who purchases French Fishermen in Newlyn Harbour. He is to become a close friend and patron of the artist. Summer: visits Mousehole Harbour near Newlyn.

1952
Third one-man exhibition at the Roland, Browse and Delbanco Gallery, where he exhibits seventeen oils and three aquatints. Ruszkowski's wife is given a plot of land by her mother with a small cottage and garage, in Pennyplot, Lyme Regis, Dorset. He converts the garage into a studio and thereafter paints at Pennyplot regularly most summers. Revisits Newlyn.

1953
Invited to stay at his mother-in-Iaw's house in Cyprus, which he visits during the spring, passing through Venice on his way. Many canvases executed during this period. Exhibits at Wildenstein, London, Nine British Painters, and at the same gallery, Exhibition of Paintings on Theatrical Subjects, later on in the year.

1954
February: fourth one-man exhibition at the Roland, Browse and Delbanco Gallery, where he exhibits twenty oil paintings. It is at this exhibition that Maurice Ash notices his work and commissions him to paint a portrait of his wife and daughter.
Maurice Ash is to become a close friend and patron of the artist.
Exhibits one painting at the New Burlington Galleries, London in the London Group Annual exhibition.

1955
June: travels to Venice to paint and receives permission to work at one of the studios in the Accademia.
October: fifth one-man exhibition at the Roland, Browse and Delbanco Gallery, entitled Venetian Paintings by Ruszkowski; seventeen oils exhibited, including six Venetian scenes and a portrait of the sculptor Henry Moore. A canvas of Venice is purchased by the Leeds City Art Gallery.

1956
In summer, drives through France and Spain with the artist John Duguid, stopping at a small Spanish town in Andalucia called Ecija, where he spends three months. Many figurative paintings are inspired by this trip. Exhibits at a group exhibition at the Roland, Browse and Delbanco Gallery entitled Colour Pure and Atmospheric. Invited by the contemporary Art Society to participate in an exhibition at the Tate Gallery called The Seasons, where he exhibits The Picnic.

1957
Returns to Poland to visit his mother at Branszczyk for the first time in twenty-two years.
He discovers that many members of the Pryzmat group have become established figures in the world of Polish art, many of them teaching at the Warsaw Academy of Art. October: exhibits five paintings at the Salle Balzac, Paris, at an exhibition called La Peinture Britannique Contemporaine, selected by Eric Newton.
Exhibits in the Royal Academy of Arts Summer Exhibition.
Exhibits in The Arts and Cafe Royal, Cafe Royal, London.
Exhibits seventeen oils in the Roland, Browse and Delbanco Gallery, sixth one-man show, entitled Ruszkowski, Recent Paintings. Exhibits Spanish Family at the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, in the John Moores Liverpool Exhibition.

1958
Summer: accepts invitation from Mr and Mrs Maurice Ash to visit their villa in Cap d'Antibes, where he stays and paints.
Exhibits three paintings at the Premiere Biennale de Jeune Peinture Contemporaine de Bruges.
Invited to take part in an exhibition organized by the Contemporary Art Society at the Tate Gallery entitled Religious
Themes. His painting The Crucifixion purchased by Harlow New Town for their church. By mutual agreement, parts company with the Roland, Browse and Delbanco Gallery.
Exhibits at the Royal Academy of Arts Summer Exhibition.
Exhibits at the Brighton Art Gallery Autumn Exhibition.

1959
June: visits the bleak and desolate area of Loch Maree in Rossshire, Scotland, with Tom Laughton, after which he travels to Poland to visit his mother. Evicted from his flat and studio in Rosecroft Avenue, he purchases a small house at 11 St Thomas's Gardens, Kentish Town, North London.
Rents a studio in an old joiner's shop in Back Lane, Hampstead.
Exhibits at the Royal Academy's Summer Exhibition.
Exhibits at the second John Moores Liverpool Exhibition at the Exhibits at the Wakefield City Art Gallery, The Continental British School of Painting.

1960
First one-man show at the Leicester Galleries, London. Exhibits twenty-seven paintings. The show marked the start of a close relationship with Pat Philips, Director of the Gallery until its closure in 1975.
With the help of Tom Laughton, converts an old cottage in Loch Maree, Scotland, into a studio and spends several months painting there in isolation.
Exhibits at the Hampstead Town Hall, Hampstead Artists 1900-1960.

1961
Spring: second visit to Loch Maree, Ross-shire, Scotland, where he stays several months.
Exhibits at the Wildenstein Gallery, London, Inaugural Exhibition, Contemporary Portrait Society.

1962
Invited by Dr and Mrs Pepys to use their flat in Sperlonga, southern Italy. He is joined by his daughter, Anna, and together they visit Naples, Pompeii, Rome and Florence. Exhibits at the Leicester Galleries, London, in Artists of Fame and Promise and New Year Exhibition.

1963
July/August: Travels by train to Poland with his daughter Anna. They visit Warsaw, Branszczyk where Anna meets her grandmother for the first time and then on to Krakow where they visit old haunts and friends from his art school days.
Evicted from his studio in Back Lane, Hampstead, and forced to close his small painting school at 5 Lyndhurst Road, Hampstead, which he then adopts as his studio.
Second one-man show at the Leicester Galleries. Exhibits eighteen oils including Sperlonga Bay at Sunset. One canvas purchased by the Aberdeen Art Gallery.
Exhibits at Thomas Agnew and Sons, London, Second Exhibition of the Contemporary Portrait Society. Exhibits in the Leicester Galleries New Year Exhibition.

1964
Invited by Mr and Mrs Maurice Ash to Sharpham House, Totnes, Devon where he sets up his studio in the boat house overlooking the River Dart.

1965
Second visit to Sharpham House.
Third one-man show at the Leicester Galleries.
Exhibits twenty oils, including many canvases executed at the boat house.

1966
Ruszkowski, Life and Works by J. P. Hodin published. A spacious studio is erected in the garden of his cottage in Pennyplot, Lyme Regis, Dorset. A retrospective exhibition organized by Robert Rowe, CBE, at the City of Leeds Art Gallery. Exhibits include 89 oils, 14 watercolours, 12 aquatints and collages showing each stage of his development. Dress Shop at Night acquired by Leeds City Art Gallery.

1967
Spring: visits Paris for three weeks to prepare sketches and make observations for Paris Bridge, which he completes in the summer at his Lyme Regis studio. Invited to participate in the Premio Gaetano Marzotto competition. Exhibits four canvases. The exhibition travels to many major European cities.

1968
April: fourth one-man show at the Leicester Galleries.
Exhibits twenty-two oils.
October: semi-retrospective exhibition organised by the Dartington Arts Society held at Dartington Hall.
Exhibits several portraits of his daughter Anna and many views of the West Country.

1969
Visits Sharpham House, Devon, and again uses the boat house as a studio, after which he returns to his studio in Lyme Regis until the autumn.

1970
Spends three weeks in Poland to visit his mother. Returns to London to concentrate on several large studies of nudes. During this period light against shadows almost disappears from his paintings, pure colour taking its place.
October: fifth one-man show at the Leicester Galleries. Exhibits thirty oils.

1971
Invited by Ton Laughton to stay in his flat at Antibes in the south of France.
Exhibits at the Middlesborough Art Gallery, Z Ruszkowski, A Retrospective Exhibition from the Collection of R. T. Laughton Esq, CBE, thirty-nine oils, twenty-seven watercolours and fourteen aquatints. This exhibition also travels to the Folkestone Art Centre.

1972
First meeting with Michael Simonow, who begins collecting and studying Ruszkowski's work.
Summer spent in Lyme Regis studio working on local subjects including View from the Studio and View from the Cottage. Work begun on Evening on the River Bug, from reminiscences of his recent visit to Poland.
Sixth one-man show at the Leicester Galleries. Exhibits twenty-eight oils.
Winter: returns to his Lyndhurst Road studio to begin work on Fiorella and Madeline, the Cellist.

1973
Summer: visits his mother in Poland for the last time.
She dies a few months later aged 98.

1974
Evicted from his studio in Lyndhurst Road. With nowhere to paint, decides to erect a studio in the courtyard of his house at 11 St Thomas's Gardens. While building work takes place, he returns to his studio in Lyme Regis, where he stays late into the autumn.

1975
Seventh one-man show at the Leicester Galleries.
Exhibits twenty-seven oils.
Much to Ruszkowski's disappointment, the Leicester Galleries were closed later in the year following the retirement of Pat Phi lips.

1976
Spring: visits Greece, where he stays at Amarousion, close to Athens, and spends three months painting there. On his return, works on oils started in Greece at his Lyme Regis studio, including Interior of the National Gallery, Athens.

1977
April: exhibits eight oils at the Campbell and Franks Gallery, London, in an exhibition called Six Continental British Artists.
Exhibits two oils at the Royal Academy's Summer Exhibition.
Exhibits eleven oils at the Campbell and Franks Gallery, London, in an exhibition called Three Painters. Summer spent in his studio in Lyme Regis.


1978
Exhibits twenty-five oils at one-man show organized by the New Grafton Gallery, London.
Two paintings, including Boys Watering Horses, accepted at the Royal Academy's Summer Exhibition. Spring: spends two months at his son Christopher's house in Stradbally, County Waterford, southern Ireland. Many oils started in Ireland are completed later in the year at the Lyme Regis studio.

1979
Revisits Stradbally, County Waterford, southern Ireland. Late summer and autumn in Lyme Regis.
Two paintings accepted at the Royal Academy's Summer Exhibition.
Exhibits two paintings at the Arts Council London, Works from the Henry Roland Collection.

1980
February: exhibits thirty watercolours at a one-man show at Campbell and Franks Gallery, London.
Spring: travels to the Greek island of Spetses, where he is joined by his wife. He paints many watercolours which are the basis of later oil paintings, completed on his return to the London and Lyme Regis studios.
Exhibits two oils at the Royal Academy's Summer Exhibition.

1981
July: exhibits twenty-two oils at Wylma Wayne Fine Art Ltd, Old Bond Street, London, including many subjects take from Spetses. Summer: spent in Lyme Regis working on The Raising of the Gordon Highlanders And Lyme Regis Stream, autumn. Stays until winter approaches, when he returns to his London studio.
Exhibits two oils at the Royal Academy's Summer Exhibition.

1982
Revisits Venice, where he stays with his wife for three weeks at a small hotel, La Calcina (where Ruskin wrote The Stones of Venice). A number of preparatory sketches and watercolours are used as the basis for oil paintings executed that summer in the Lyme Regis studio and later in the London studio.
Exhibits two oils at the Royal Academy's Summer Exhibition.
December: publication of The Paintings of Ruszkowski by Michael Simonow.

1983
January: one-man show organized by Monty Franks at the Alpine Gallery, London to launch The Paintings of Ruszkowski. Thirty oils exhibited, including subjects from Spetses, Venice and Lyme Regis. Completes work on St Mark's, Venice and The Shower in his London studio. Both paintings are rejected by the Royal Academy's hanging committee. From then on Ruszkowski no longer takes part in the Royal Academy's activities.
Summer spent in Lyme Regis. Returns to London in November.

1984
With his wife, visits Crete, where he spends July and August at Aghios Nikolaos making sketches and watercolours in preparation for oil paintings later in the year.
Publication of Unofficial War Artist by Michael Simonow. Second one-man show organised at the Alpine Gallery to launch the book. Thirty-six oils exhibited including The Shower and St Mark's, Venice. Ruszkowski sight begins to fail. It becomes increasingly difficult for him to see objects from a distance.

1985
Works in his London studio on various subjects.
June: thirty-four watercolours exhibited at Woburn Fine Arts Summer Exhibition.
August: visits Corfu with his wife;
September: returns to Lyme Regis, where he stays till November working in oil on subjects from Corfu.

1986
Exhibits White Stone Pond (1947) in April at the Hampstead Artists Council in an exhibition called Hampstead Artists 1946-1986. Sight worsens and he is forced to limit the distance of his subjects. Builds additional studio in the garden of 11 St Thomas's Gardens in order to experiment in sculpture.
June/July: together with Michael Simonow, revisits Paris where they stay at La Louisiane Hotel, rue de Seine. Visits old haunts including his studio in rue Daguerre and Cafe le Dome.
July: revisits Sperlonga, Italy, with his wife. October: exhibits twenty-five oils in a one-man show at the Gillian Jason Gallery, London, entitled Zdzislaw Ruszkowski Paintings 1947-82.
Publication of Leonardo, The Lion from Nowhere by Ruszkowski with text by Adrian Mitchell. His illustrations were executed in 1945.
December: exhibits fifty-nine watercolours in a one-man show at the Jablonski Gallery, London.
December: exhibits three drawings at the Gillian Jason Gallery in an exhibition entitled The Unbroken Line: Fifty Years of British Drawing 1936-1986.

1987
Between 1986-89 completes seven sculptures. Revisits Sperlonga during end of July and first week of August with his wife. Rest of summer is spent painting in Lyme Regis.
Joined by Jenifer.
October-November: Jablonski Gallery, London. Exhibits recent paintings, watercolours and sculptures.

1988
April: Exhibits 2 oils at Fairhurst Gallery in an exhibition entitled A Splash of Colour.
March-May: exhibits 2 oils at the Arts Club in an exhibition entitled Images of Italy.
Revisits Sperlonga during end of July and first week of August with his wife.
Spends rest of summer painting in Lyme Regis with Jenifer.

1989
February-March: Tate Gallery, London. Exhibits self-portrait (aquatint)
May: Middlesborough Art Gallery. Exhibition of oils from The Simonow Collection opened by the Polish Ambassador. May: Primrose Hill Gallery. Exhibits watercolours. Revisits Sperlonga end of July and first week of August. Rest of summer spent with his wife, painting in Lyme Regis. September: W H Patterson Fine Arts Ltd, Albermarle Street, London.
Exhibits at the Inaugural Exhibition of Society of Landscape Painters.

1990
March: Hurlingham Gallery
Exhibits work at the New Portrait Society 1st Annual Open Exhibition.
May: Accademia Italiana. Exhibits 1 oil and 2 watercolours at the Images of Italy Exhibition.
June: 20th Century Gallery. Exhibits 2 oils in Summer Exhibition.
July: survives fall from moving train outside Axminster Station. End of July-First week of August: Revisits Sperlonga with Jenifer. Spends rest of summer in Lyme Regis with his wife. Due to Macular Degeneration, painting becomes increasingly difficult and very few works are executed.
September: W H Patterson Fine Arts, Albermarle Street, London. Society of Landscape Painters Annual Exhibition. Exhibits 2 oils. November: Schwartz Sackin Gallery, Old Bond Street, London. Retrospective Exhibition including recent oils from 1987-90. November: Middlesborough Art Gallery. Exhibition of works on paper from the Simonow Collection opened by the Polish Ambassador.


1991
January: falls badly, sight deteriorates further. Depressed and demoralised he asks Jenifer to cancel their annual trip to Sperlonga. Exhibits at Art 91 (Islington) Artists of Fame and Promise. March: told by specialist at Moorefields Eye Hospital that he could register as blind.
March-April: the Arts Club Orchards and Apples, an exhibition of Still Life and Landscapes. Exhibits one oil. May-June: the Arts Club, London. Images of Italy Exhibition, exhibits two oils.
Tells those close to him that he hopes his life will soon end, as he has nothing to live for. With help and encouragement from his daughter, Anna and Jenifer, records on tape the history of his family in Poland.
April: in spite of only possessing peripheral vision, buys primary colours from his art materials supplier in Camden Town and tries to start painting again. His mood improves.
11th May: suffers serious stroke and is taken to the Royal Free Hospital in Hampstead. May 18th: dies peacefully after several days of unconsciousness