TOPOLSKI, Feliks

Feliks Topolski (1907-1989) was a Polish-born British artist known for his expressionistic prints and paintings depicting important figures and occasions. Over the course of his career, he produced portraits of Winston Churchill and George Bernard Shaw, as well as events such as Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation. “I feel I must make it clear that my work is neither ‘academic’ nor caricaturing on the basis of photographs—it is done from life,” he once explained of his work. Born on August 14, 1907 in Warsaw, Poland, he went on to study at the Warsaw Academy of Art before moving to England in 1935. During World War II, Topolski became an official war artist for his adopted country and produced studies of battlefields throughout Europe during the conflict. He gained his British citizenship in 1947 and began work on his pictorial record of political and social events known as the Chronicles. Topolski died on August 24, 1989 in London, United Kingdom. Today, his works are held in the collections of the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, D.C., the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, and the Brooklyn Museum, among others.