Pius Weloński

Studies: School of Drawing, Warsaw: sculpture under the direction of Konstanty Hegel, painting under Rafał Hadziewicz, 1868-1871. Having received a scholarship of the Society of Art Lovers Zachęta, he continued studies at the Art Academy in Saint Petersburg, 1872-1878. From 1878 to 1883 he lived in Rome, where the first version of the artist’s famous artwork Gladiator was made. Subsequent replicas of this sculpture were made in various materials and scales. Honorary professor of Academy of Art in Saint Petersburg, professor and director of the School of Drawing in Warsaw, honorary director of the Museum of Art in Warsaw, and since 1924 director of The Wojciech Gerson Private School of Fine Arts in Warsaw. He exhibited his works in Krakow, Saint Petersburg, Berlin, Rome. Author of statues, tombstones, sculptural decorations on Warsaw’s edifices and monumental Stations of the Cross situated on the embankments of the monastery on the Jasna Góra Monastery in Częstochowa (created from 1901 to 1912), as well as statues of saints on the tower on Jasna Góra.