Wilhelm Kotarbiński

Wilhelm Kotarbiński (1848–1921) was a Polish artist and painter of historical and fantastical subjects, who spent most of his life in Kyiv and the Russian Empire. Kotarbiński was born in Nieborów in Warsaw Province of Congress Poland. His father was an impoverished Polish nobleman who served as a manager for the Radziwiłł estates. He began his studies with Rafał Hadziewicz at the Warsaw School of Art from 1867 to 1871.

Afterward, he enrolled at the University of Warsaw, urged on by his parents who were opposed to an artistic career, but stayed for only a short time before borrowing money from his uncle and moving to Italy. The following year, Wilhelm Kotarbiński was able to arrange a stipend from the Imperial Society for the Encouragement of the Arts and enrolled at the Accademia di San Luca, where he studied with Francesco Podesti until 1875, living in poverty and barely surviving a case of typhoid.