Leszczyński-Lester Sea Captain, Painter

“A book which guides the reader along the footsteps of the creative genius of an artist who dedicated his life to art and aesthetic studies. As we follow him we find out about how he learnt about the world and looked beyond the conventions of theory and practice searching for content in art.”

This is how Janis Rankin, a curator of the Michał Lester gallery and museum in Montego Bay, Jamaica describes Michał Leszczyński Lester’s biography published by The Polish Maritime Museum.

The book is written by Leszczyński’s friend of many years Kenneth J. Jones. He prepared the artist’s biography drawing on not only his account of the time or the materials published in the United Kingdom, Jamaica or the USA, but also on extensive biographic material.

Michał Leszczyński-Lester was born on 6 March 1906 into an artistic family. From early childhood his favourite activities included painting and playing the piano. When he was in his teens he enrolled as a cadet at the Tczew Nautical School, where one of his school friends was the future captain and writer Karol O. Borchardt. The young artist had his sailing practice on the “Lwów”. After graduation in 1928 Leszczyński took up work at sea. Having been away from the country for two years Leszczyński came back to Gdynia. The town made a lasting impression on him. He took up work there as a port pilot. Lester found it difficult to balance his love for painting with being a seafarer. Although he had already made a name for himself, he realised his artistic techniques failed him. He decided to go to Kraków to study at the Academy of Fine Arts. His teachers included Władysław Jarocki, Józef Mehoffer and Kazimierz Sichulski. In 1934 Michał Leszczyński went to sea again. In 1937 for the first time in his career he became the commander on the “Orion”, a three-masted schooner.

World War Two saw Leszczyński in Great Britain, where he worked shipping goods and working on the theory of art. It was then that he wrote and illustrated the book “How to Draw Sail and Sea”. Towards the end of the war he started exhibiting his works at London and New York galleries.

Captivated by the vivid colours of Jamaica which he experienced on his numerous sea voyages, he moved with wife Peggy first to Kingston and then to Montego Bay, famous for its resident celebrities.

He was at his most prolific in Jamaica. Financial stability and the fact that his wife was running his art gallery meant that Leszczyński had finally unlimited time to spend on searching for inspiration and painting.

Leszczyński died in 1972 in Jamaica as a renowned artist, member of the British Royal Society of Arts and an art theoretician who was not understood.

The book Michał Leszczyński-Lester Sea Captain and Painter was published thanks to a grant from the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage.

Kenneth J. Jones, Michał Leszczyński-Lester Marynarz i artysta.
You can buy the book at CMM branches – Granaries on Ołowianka Island and “Dar Pomorza” or the Internet shop.