Benedyktowicz, Landscape

Ludomir Benedyktowicz (1844–1926) was a Polish landscape painter, soldier, writer, and amateur chess player. He attended primary school in Warsaw then, in 1861, following in his father's footsteps, he went to the "Institute of Forest Management Practices" in Brok to study forestry with its founder, Professor Wojciech Jastrzębowski. He interrupted his studies to join the January Uprising, becoming a fighter in a partisan unit commanded by Władysław Cichorski [pl]. During a skirmish with a Cossack unit near Stare Kaczkowo, his right hand was cut off by a sword and his left arm was shattered by a bullet. He was later evacuated to the rectory in Ostrów Mazowiecka, where his arm had to be amputated.[1] It was no longer possible to study forestry, so he decided to study art, beginning at the Warsaw School of Drawing with Wojciech Gerson.