Casimir Markievicz

Count Casimir Dunin Markievicz (Polish: Kazimierz Dunin-Markiewicz, 15 March 1874 – 2 December 1932) was a Polish portrait, category and landscape artist, playwright and theatre director, and a member of the Russian nobility.[1]

Markievicz attended the State Gymnasium in Kherson, and studied law at the University of Kiev.[2] In 1895 he transferred to the Academy of Arts in Paris. He was married at the time, with a son named Stanislas, but his wife died in 1899. Whilst in Paris, he met Constance Gore-Booth (later known as the Countess Markievicz). They married in London in 1900 and their daughter, Maeve, was born the following year.[3] From 1902 the couple lived in Dublin.

The largest part of his art collection is held in Dublin, some remain in Poland (Muzeum Narodowe in Krakow and in private collections). His talent points itself particularly to the large oilportraits of Polish presidents Piłsudski and Wojciechowski.

Markievicz was part of the literary circle that centred on W. B. Yeats and the Abbey Theatre. In 1910 he formed his own theatre company, the Independent Dramatic Company, which staged plays written by himself and starring his wife, Constance.[4] He also wrote the screenplay of a 1920 Polish film, Powrót, directed by Aleksander Hertz.[5]

Towards the end of his life Markievicz was active in Warsaw, as well as a correspondent for English magazines, such as the Londoner Daily News. A catalog for his works is still pending.

He died in Warsaw, Poland, in 1932.[5]

Plays

(Source: Productions of the Irish Theatre Movement, 1899-1916)[6]

References

  1. ^ 1911 census return, showing the English spelling of the name, and the occupation "Count (Russian Noble)".
  2. ^ Haverty, Anne (1988). Constance Markievicz: Irish Revolutionary. London: Pandora. p. 48. ISBN 0 86358 161 7. 
  3. ^ S. Pašeta, "Markievicz , Constance Georgine, Countess Markievicz in the Polish nobility (1868–1927)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004, accessed 29 September 2007.
  4. ^ Morash, Chris (2002). A History of Irish Theatre, 1601-2000. Cambridge University Press. p. 152. ISBN 0521660513. http://books.google.com/books?id=tBoSJFAnKbMC&pg=PA152#v=onepage&q&f=false. Retrieved 13 August 2011. 
  5. ^ a b Casimir Markievicz at the Internet Movie Database.
  6. ^ O'Ceallaigh Ritschel, Nelson (2001). Productions of the Irish Theatre Movement, 1899-1916: A Checklist. Greenwood Publishing Group. pp. 39, 44, 58, 59, 67, 72, 74. ISBN 0313317445. http://books.google.com/books?id=q7JOt49_frgC&pg=PA39#v=onepage&q&f=false. Retrieved 13 August 2011.