Background
Witkiewicz was born in the Lithuanian village of Pašiaušė (Polish: Poszawsze) in Samogitia, at that time, in the partitioned Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth lands ruled by the Russian Empire.
Witkiewicz was born in the Lithuanian village of Pašiaušė (Polish: Poszawsze) in Samogitia, at that time, in the partitioned Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth lands ruled by the Russian Empire.
Witkiewicz studied in Saint St. Petersburg, 1869-1871, then in Munich, 1872-1875.
He created the Zakopane Style (styl zakopiański) (also known as Witkiewicz Style (styl witkiewiczowski)) in architecture. He was strongly associated with Zakopane and promoted it in the art community. Witkiewicz had strong views against formal education: "school is completely at odds with the psychological make-up of human beings".
He applied this principle in his son"s upbringing and was disappointed when the 20-year-old Witkacy chose to enroll at the Academy of Fine Arts in KrakóWest
In 1908, suffering from tuberculosis, the elder Witkiewicz left his family in Zakopane and relocated to Lovranno, a fashionable resort in what was then Austria-Hungary, which today is in Croatia. He died there in 1915.