Władysław Moes was born in the Moes Palace near Wierbka, in southern Poland. He was the second son of the six children of Aleksander Juliusz Moes (1856–1928), a large landowner, factory owner, and philanthropist, and his wife Countess Janina Miączyńska (1869–1946) Suchekomnaty Coat of Arms, and he was also the grandson of Christian August Moes (1810–1872), an important Polish industrialist of Dutch origins.
In May 1911, he spent a spring holiday at the Lido in Venice, in the Grand Hotel des Bains. There, he attracted the attention of the German writer Thomas Mann, who used him for the inspiration of Tadzio – a character of his novel Death in Venice, published in 1912. Katia Mann recalled that her husband"s idea for the story came during a holiday at the Grand Hôtel des Bains in 1911:
He died in Warsaw and was buried in the graveyard of Pilica, in the Moes family plot.
