Jan Sobczyński

Jan Sobczynski – Polish painter, born to Polish immigrants on 14 June 1918 in New York City, USA, died 27 May 2007, Warsaw, Poland.

After his mother's death, Sobczynski left the United States and was raised by his aunt in Lviv,now Ukraine, then in Poland. In 1939, after the invasion of Poland by the Russian army, he was arrested in Lviv and sent to a labor camp in Siberia.

In 1941, like many Poles in Siberia, he survived when Joseph Stalin’s policies changed following the German invasion. Like many exiled Poles, he joined the Second Polish Army formed in the Soviet Union. His war record includes 394 combat missions in light bombers on the Eastern Front. For these actions he was decorated with the Polonia Restituta and the Cross of Valour.

His war sketches were lost. After the war, he settled in the ruins of Warsaw and witnessed the rebirth of the city – his first oil paintings emerged at this time. He studied in the school of Prof. Bolesław Kuzminsky and then under the supervision of Prof. Michał Bylina and Prof. Ludwik Maciag.

Jan Sobczynski’s painting technique is oil on canvas with a vivid selection of colors and rich textures. His art shows the beauty of small Polish towns in Silesia, landscapes, still lifes and battle scenes. Jan's triptych depicting the Battle of the Bzura River (one of the heroic stands of the Polish cavalry against German tanks during Second World War) received recognition and award during the exhibition in ‘Zacheta Galery’ - 1985. His paintings are in historical collections owned by the Polish Ministry of National Defense. He visited the United States of America several times. During his visits there he painted Kansas City’s Country Club Plaza and several landscapes in Colorado.

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