Kazimierz Dunin-Markiewicz

Who was Kazimierz Dunin-Markiewicz?

Count Casimir Dunin Markievicz was a Polish portrait, category and landscape artist, playwright and theatre director, and a member of the Russian nobility.

Markievicz attended the State Gymnasium in Kherson, and studied law at the University of Kyiv. 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. They married in London in 1900 and their daughter, Maeve, was born the following year. From 1902 the couple lived in Dublin.

The largest part of his art collection is held in Dublin, some remain in Poland. His talent points itself particularly to the large oil portraits 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. He also wrote the screenplay of a 1920 Polish film, Powrót, directed by Aleksander Hertz.