Józef Czapski (1896-1993) was an outstanding Polish painter, writer, art critic and publicist, whose life and work reflected the turbulent events of the 20th century. He was also a soldier who participated in World War I, in the battles of 1919-1920, and went through the horrors of World War II, but also a pacifist who did not want to fight.

He was born in Prague on April 2 or 3, 1896, into an aristocratic family. His real name was Józef Maria Franciszek Hutten-Czapski. His father Jerzy Hutten-Czapski (1861-1930) was a Polish count, landowner, social and political activist. He came from the wealthiest branch of the Czapski family, which owned huge latifundia inherited from the Radziwiłł family in the vicinity of Mińsk Litewski and in Volhynia. His mother was Józefa, countess Thun-Hohenstein (1867–1903), daughter of the Austro-Hungarian politician and diplomat Frederick Franz Józef Thun-Hohenstein, born and died in Cieszyn, during his career, among others. ambassador in Stockholm and St. Petersburg. After the end of Frederick's diplomatic service, Frederick settled in Prague.

Although Józef Czapski was born in Prague, he spent his childhood on the family estate in Przyłuki (now Belarus). From an early age, Józef Czapski received thorough education, including artistic education. Even before World War I, he began studying law at the University of St. Petersburg, probably not so much out of passion for law as in the hope of avoiding conscription into the army. However, in 1917 he interrupted his training and joined the 1st Krechowiec Uhlan Regiment. On the other hand, being deeply influenced by pacifism and the ideas of Leo Tolstoy, he left the army, joined the Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts in 1918, and, above all, founded a pacifist commune together with Antoni Marylski. Later, he goes to St. Petersburg on a mission to find Polish officers taken prisoner, who, as it turns out, were murdered. There, however, he meets Dmitri Merezhkovsky, a Russian writer and thinker, known for his unique approach to philosophy, which combines elements of mysticism, historicism and a deep interest in spirituality and religion. Merezhkovsky believed that history is the arena in which the spiritual struggle between good and evil, between spiritual and material forces takes place. His philosophy, strongly rooted in the Russian intellectual and cultural tradition, often focused on the search for the spiritual meaning of history and culture. In his works, he often referenced historical figures and events to illustrate these ideas. This concept became an inspiration for the young Czapski, it was a way out of the impasse between the passivity of pacifism and the need to get involved in the vortex of events.

In the years 1919-1920 he served in the armored train "Śmiały". He took part in the Kiev expedition. He was awarded the Virtuti Militari Cross. After the end of the war, he enrolled at the Krakow Academy of Fine Arts, and in 1923 he co-founded the Kapist painting group. Artists who, partly under the influence of Józef Pankiewicz, were fascinated by the problem of color and referred to the tradition of French post-impressionism and dreamed of going to France... This path leads him to Paris. There, he becomes the group's guardian - as he knows French best - and meets many outstanding personalities, including: for some time he rented an apartment with Sergei Nabokov, with whom he began an affair. He returns to Poland as a recognizable artist in 1932. The following years bring exhibitions not only in Poland, but also at the International Art Exhibition in Pittsburgh.

His painting work, especially the post-war one, is on the one hand deeply analytical, which is visible, among others, in his still lifes and portraits. Mystical still frames, analyzing color, shape and light. On the other hand, almost grotesquely exaggerated scenes taken from everyday life. Sometimes there is a silent look immersed in the flash. However, these are not caricatures or random scenes. They seem to penetrate everyday life, often reaching for details, small fragments, fragments of reality, which in effect also seem to be a transcendent transcendence of the ordinary world. Czapski is able to penetrate reality into its bowels, penetrating it, leaving us with some anxiety about what we see and what we experience. He has experienced enough to also deal with ugliness in his work, with a world that is not only a study of color and form, but also a dramatic stage. This ugliness of his does not ridicule or irony, rather it is an attempt to capture what we try to hide under everyday glitter. Merezhkovsky's ideas seem to still resonate in his work, the idea that the future of humanity depends on the synthesis of spirituality and rationalism. Maybe not in the combination of science and religion, but in art, seeing this role. Art that becomes a way to penetrate deeper, spiritual truths that escape accidental vision, but which religion is unable to reveal to modern people. This search for a universal experience seems to permeate his work.

After the outbreak of World War II, he was captured and interned in Starobielsk, and then to subsequent camps. He was released in 1941 after the Sikorski-Maysky Agreement was signed. He then becomes the head of the office for searching for officers and soldiers missing in Russia. Then he becomes the head of the Propaganda and Information Department at the Polish Army Headquarters. He is one of the last to leave Russia, and the fate of war throws him through Iraq, Palestine, Egypt to Italy and then to Paris. There in 1947, among others he writes for the first issue of "Kultura", published in Rome. He would later be associated with the Parisian "Kultura" editorial office for years. In 1944, his "Starobelskie Memories" were also published. In 1951, his first post-war exhibition took place. In the following years he exhibited, among others, in Paris, London, Toronto, Geneva.

Czapski studied painting in Krakow, Warsaw and Paris, where he came into contact with the avant-garde artistic movements of that period. His early work was characterized by experimenting with various styles and techniques. In Poland, his works were shown in the 1950s in Krakow and Poznań, and in 1986 in the Archdiocesan Museum in Warsaw. However, only after political changes is it shown in the largest museum institutions in the country. In the 1980s, the "Znak" publishing house published a collection of his essays, Looking , and in 1986 , Diaries, Memories, Relations were published. Receives nominations for Honorary Professor of the Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow. On January 12, 1993, he died in Maisons-Laffitte and was buried in the cemetery in Mesnil-le-Roi next to his sister Maria, an outstanding literary scholar.

On December 21, 2021, a bronze plaque dedicated to Józef Czapski was unveiled on the facade of the Thun-Hohenstein Palace in Prague. The commemoration project was carried out in cooperation with the POLONIKA Institute and the Polish Institute in Prague. The author of the plaque is the Czech sculptor, Paulina Skavova. During the unveiling of the plaque, the director of the Polonika Institute, Dorota Janiszewska-Jakubiak, emphasized that Czapski's life and the history of his family illustrate the fate of Central Europe.