George Bernard Shaw, a friend of the painter, called him “the illusionist of black and white”. The artist himself used to say, “I am simply driving hungrily through life with a pencil.” He was a chronicler of the twentieth century, whose drawings immortalised many of the most important figures and events of the age. Born in Warsaw, he became closely associated with London, where he set up a studio under the arches of Hungerford Bridge. His passport recorded travel to almost every corner of the globe. His life appears as colourful as his personality and the events he chronicled.

“The Warsaw Barber”, Jan Lechoń and Feliks Topolski
Feliks Topolski’s (1907–1989) autobiography, published in London in 1988 and entitled “Fourteen Letters”, begins with the story of the young artist’s meeting with Jan Lechoń, then editor of the periodical “Cyrulik Warszawski” (“Warsaw Barber”). At the time, he heard Lechoń ask, “How many letters are in your name?” When he gave the answer, “Fourteen”, the writer was said to be delighted and to have exclaimed, “Exquisite! It means living a life of fulfilment – always use, always sign, your full name to fuel that magic!” Feliks Topolski, it seems, took this advice. By his own admission, this “magical fulfilment” affected him not only physically or economically; it made him an uncompromising artist, faithful to himself and his style, which sometimes led critics to mock his “bloated egocentrism”, but gave him extraordinary satisfaction and standing in the art world.

Feliks Topolski: Biography
Feliks Topolski was born in Warsaw on 17 August 1907, the child of the actor Edward Topolski and Stanisława Drutowska. He studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw, in the studio of Tadeusz Pruszkowski, who was his mentor and protector. The artist belonged to the Warsaw bohemia. He was also a student at the Artillery Officer Cadet School. He was always driven by a need to travel. He embarked on his first “Grand Tour” in 1933, visiting Moravian Ostrava, Vienna, Venice, Rome and Berlin.

The most important stage in his life, however, proved to be London. He arrived there through “Wiadomości Literackie”, as the weekly’s London correspondent. He was commissioned by the paper to produce a series of drawings of the Silver Jubilee celebrations of the reign of King George V. The celebrations lasted for a whole week, from 6 May 1935, with parades, performances, exhibitions and other events in London associated with the British monarch. Hundreds of thousands of people are reported to have attended.

London: Feliks Topolski’s Favourite City
London became a permanent feature of Feliks Topolski’s career. He accepted commissions from the “News Chronicle” and “Night and Day”, among others. He published his drawings from the “News Chronicle” in the form of a book entitled “The London Spectacle”.

During the Second World War, Feliks Topolski was appointed a war artist by King George VI. At the same time, he worked for the British and Polish governments. He witnessed the bombing of London, images of which he immortalised in his drawings. His wartime sketches were published in book form: “Britain in Peace and War”, “Russia in War” and “Three Continents, 1944–45”. He reported on important events in real time, not only by sketching but also by publishing his memoirs in various newspapers, for example “Journey to Russia” and “New Poland”.

Topolski’s Wanderings around the World 
He travelled in England, Italy and Russia, as well as in Africa, Asia, the Far East and the Middle East. He had the opportunity to meet some of the great figures of the age, including Mahatma Gandhi. This is how he recalled the encounter: “My day with him fell at the time of his release from prison, which he highlighted as the ‘Day of Silence’. And in that way it was a contemplation. My only communication with him was writing – including his signature, in Hindi and in English, on one of my drawings.” Gandhi’s portrait appeared in print as an illustration in “Topolski’s Chronicle”, among other publications. The artist’s journeys took him through Egypt, Syria, Baghdad, Beirut, Cairo, Bombay, Calcutta, Chungking and many other places. In 1944, Topolski accompanied General Władysław Anders and the soldiers of the Second Polish Corps in Italy. In his drawings, he captured the destroyed monastery on Monte Cassino, the moment of the liberation of Rome and wounded Polish soldiers in Loreto.
He then travelled to Germany. His drawings and photographs showing the concentration camps are harrowing. The artist was also a correspondent during the Nuremberg trial. He recorded: “Eight months, six hours a day, in artificial dead air, under corpse-white ceiling lamps, without a shadow of a glare, twenty-one defendants sit...” in his “Autobiography”.

Feliks Topolski: A Chronicler of the Twentieth Century
After the war ended, the artist did not give up his profession or his travels. He was a chronicler of his century. He worked in London, in his own studio, which he set up under Hungerford Bridge. There he created the strikingly painterly “Memoir of the Twentieth Century”. Large acrylic compositions on boards and sheets of cardboard hung from the ceiling of the studio; they were six metres high and some two hundred metres long. On them, Feliks Topolski captured faces and events. In addition, from 1953 onwards, he created “Topolski’s Chronicles”: a kind of magazine in which he recorded the most important events in the world. They had more than 2,000 subscribers and were printed by the artist using the lithographic method on large sheets of wrapping paper. Feliks Topolski died in London in 1989.

“Topolski” Bar in London: Art and History in One Place
Today, the place where Feliks Topolski had his London studio is home to the “Topolski” bar. As the owners state in the advertising text on their website, it is a place full of art and history, where you can sit down and have a coffee during the day and where you can come in the evening to eat pizza, drink craft beer or cider, listen to music and have a good time. As you enter the bar, above you and beside the tables you can engage with major works by Feliks Topolski. “Step inside and huddle under the historic ‘Diary of a Century’, a 600-metre-long mural depicting a meticulous record of unconventional London. [...] Topolski has everything you need to make an evening unforgettable.”