SLABCZYNSKI, Stefan

1909 - 1988

Stefan Slabczynski was born at Lublin, Poland on 17 May 1909. He studied at the Academy of Fine Arts, Krakow, in the early 1930s and exhibited at the Academy of Fine Arts in Poland. He studied art history at Montpellier University in 1942 before travelling to Gibraltar to volunteer for the Polish armed forces and was sent to Britain in June 1943 serving with the Polish army in this country and according to his application for British citizenship, served in the Polish army in the Second World War and was twice taken prisoner by the Germans once escaping through Czechoslovakia. He trained as a picture restorer at the Courtauld Institute of Art, 1946-1948, studying with Helmut Ruhemann (1891-1973) and then assisting him with the treatment of some National Gallery paintings. Slabczynski set up as a restorer in August 1948, working from his then home at 14 Warwick Avenue in London and undertook freelance restoration work for the National Maritime Museum and he worked for the Tate Gallery from 1951 and travelled widely in Europe and the United States. He took British nationality in 1950 when described as an artist and picture restorer. On the establishment of their restoration department at London's Tate Gallery in 1955 he was appointed chief restorer under director Sir John Rothenstein (1901-1992) and deputy director [Sir] Norman Reid (1915-2007) and appointed an M.B.E. in 1964. Stefan married at Paddington, London in November 1946 Janet Paterson Lennox Miller (8 March 1922-25 May 2008), who was born in Edinburgh. Stefan Slabczynski died at 23 West Park Hill, Brentwood, Essex on 5 August 1988 and his wife died at their home at 19 Mill Field, Aldeburgh Suffolk in 2008. His name is sometimes referred to as Slabezynski.

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Works by This Artist