Smolsky, Hryhorii

Smolsky, Hryhorii [Смольський, Григорій; Smol's'kyj, Hryhorij], b 2 December 1893 in Pidhirky, Kalush county, Galicia, d 1 February 1985 in Lviv. Painter. He studied at the Novakivsky Art School in Lviv (1923–30) and the Académie Colarossi in Paris (1934–5). A member of the RUB artists’ group, he participated in the interwar exhibitions of the Association of Independent Ukrainian Artists, the Ukrainian Artistic Alliance, and the Lviv Artists’ Association. He painted landscapes, particularly of the Hutsul region and Paris (eg, Notre-Dame [1934] and Bridge on the Seine [1935]); portraits, such as Self-Portrait (1923), My Father (1925), Betrothed Hutsul Woman (1957), and portraits of such cultural figures as Stanyslav Liudkevych (1953) and Vasyl Stefanyk (1959); and many Hutsul genre paintings and still lifes. He wrote accounts of his stays in Rome and Paris and the novel about Oleksa Dovbush (1935).

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 4 (1993).]