Józef Pankiewicz was a Polish painter, graphic artist and pedagogue. Initially he studied at the Warsaw Drawing Class under Wojciech Gerson and Aleksander Kamiński. In the years 1885-1886 he stayed on scholarship at the Academy of Fine Arts in Petersburg. In 1906, he became a professor of the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków. In his career he had episodes, in which he was inspired by impressionism and symbolism. He created nocturnes and still lives, landscapes and portraits inspired by Japanese art. In 2006 the National Museum in Warsaw held an extensive monographic exhibition of the painter with a comprehensive catalogue.