Stanisław Witkiewicz was a Polish painter, architect and writer. He created and popularised the Zakopane style and was the father of Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz. In 1869-1871, he studied at the Imperial Academy of Fine Arts in St. Petersburg, and in 1872-1875 in Munich. He designed many beautiful villas in the Zakopane style, including: the villas Koliba, Dom pod Jedlami and Zofiówka. He painted mainly landscapes, genre scenes and portraits. Apart from his artistic activity, he wrote important texts which influenced Polish social thought at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. Witkiewicz's oeuvre can be seen in, among other places: The National Museum in Warsaw and Krakow, the Podlasie Museum in Bialystok and the Art Museum in Lodz.