Styka Tade

Tade Styka was born in Poland in 1889. Tade was drawing and painting as early as four years old and worked closely under the tutelage of his father, Jan Styka, a well accredited and acclaimed artist painter in France at that time. At the very early age he become a prodigy and harbinger of a genius. Starting at the age of eleven, Tade received first prizes at the Paris' most prestigious art galleries with official distinctions of the French President.
 
Later he exhibited his paintings at the best galleries of France, Poland and the United States.
Especially noteworthy are the portraits honoring the greatest figures of the 20th century, such as that of Maurice Maeterlinck, Caruso, Chaliapin, Tito Ruffo, Sarah Delano Roosevelt, Professor Zielinski, Queen Marie-Jose, Ignacy Paderewski, Pola Negri just to mention a few. The portraits painted by Tade Styka are a part of many famous collections around the world. According to many well known and very knowledgeable art critics, such as Louis De Rochefort, Tade Styka was one of the best portrait painter artist ever lived, because of the most brilliant techniques - bravura, like a display of most fantastic fire works ever seen on paintings and a unique ability to analyze, understand and project beautiful traits of inner character of the painted models. For his acclaimed work, Tade Styka won the Medal of the Legion of Honor, the highest award of the French Government.
On September 11, 1954, in New York City, Tade Styka passed away while he was still at the height of his artistic and creative powers. He was buried alongside his father, Jan Styka, at the Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery, in Glendale, Los Angeles in the Immortals' Quarter.