In 2022 a significant collection of Michał Antoni Leszczyński's artwork (aka, Michael Lester) was purchased from the caretakers and heirs of his estate. Featuring 32 master works on oil, over 600 works on paper, ephemera, publications, personal notes and diaries, this estate collection reflects his life’s accomplishments.

Pieces from early as 1937 to up until his death in 1972, exhibit his artistic evolution. Earlier works feature still lifes and primarily maritime compositions. Lester was well-educated in his Polish homeland and excelled in both art and sailing; he was an experienced and highly regarded master mariner and illustrator in the inter-war period in Poland and in both wartime and post-war Britain.

His eventual immigration to Jamaica in the early 1950s had dramatic effect on his style and composition. Ever astute, he quickly discovered a market for his works as Jamaica's north coast became a hot spot for world-class tourism. Setting up a gallery in Montego Bay, and run by his wife Peggy, patrons of his work included the local de Lisser family, Reynolds family members (of Reynold's Aluminum), Lee and Stanisław Radziwiłł (sister and brother-in-law of Jackie Kennedy), and many other celebrities, musicians, and socialites of the time. He achieved something that few artists ever do; the financial independence of selling his own work and living from his passion.

Lester was highly prolific; hundreds (perhaps thousands) of artworks were produced in the 1950s, 1960s, and early 1970s. Some of his greatest works were commissioned and shipped overseas to adoring collectors all over the world. Others to this day still adorn the lobbies and halls of Jamaica’s public buildings, resorts, homes, and restaurants. Some of his largest works were created on a rolling commission to Half Moon resort in Montego Bay, where to this day many of these masterworks reside.
This collection, featured in digital form, can be considered some of his personal favorites which decorated his home in Belmont, Jamaica. The works consistently reflect his vision and mind’s eye to the world around him and invite the viewer to into his version of paradise.

Please enjoy this digital version of the collection. More to come as the digitization and preservation of his legacy continues.

Michał Leszczyński, (aka, Michael Lester), started his artistic career mainly as a maritime and landscape artist. Becoming one of the first master mariners in the newly formed Republic of Poland in the 1920s-1930s, he practiced his trade internationally and domestically as a port pilot in the state-of-the-art harbor-city of Gdynia on Poland's Baltic coast. During his earlier years as a sailor, he traveled the globe on many different ships, endearing himself to his crewmen by offering to draw their portraits or by selling landscapes of visited ports and localities.

He achieved some early success with his paintings and drawings, establishing his own gallery in Warsaw and selling his artworks in Paris, Brussels, London, and other European cities. However, in 1939 when World War II erupted and Poland fell to the forces of both the German and Russian invasions, Lester found himself abroad in Belgium, without a country and his gallery and artwork in Warsaw destroyed.

Unable to return to Poland, he made his way to Britain where he offered his services as a sea captain in the wartime merchant marine transport fleet and later in the Royal Fleet Auxiliary. Never able to set down his drawing utensil or brush, his wartime seaborne experiences are captured in his many works on paper from this era and contained especially in this collection.

Post-war Britain and Poland offered job opportunities, but lacked the artistic inspiration of which he was in constant search. Plying his trade on a bauxite ore transport ship between Mobile, Alabama and Montego Bay, Jamaica, he eventually decided to emigrate in the early 1950s, abandoning his life at sea, and establishing himself as a full-time artist. He continued his drafting, but a dramatic change occurred in his paintings. He described this time as “…a personal renaissance,” which is evident in his color palate, bold lines, unique subject matters, and observant compositions.

This collection of his most precious works on paper is revealed for the first time to the public. Spanning his career from the 1930s to 1970s, the underlying genius of Lester’s enduring artistic talent is evident throughout.