Nacht-Samborski, (Stefan) Artur (b Kraków, 26 May 1898; d Warsaw, 9 Oct 1974). Polish painter. He trained at the Kraków Academy of Fine Arts (1917–19) under Wojciech Weiss and Józef Mehoffer, then went to Berlin (1920–23) and on his return to Kraków continued his studies (1923–4) under Felicjan Kowarski and Józef Pankiewicz. The Portrait of a Woman in a Green Dress (1924; Warsaw, N. Mus.), one of his first paintings, is not so much a portrait—the sitter does not show her face—as a pretext for applying colors. He remained primarily concerned with colour, understood in Post-Impressionist terms. Between 1924 and 1939 he was associated with the KAPISTS in Paris and thereafter adhered to their characteristic technique and subject-matter. During World War II, hiding in Lwów (now L’viv) and Warsaw, he painted joyful portraits of girls and young women with flowers. After the war he was appointed professor at the Sopot Higher School of Art and the Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts. He was a prolific artist. In his still-lifes he favoured painting flowers and leaves (e.g. Still-life with a White Jug, 1962; Lódz, Mus. A.). Some of his paintings (e.g. White Portrait, 1962; Kraków, N. Mus.) and drawings (e.g. Nika Bloc Avamo, sketchbook, 1960s; Lódz, Mus. A.) belong to the world of fantasy inhabited by strange, masked creatures, phantoms and puppets.
