Symbolist painter Wilhelm Kotarbinsky (1849-1921) was born in the town of Nieborow near Warsaw, as a painter he was formed in Rome, and spent almost half of his life in Kiev, which he called "the birthplace of miracles." He was an extraordinary person in all respects: a representative of an old Polish gentry family chose the difficult life of an artist, a Catholic painted an Orthodox cathedral. It was thanks to the frescoes painted for the Vladimir Cathedral (1887–1895) that Wilhelm Kotarbinsky became truly famous in the Russian Empire. He wrote a lot - for example, at the exhibition of 1898 more than 100 works were presented. Starting with mythological and biblical subjects characteristic of classicism, in his mature years Wilhelm Kotarbinsky became a prominent representative of symbolism; mystery. The artist was buried in Kyiv, which he loved so much, at the Baikove cemetery.