Under the Ramparts – Marrakech
by Adam Styka

Adam Styka studied under his father Jan Styka, who took French nationality, and under his brother Tadé Styka. He arrived in Paris in 1918 and studied at the École des Beaux-Arts in Fernand Cormon's studio until 1912. In 1914, during World War I, he joined the Foreign Legion and at the end of the war he travelled around North Africa, particularly Morocco.

He began by painting genre scenes and then compositions inspired by his time in North Africa, notably several views of Marrakech and Egypt. Deeply impressed by the light in these regions, he devoted himself almost exclusively to painting scenes and landscapes of the Maghreb: Souks at Biskkra, Arab Chiefs in Council, Children Riding Donkeys on the Banks of the Nile and Entertainments in the Seraglio. His style is characterised by volumes solidly structured by the light and by sober yet contrasting tones. He also provided illustrations for the tale Théodora d'Alexandrie in Scattered Pearls: Arab Stories and Legends ( Les Perles Éparpillées, Contes et Légendes Arabes) by Wacyf Boutros Ghali, published in Paris in 1923; for Azyadé by Pierre Loti; and for The Land of Jungles ( Le Pays des Jungles) and Quo Vadis by Sienkiewicz.

He exhibited in Paris at the Salon de la Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts from 1911 and at the Salon des Orientalistes in 1914. An exhibition of his work was held at the Galerie Georges Petit in Paris in 1906.

In his later years he moved to the United States and focused his work on painting view of the Wild West which were received with great acclaim in the United States

Adam Styka passed away on 23rd of September 1959 and is buried in the Alley of the Merit in the cemetery if the "New Czestochowa" of the Pauline Fathers in Doylestown, Pennsylvania.