Belarusian / Polish artist Eugeniusz Zak (1884-1926) was born to a family of Polish Jews in Minsk, Belarus. As a boy he moved to Warsaw, where he graduated from a non-classical secondary school.
In 1902, he left for Paris to undertake studies, first at the École des Beaux-Arts in the studio of the aged master of academism Jean-Léon Gerôme, and then at Académie Colarossi in the studio of Albert Besnard.
In 1903, he traveled to Italy and toward the end of the year to Munich, where he entered a private school run by the Slovenian Anton Ažbé.
His fame grew rapidly. The French government purchased of one of his paintings for the Luxembourg Museum (1910), he organized a one-man show at Galerie Druet (1911), and he was connected with important personalities of Parisian cultural life, including the critics Adolf Basler and André Salmon.