Although Wlodzimierz Terlikowski is one of the most popular painters from the Parisian Montparnasse, his work was only discovered in Poland in the 1990s. Before that, he was a relatively unknown artist in his native Poland. Terlikowski was born to a railway clerk in Poraj, near Lódz. His biography is filled with myths, which he himself invented throughout his life. He sometimes claimed noble ancestry by adding "de" to his surname. He reportedly left his family home at the age of thirteen, walking to France. There, he supported himself by working as a farmhand, blacksmith, and circus rider.

Terlikowski studied briefly at the Munich Academy and then briefly at the studio of Jean-Paul Laurens in Paris, where he debuted with a solo exhib...