Edmund Monsiel grew up in the family of his uncle, an organist. He began studies at the teachers’ seminary in Chełm but did not graduate. He later helped his mother manage a local shop before running his own store. It was closed during the German occupation in 1942 — the Nazis turned it into a military headquarters.
On December 25, 1942, Monsiel, who was part of a group of Łaszczów residents condemned to execution in retaliation for the murder of two gendarmes, miraculously escaped death. However, his brother-in-law was shot before his eyes along with seventy-five others.
In spring 1943, Monsiel took refuge with his brother Kazimierz in Wożuczyn. He lived in the attic and worked seasonally as a weighman and storekeeper in a sugar factory. In the 1950s, he lived in an abandoned house near the church and cemetery, later renting several rooms until his death.
After his death, his family found drawings and sketches locked in an old trunk. The oldest date from the 1920s, during his studies in Chełm — he may have begun drawing even earlier. Those created after his brother-in-law’s murder differ greatly from his prewar works.
Monsiel left behind around five hundred works, signed with his ornamented initials “EM,” often accompanied by moralizing mottos. He worked on paper, cardboard, sugar factory forms, book covers, or office files. His drawings draw on traditional folk and religious iconography and obsessively repeat a single motif: a mustached male face with hundreds of watchful eyes filling the entire surface of the paper.
Strange to the viewer, they stem from Monsiel’s deep faith. The inhabitants of Wożuczyn who are still alive remember a man who prayed daily in the town church, on the same pew — which also inspired some of his drawings — but also a cultivated, elegant person who took care of himself. Monsiel was also passionate about photography and was one of the first in the region to practice