He used to sit on the low wall in front of the Spa House in the centre of Krynica and lay out a trunk with drawings and watercolours for sale for a pittance. Laughed at, considered a beggar, having no home of his own, displaced because of his Lemko origin, he had lived in poverty and loneliness for many years. Convinced of his talent, he worked tirelessly. He created thousands of paintings on cardboard, notebook pages and found scraps of paper. Many of them, never appreciated, have been irretrievably lost. He was an excellent colourist. He painted landscapes, both real and fantastic, portraits of patients, images of Orthodox and Catholic churches, synagogues and Krynica villas. He was improving upon reality: in his own, painted world, he would sit with saints in the same row. This was how he wanted to be seen: in the black outfit of a painter, sometimes with a box of paints or a brush. Nikifor’s art was noticed in the 1930s but the recognition of his talent only started to translate into improved living conditions in the 1950s. His works were displayed in galleries in Paris, Brussels, Amsterdam, Tel Aviv and Vienna. He also had his own exhibition at the Zachęta Gallery in Warsaw in 1967, a year before his death.