Olga Boznańska
1865 - 1940

Kazimierz Pochwalski, a well-known painter, gave Olga Boznańska drawing lessons at the beginning of 1883. Boznańska then studied in Munich at Karl Kircheldorf's private studio and later at the studio of Wilhelm Durr.

Her individual language of painting was essentially shaped after she had been introduced to the works of the Symbolists, mainly James Abbott McNeill Whistler, as well as Wilhelm Leibl and Edouard Manet. She perfected her skills by studying and copying works of the Old Masters at the Pinakothek in Munich and Velázquez's paintings in Vienna. The artist soon became independent and rented her own studio. In 1895, she became the head of the School of Painting in Munich as a substitute for its owner, Professor Hummel. In 1896, Boznańska rejected a proposal from Julian Fałat, then rector of the School of Fine Arts in Kraków, to run a painting department for women.

The painter regarded the time spent in Munich to have been the most meaningful in her artistic life. Her palette took shape there, and only very few new hues were to be added later to enrich it. Boznańska had a predilection to use a monochromatic range of colors: shades of gray, brown and black, green, brown and black, or, white, pink and black. The artist created a distinctive style, which she continued to improve throughout her life. When she moved to Paris in 1898, she was a skillful painter. During 1898-1914, she achieved significant success, enjoyed enthusiastic publicity, and was awarded numerous commissions and prizes. Yet, Boznańska spent the years between World Wars I and II in solitude and oblivion. Louis Vauxcelles wrote: "What an artist! The famous Pole haunts and enchants us, putting us on the verge of obsession."

The artist painted still lifes, especially compositions with flowers, and occasionally a landscape or interior (e.g., the interior of her own studio), but portraiture was predominant in her oeurve. She painted both formal and intimate portraits of adults and children, groups as well as individuals. Boznańska almost always used oils and only exceptionally, pastels. She painted on cardboard, on an ungessoed, coarse surface, using paint direct from the tube applied with small brush strokes. She often used a palette knife to scrape off paint, left areas of the surface unpainted, and never used varnish. As a result of this technique, the surface quality of her paintings was light and vibrating. The figure and surrounding space were integrated into one artistic entity. She "rendered her models unrealistically" in order to express their spirituality. Boznańska paid much attention to depicting hands exemplified by her statement: "how delightful it is to paint a hand, especially when it is beautiful, veinous, and lean with long fingers. Each hand has its own expression, its own character and temperament" (see Blum 1974, p.78). She spent a long time working on a portrait, sometimes taking several months, which required her to arrange numerous meetings with the sitter.

Her technical means were subordinated to a superior principle – to render the truth about the portrayed figure. The artist commented upon her works shown at Cent tableaux. L'exposition des Madmoiselles in a letter to Julia Gradomska in 1909: "My paintings look splendid, because they tell the truth. They are honest and lordly. There is no narrow-mindedness or mannerism in them; there is no claptrap. They are alive and silent as if they were separated by a light curtain from their viewers. They exist in their own atmosphere." Her portraits did not appeal to common taste as the artist did not hesitate to show the expressions of pride, haughtiness or even blankness; they were created for connoisseurs who were able to acknowledge their extraordinary value.

Her debut took place at the Society of Friends of the Fine Arts in Kraków in 1886. Her works were frequently displayed in Poland and abroad: Berlin (1892, 1893), Munich (1893), Prague, London and Paris (1896), the Carnegie Institute in Pittsburgh (1901, 1906, 1907, 1920-1928), Amsterdam (1912), and Venice (1914, 1938), among other places. She received numerous awards – including those from the Legion of Honor in 1912 and the Order of Polonia Restituta in 1938. Boznańska became a member of the Society of Polish Artists - "Sztuka" in 1898 and joined the Societe Nationale des Beaux-Arts in Paris in 1904.

-- Anna Król

Works in the collection: