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Olga Boznańska

Olga Boznańska (1865-1940) painting at an easel in the studio of her home in ul. Wolska 21 in Kraków, ca. 1920. Paper photo, 12.2 x 16.9 cm, National Museum in Warsaw/Muzeum Narodowe w Warszawie, Inv. Nr. DI 97315/1

Mediathek Sorted

Media library
  • Ill. 1: Girl in a Hat with a Feather, 1887 - Study of a Girl in a Hat with a Feather, München 1887. Oil on canvas on paperboard, 58 x 44 cm
  • Ill. 2: Monk with Wine, 1887 - Monk with Wine, München 1887. Oil on canvas, 81.5 x 65,2 cm, signed top right: Boznańska Munich 87
  • Ill. 3: Young Woman with a Red Parasol, 1888 - Portrait of a Young Woman with a Red Parasol, 1888, Oil on canvas, 88 x 60 cm
  • Ill. 4: Gypsy Woman, 1888 - Portrait of a Woman (Gypsy Woman), 1888. Oil on canvas, 65 x 53 cm
  • Ill. 5: Florists, 1889  - Florists, 1889. Oil on canvas, 65 x 86 cm
  • Ill. 6: Japanese Woman, 1889  - Japanese Woman, 1889. Oil on wood, 37 x 21 cm
  • Ill. 7: From a Walk, 1889 - From a Walk (Lady in a White Dress), 1889. Oil on canvas, 161.5 x 100 cm
  • Ill. 8: Portrait of Zofia Federowicz, 1890  - Portrait of Zofia Federowicz, 1890. Oil on canvas, 150 x 100 cm
  • Ill. 9: Breton Woman II, 1890  - Breton Woman, version II, 1890. Oil on canvas 53 x 42 cm
  • Ill. 10: In the Orangery, 1890 - In the Orangery, 1890. Oil on canvas, 235 x 180 cm
  • Ill. 11: On Good Friday, 1890  - On Good Friday, 1890. Oil on canvas, 240 x 158 cm
  • Ill. 12: Girl with a Vegetable Basket, 1891 - Girl with a Vegetable Basket in the Garden, 1891. Oil on canvas, 125 x 85 cm
  • Ill. 13: Boy in School Uniform, ca. 1890 - Portrait of a Boy in School Uniform, ca. 1890. Oil on canvas, 180 x 100 cm
  • Ill. 14: Portrait of a Woman, 1891 - Portrait of a Woman, 1891. Oil on canvas, 122 x 80 cm
  • Ill. 15: Woman with a Japanese Parasol, 1892 - Portrait of a Woman with a Japanese Parasol, 1892. Oil on canvas, 65 x 52 cm
  • Ill. 16: Olga Boznańska, 1893 - Kasper Żelechowski (1863-1942): Portrait of Olga Boznańska with a Japanese Parasol, Krakòw 1893, photograph on albumen print, 18,4 x 11,5 cm
  • Ill. 17: In the Studio, ca. 1894  - In the Studio, ca. 1894. Oil on paperboard, 49 x 75 cm
  • Ill. 18: Portrait of Paul Nauen, 1893  - Portrait of Paul Nauen, 1893. Oil on canvas, 121 x 91 cm
  • Ill. 19: Self Portrait, 1893  - Self portrait, 1893. Oil on canvas, 70 x 57 cm
  • Ill. 20: Self Portrait, 1896 - Self portrait, 1896. Oil on paperboard, 55.2 x 42.5 cm
  • Ill. 21: Self Portrait, ca. 1897 - Self portrait, ca. 1897. Pastel on paper, 102 x 65 cm
  • Ill. 22: Woman with a Girl, ca. 1893 - Study of a Woman with a Girl, ca. 1893. Oil on paperboard, 56.5 x 43 cm
  • Ill. 23: Girl with Chrysanthemums, 1894  - Girl with Chrysanthemums, 1894. Oil on paperboard, 88.5 x 69 cm
  • Ill. 24: Woman in a White Blouse, 1894  - Portrait of a Woman in a White Blouse, 1894. Oil on paperboard, 67 x 48 cm
  • Ill. 25: Girl in the Garden, 1896  - Portrait of a Woman in a White Blouse, 1894. Oil on paperboard, 67 x 48 cm
  • Ill. 26: Two Children on the Stairs, ca. 1898 - Two Children on the Stairs, ca. 1898. Oil on paperboard, 102 x 75 cm
  • Ill. 27: Studio in Munich, 1896/98  - Olga Boznańska in her Studio in Georgenstraße, Munich, 1896/98. Paper photo, 12.5 x 9.4 cm
  • Ill. 28: Portrait of Anna Saryusz Zaleska, 1899  - Portrait of the painter Anna Saryusz Zaleska, 1899. Oil on paperboard, 68 x 64 cm
  • Ill. 29: Portrait of Antoni Kamieński, 1899  - Portrait of the painter Antoni Kamieński, 1899. Oil on paperboard, 95 x 49.5 cm
  • Ill. 30: Portrait of a Woman in a Blue Blouse, 1899 - Portrait of a Woman in a Blue Blouse, 1899. Oil on cardboard auf paperboard, 69 x 43 cm
  • Ill. 31: Grandmother’s Name Day, ca. 1900  - Grandmother’s Name Day, ca. 1900. Oil on canvas, 79 x 60 cm
  • Ill. 32: Two Girls, 1906.  - Portrait of Two Girls, Helena und Władysława Chmielarczyk, 1906. Oil on cardboard, 95 x 67 cm
  • Ill. 33: Portrait of Franciszek Mączyński, 1902  - Portrait of the Architect Franciszek Mączyński Franciszek Mączyński, 1902. Oil on paperboard, 72 x 68.5 cm
  • Ill. 34: Portrait of Maria Koźniewska-Kalinowska, 1903  - Portrait of the Painter Maria Koźniewska-Kalinowska, 1903. Oil on canvas, 73 x 53.5 cm
  • Ill. 35: Portrait of August Radwan, 1904/05  - Portrait of the Pianist August Radwan, 1904/05. Oil and tempera on canvas on paperboard, 75 x 80.3 cm
  • Ill. 36: Portrait of Zofia Kirkor-Kiedroń, 1903-05  - Portrait of Zofia Kirkor-Kiedroń (née Grabska), 1903-05. Oil on paperboard, 99 x 68 cm
  • Ill. 37: Portrait of Ludwig Puget, 1907  - Portrait of Ludwig Puget, 1907. Oil on canvas, 47 x 38 cm
  • Ill. 38: Portrait of Jadwiga Papara, 1907  - Portrait of Miss Jadwiga Papara from Lviv, 1907. Oil on paperboard, 117 x 91 cm
  • Ill. 39: Lady in a Red Hat, post 1900  - Portrait of a Lady in a Red Hat, post 1900. Pastel, 75 x 56.5 cm
  • Ill. 40: Young Man in Black, ca. 1900  - Portrait of a Young Man in Black, ca. 1900. Oil on paperboard, 92 x 46.5 cm
  • Ill. 41: Woman in a Brown Dress, ca. 1906  - Portrait of a Woman in a Brown Dress, ca. 1906. Oil on paperboard, 98.5 x 74.5 cm
  • Ill. 42: Bronze Bust, 1902 - Bolesław Biegas (1877-1954): Bust of Olga Boznańska, 1902. Bronze, 52 x 27 x 18 cm
  • Ill. 43: In the Studio in Kraków, 1906 - Interior of the Artist’s Studio in Kraków, 1906. Oil on paperboard, 50.5 x 73 cm
  • Ill. 44: Self Portrait, ca. 1906  - Self Portrait, ca. 1906. Pastel, gouache, chalk on cardboard, 74 x 43.5 cm
  • Ill. 45: Place des Ternes in Paris, ca. 1907  - Place des Ternes in Paris, ca. 1907. Oil on paperboard, 14 x 24 cm
  • Ill. 46: In the Studio, 1913  - In the Studio, 1913. Oil on paperboard, 68 x 44 cm
  • Ill. 47: View from the Krakòw Studio, ca. 1914  - View from the Krakòw Studio, ca. 1914. Oil on paperboard, 50 x 39 cm
  • Ill. 48: Self Portrait, post 1913  - Self Portrait, post 1913. Oil on paperboard, 55.2 x 46 cm
  • Ill. 49: Olga Boznańska, ca. 1913 - Olga Boznańska on the Sofa with a Cigarette in the Studio in her House in ul. Wolska 21 in Kraków, ca. 1913. Photograph, 16.9 x 12.2 cm
  • Ill. 50: Still Life, 1918  - Still Life, 1918. Oil on paperboard, 38.5 x 57.5 cm
  • Ill. 51: Poppies, post 1920  - Poppies, post 1920. Oil on paperboard, 46 x 38 cm
  • Ill. 52: Red Flowers, 1925-30  - Red Flowers, 1925-30. Oil on cardboard, 35 x 25.5 cm
  • Ill. 53: Flowers, ca. 1930  - Flowers, ca. 1930. Oil on wood, 29.5 x 41 cm
  • Ill. 54: Portrait of a Lady, ca. 1922  - Portrait of a Lady with a Threefold Pearl Necklace, ca. 1922. Oil on paperboard, 80 x 65 cm
  • Ill. 55: Portrait of Mrs Drzewiecka, post 1925  - Portrait of Mrs Drzewiecka, post 1925. Oil on cardboard, 50 x 35 cm
  • Ill. 56: Portrait of Miss Ellen, post 1925  - Portrait of Miss Ellen, post 1925. Oil on cardboard, 79 x 51.5 cm
  • Ill. 57: Portrait of Dr. Melania Lipińska, ca. 1926  - Portrait of Dr. Melania Lipińska, ca. 1926. Oil on paperboard, 62.5 x 41.5 cm
  • Ill. 58: Portrait of Miss Syrewicz, 1926 - Portrait of Miss Syrewicz, 1926. Oil on cardboard, 55 x 33.5 cm
  • Ill. 59: Portrait of Julia Rylska, ca. 1930  - Portrait of the writer and translator Julia Rylska, ca. 1930. Oil on cardboard, 69.5 x 48.5 cm
  • Ill. 60: Portrait of Maria Pfitzner, ca. 1930 - Portrait of Maria Pfitzner, ca. 1930. Oil on paperboard, 75 x 46 cm
  • Ill. 61: Portrait of Zofia Kulaszyńska, 1930  - Portrait of Zofia Kulaszyńska, 1930. Oil on cardboard, 47 x 35 cm
Olga Boznańska – Kraków, Munich, Paris
Olga Boznańska (1865-1940) painting at an easel in the studio of her home in ul. Wolska 21 in Kraków, ca. 1920. Paper photo, 12.2 x 16.9 cm, National Museum in Warsaw/Muzeum Narodowe w Warszawie, Inv. Nr. DI 97315/1

A much more private character can be seen in the “Portrait of a Woman with a Japanese Parasol” (1892, Ill. 15), which shows an unknown woman in a red dress sitting on a low windowsill. Once again an urban landscape is visible through the window. Japanese parasols can also be made out on wall decorations in the painter’s studio pictures (1890, private collection; Lublin Museum/Muzeum Lubelskie).[23] She is holding one herself on a photograph showing her in a painter’s overall in a front of a table with brushes and tubes of paint, which was taken in 1893 in Kraków (Ill. 16). The red woman might also have been painted in the window of her studio, be it in Kraków or in Theresienstraße studio in Munich, at one of Boznańska’ women friends, or at the home of her fiancé Józef Czajkowski, who began his studies at the Munich Academy in 1892 under the history and genre painter, Johann Caspar Herterich (1843-1905). Around this time Boznańska painted him in a black suit against a coloured background in the style of an open-air painting (National Museum in Kraków/Muzeum Narodowe w Krakowie).[24] It is presumably Czajkowski, who can be seen in the studio portrait made somewhat later, sitting on a green sofa on the right hand edge of the picture (Ill. 17).

Boznańska’s mother died in Krakòw in November 1892. She then travelled to Paris with her father and sister in order to visit her mother’s relatives. There she also met her cousin, a highly-regarded graphic artist by the name of Daniel Mordant (1853-1914), with whom she henceforth stayed in close contact. Czajkowski went to Paris in 1896 in order to study at the Académie Julian under Jean-Paul Laurens (1838-1921), Jean-Joseph Benjamin-Constant (1845-1902) and Whistler. In 1900 he returned to live in Kraków. On a brief visit to Paris he broke off his engagement to Boznańska because the two were still living far away from each other. He later worked as an architect, interior designer and professor at the Academy of Arts in Kraków, Wilna and Warsaw.[25]

In 1893 Boznańska contacted Paul Nauen, in whose private school she really wanted to study. Hedwig Weiß and another friend, Helena Kossobudzka, who lived in Munich from 1893 to 1900, showed Nauen one of Boznańska’s self-portraits in mourning clothes, which she had completed after the death of her mother. Nauen asked her if he could paint a portrait of her and she consented. True he destroyed the freshly painted portrait before its completion because he thought it did not do justice to the subject. That said, she returned the favour by making a portrait of Nauen (1893, Ill. 18) in a three-quarter length jacket sitting on a flowery sofa next to a small table with a Japanese tea cup in her studio in Theresienstraße. She later said that it had rained that morning and Nauen had arrived at the door with his collar turned up. “That was exactly what I wanted to paint”[26] That same year she was awarded a gold medal for her portrait of Samuel Hirszenberg’s brother shown at an exhibition staged by the Munich Artists’Cooperative. She participated in exhibitions in Prague and in the Berlin Kunsthandlung Amsler & Ruthardt, and travelled to Paris once more to visit her relatives. Her portrait of Paul Nauen was to make her famous all over Europe. In 1894 it earned her a silver medal at the Universal Exhibition of Polish Art in Lemberg/Lwów/Lviv, and a gold medal at the III International Exhibition of Art in Exhibition of Art in Vienna, which was presented to her by Archduke Karl Ludwig, the brother of the Austrian Emperor.[27] The painting was awarded second prize at the 1895 Zachęta exhibition in Warsaw 1895, and in the following year it was purchased by the National Museum in Kraków, the first of her pictures to be bought for a national collection. Her success paved the way for her as a portrait painter in Munich and in Poland.

 

[23] Exhibition cat. Olga Boznańska, Kraków 2014, page 113, 115; Exhibition cat. Olga Boznańska (1865-1940), Warsaw 2015, page 176 f.

[24] Illustration in the exhibition cat. Olga Boznańska, Kraków 2014, page 175

[25] For Józef Czajkowski, compare the biography in the Encyclopedia Polonica on this web portal and the article by Janusz Antos on culture.pl, http://culture.pl/en/artist/jozef-czajkowski

[26] Marcin Samlicki: Olga Boznańska, in: Sztuki Piękne, 1925/26, no. 3, pages 106-107, quoted from: Piotr Kopszak: In Munich, in: Exhibition cat. Olga Boznańska, Kraków 2014, page 42 f.

[27] ibid. page 43. Compare: Sammlungen und Ausstellungen, in: Kunstchronik. Wochenschrift für Kunst und Kunstgewerbe, Neue Folge 5, 1894, Heft 28, 14.6.1894, column 449; online: http://digi.ub.uni-heidelberg.de