Olga Boznańska gained her greatest recognition through her portrait work. Of all the subjects she took up, she was most fascinated by people. This ranged from those closest to her - family and friends - to figures about whose relationship with the painter we know very little. Such is the case with the portrayed around 1912. "Madame Paris", whose image is in the collection of the Polish Museum in America.

The portrait of 'Madame Paris' came to the United States in connection with the 1939 World Exhibition held in New York. Among the greatest achievements of the social, economic and cultural life of the time, presented in the Polish Pavilion, the work of Olga Boznańska, who was already highly regarded at the time, could not be missing. The painting selected by the artist left her Parisian studio in February 1939 and never returned to Europe. Its fate, like that of the other 11,000 exhibits in the Polish Pavilion, was thwarted by the outbreak of the Second World War. After the end of the exhibition in October 1940, some of them were auctioned off and most were deposited by the commissioner of the pavilion, Stefan Ropp, at the Polish Museum in America in Chicago, where they remain to this day.

The mysterious 'Madame Paris '
Although Olga Boznanska's work has been the subject of two major exhibitions in Polish museums in recent years (in 2014 at the National Museum in Krakow and in 2015 at the National Museum in Warsaw), due to the paucity of historical sources on the subject, little information could be found on 'Madame Paris'. Nevertheless, the data published at the time shed new light on Boznanska's work, which had previously not even been precisely dated. The reported term 'before 1939' was only linked to the painting's first appearance at an exhibition in New York. The identification of Madame Paris - a French intellectual, philosopher, pupil of Henri Bergson and Wincenty Lutoslawski - helped to clarify the date of its creation. Her death in the summer of 1912, while travelling in the Algerian desert, led researchers to narrow down the dating of the painting.

Little is known about the circumstances under which the portrait was painted and what Boznanska's relationship was with the French philosopher. An interesting clue is the business card of 'Madame de Paris' kept in the collection of the Polish Library in Paris. The address on it, which is, incidentally, located near Boznanska's last Parisian studio, was a place where spiritualistic séances were organised. It is therefore likely that it was there that the two characters met.

"Painter of Grey "
Looking at the portrait of 'Madame Paris', it is difficult not to agree with the above term applied to Boznanska (also by herself). The large oil painting (dimensions 95x74 cm) shows Madame Paris in a sitting position, with her hands clasped in her lap. The portraitist has her gaze directed ahead and her mouth slightly open. As usual in her paintings, Boznańska paid most attention to the face, leaving the rest of the figure blurred, indistinct. The image, placed as if behind a fog, gives the impression of sadness and melancholy.

Boznańska's work is associated with Post-Impressionism, but in fact she developed her own style characterised by the juxtaposition of vibrant patches of colour and a focus on the psychology of the portrayed figures.

Olga Boznańska - 'artist of the whole world '
The daughter of a French woman and a Pole, Olga Boznańska (1865-1940) spent most of her life outside Poland. After receiving her initial education in Krakow, she continued her education in Munich and moved permanently to Paris from 1898. Boznańska had already visited there frequently, and in 1896 she made her debut at the Paris Salon. In the French capital she developed a career as an international portraitist. Her paintings feature the whole plethora of artists, intellectuals and writers of the time.

The largest collection of Olga Boznanska's paintings is in the collections of Polish museums, but we can also admire her works in Paris, Lvov, Venice, or just in the United States. In the words used by the painter Gustaw Gwozdecki years ago, she is "not only our artist, but the artist of the whole world, because she is not only valued here. The Artist of Artists. An artist of people who think, who feel..." are even more relevant today.

Restoring the former brilliance
In 2018, some of the paintings presented at the 1939 New York World Exhibition, and now part of the collection of the Polish Museum in America, underwent conservation and restoration work financed by the POLONIKA Institute Among them was the portrait of 'Madame Paris', which underwent a series of treatments to restore its original brilliance. The face of the painting was cleaned and the yellowed varnish removed. The conservators from Parma Conservations carried out restoration work on the lower right-hand corner of the canvas, as well as replacing the paint layer.

ca. 1912

Olga Boznańska