Maria Dulębianka (born 21 November 1858 in Kraków, died 7 March 1919 in Lviv), an artist-painter, feminist and social activist, known today mainly through her (for many, controversial) relationship with Maria Konopnicka, was strongly associated with Lviv - so it is not surprising that the Lviv Art Gallery's collection contains several paintings by her. Among them are three little-known paintings that are self-portraits, which aptly depict the stages of Maria's life from her youth as a violinist and student at the Julian Academy in Paris, through her emancipation activities, to her social activities during the First World War.

Despite the multifaceted nature of her work, Dulębian was almost forgotten, hidden in the shadow of Maria Konopnicka. Few people know, however, that Maria Dulębianka was a very promising painter in the 1880s; her skills were appreciated by Stanisław Witkiewicz, Wojciech Gerson and Stefan Żeromski, among others. Dulębianka's talent was put on a par with that of Anna Bilińska, with whom she was friends during her studies at the French Académie Julian.

Self-portrait with violin
Maria Dulębianka's first known self-portrait was painted in 1890 and depicts a young thirty-two-year-old, very slim, painter - or rather, in this case, violinist - in a uniformly black outfit merging with a conventionally treated dark background. Noticeable in the upper part of the canvas are the underpainting clearances and brush marks forming a circle around the artist's head. Dulębianka's short brown hair and elongated, boyish face have been treated very sketchily. The model's slender and slim hands hold a violin and a bow. It seems as if Dulębianka stopped playing at that very moment. Or someone interrupted her playing.

The work is an embryo in the evolution of Dulębianka's talent, as she slowly freed herself from academism and sharp, drawing-like forms, through Rembrandtian chiaroscuro and dark, saturated backgrounds, towards quick brushstrokes and a softening, even blurring of contours, giving the work a more painterly and sketch-like quality.

The violin, which Maria could and liked to play, appeared in yet another painting. More than a decade later, Maria Dulębianka also used it in an Art Nouveau painting, 'Grajek (Towards His)' (c. 1902), in which 'the figure of the violinist [...] was moved to the very edge of the canvas, thus introducing a little Art Nouveau asymmetry into the painting'. Joanna Sosnowska considered the depicted figure to be Maria Dulębianka's alter ego - under the figure of a lonely musician playing for himself, the artist depicted herself - equally lonely and overlooked. "Dulębianka seems to advocate adopting the stance of the gypsy artist, understood as an androgynous and romantically alienated figure". Loneliness accompanied Maria Dulębianka from the very beginning of her painting studies. She rejected family life and devoted herself to art at an early age, while women artists were just beginning the struggle for their emancipation - so she was alienated, not fitting into the social norm. Not only in terms of her artistic profession, but also her androgynous appearance. The same can be seen in the self-portrait, in which the artist looks outside the frame of the painting after an interrupted game, and one might even get the impression that she is looking at something directly behind the viewer.

Self-portrait in beret
Between the end of the 19th century and 1910, two more self-portraits by Maria Dulębianka were created. The first is a 'Self-portrait in beret' dated around 1905. It depicts the artist with her (and other 'Self-Portraits') characteristic short hairstyle and binoculars on her nose. Dressed in a navy blue overcoat and a large beret of the same colour, she emerges from a dark background. This is Maria Dulębianka's best self-portrait. The seriousness on her face, her gaze focused on the viewer, characterise an educated and independent woman, a feminist, an artist - of which the beret, which entered women's fashion in the 20th century as a symbol of emancipation, is a material symbol. Likewise with the binoculars, which on the face of women were supposed to show their intellectual training.

The work perfectly illustrates what Maria Dulębianka was preoccupied with at the turn of the century - she was intensely involved in struggles for women's rights. In the mid-1890s, she severely criticised Bolesław Prus for his anti-feminist views; shortly afterwards, she tried to win access to education for women at the Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow (competing with Olga Boznańska for the position of headmistress). For the next dozen years or so, alongside Maria Konopnicka, Paulina Kuczalska-Reinshmitt and other suffragettes, she organised rallies, edited women's magazines (e.g. "Ster") and wrote various proclamations, papers, and even ran for the Galician parliament (in 1908). During her travels in Europe, together with the poet, she participated in many international women's conventions, most often as a representative of the Polish women's movement.

Maria Dulębianka's last "Self-Portrait"
. A few years later, another 'Self-portrait' (1910) was created, decidedly different from the previous two. It depicts a morbidly thin and pale artist, whose silhouette, including her head, is lost in the brown background, giving the figure a ghostly character. The outline of a painter's palette and brushes can be seen in the painter's hands, indicating that perhaps the painting is unfinished. What catches the eye, however, is Dulębianka's sad face. The painting was created in the year in which her partner, Maria Konopnicka, died (who rightly, as the Self-Portraits confirm, called her a 'skinny' or 'anaemic' woman). It was probably painted after the poet's death and has a strong emotional connection to her - after all, the artist lost her closest person, with whom she spent over twenty years of her life. The work brings to mind the words spoken by Maria Dulębianka at Paulina Kuczalska-Reinshmitt's jubilee: "[...] a woman sought the principle of her being in love. When she lost this quality [...] she also lost the raison d'être of her existence, felt knocked out of the orbit of life, without purpose - without support, without future. We all know the type of woman with the eternal question on her lips: Why am I living in the world? This is the type of woman who is disappointed in love, all the same what kind of love. When disappointed in love, she falls into despair or devotion. And man's love and man himself pass away'.

The work, apart from the artist's grief, depicts well the spectre of war that hung over Poland. In addition to the emancipation of women, Dulębian was also strongly involved in social activities, and during the First World War she devoted all her time to social activities. "Who does not remember this dear character, so well-known in Lviv, wearing a small hat on her head, with a briefcase under her arm, with an umbrella in her hand, always hurrying without rest - from the "Advice Centre"? to the magistrate's office, from the magistrate's office to the committee, from meeting to meeting, from meeting to meeting, for the good of the institution, for solving some difficulty, for finding ways and people, for remedying some misfortune or need", Janina Łada-Walicka wrote about her.

A month after regaining independence, Maria Dulębianka did not enjoy free Poland for too long - just a few months later, infected with typhoid fever, she died on 7 March 1919 as an emissary of the Red Cross.