The artistic personality of Olga Boznańska (1865-1940), regarded as one of the most important Polish portraitists at the turn of the 20th century, was shaped by three centres: Krakow, Munich and Paris.

In the shadow of patriarchy

Born in 1865 in Kraków, it was there that she took her first painting lessons at private art schools. However, the level of education for women in the Austrian partition at the time was not sufficient for an ambitious girl dreaming of an international career - she could not compete on an equal footing with men, and access to universities was closed to her because of her gender. Although the education of young women, due to the social roles assigned to them, was mostly met with a negative reception, Boznanska's parents were open to realising their daughters' ambitions. They understood the importance of education and the emancipation of women, both Olga and her younger, musically gifted sister Iza.

Education in Krakow

Olga's first teacher was her mother, Eugenia Mondan. Her first drawings, characterised by simplicity and an intuitive sense of colour, date from this period. Boznańska then studied at the Adrian Baraniecki Higher Courses for Women - the best school for women available in Kraków at the time - under Antoni Adam Piotrowski, Kazimierz Pochwalski and Józef Siedlecki.

The Munich episode

The next stage of Boznanska's artistic development was marked by her stay in Munich between 1885 and 1897. In the Bavarian capital, the painter developed her technique under the tutelage of Karl Kricheldorf and Wilhelm Dürr, participated in exhibitions, established social contacts and achieved her first artistic successes. During her stay, she created in her own studio, remaining under the supervision of the Polish painters Jozef Brandt and Alfred Wierusz-Kowalski.

The Munich period is marked by works that opened the door for Boznanska to the most important European art salons. These works include the Japanising 'Florists' (1889), 'Portrait of Paul Nauen' (1893), which won a silver medal at the Lviv Universal Art Exhibition, a gold medal at the Vienna International Exhibition and an award at an exhibition at the Society for the Encouragement of Fine Arts in Warsaw, and her most recognisable work, 'Girl with Chrysanthemums' (1894). Also created in Munich were the exoticising 'Japoness', 'Interior of the Studio', and numerous portraits, including Eugeniusz Dąbrowa-Dąbrowski (1898), which would soon become her signature work.

Career in Paris

From 1898, Boznańska lived in Paris, with which she tied her fate until the end of her life. The French capital enabled her to fulfil her dream of becoming a professional artist, which was of crucial importance to her. As she herself emphasised, if she could no longer paint, she should stop living. At the end of the nineteenth century, the city to which Boznanska moved as a mature woman in her thirties (although, like many female artists, she consistently took a few years off her age) was teeming with artistic life. It was here that modern trends in art took shape and exhibitions were held that changed the face of the age. In the diverse creative environment of the metropolis, Boznańska became fully independent - both in her personal and professional life. She created in two studios rented successively in the Montparnasse district, located on the left bank of the Seine. Her first Parisian address was 114 Rue de Vaugirard and the second, from 1907, was 49 Rue de Montparnasse - the studio where James Whistler himself had previously worked.

The period from her arrival in the French capital until the outbreak of the First World War was a time of greatest success for Boznanska, with numerous commissions, important exhibitions and awards won. She regularly participated in exhibitions all over the world - not only in Paris and Vienna, but also in Amsterdam, London, Munich, Berlin and the United States. She took part both in exhibitions of international importance and, it is worth noting, in the little-appreciated expositions of women's art of the era. From 1898, she also sent her works to her native Krakow, mainly to exhibitions organised by the Society of Polish Artists 'Sztuka', initially as a member and later also as its president. Boznańska was the first woman to be admitted to this prestigious, all-male group of artists, and one of only two women in the history of the group, alongside the sculptor Zofia Trzcińska-Kamińska.

Boznanska's exhibition successes culminated in her solo exhibition, organised as part of the international XXI Art Biennale in Venice in 1938. During this prestigious event, five of the artist's paintings were sold. Interestingly, one of them, 'Portrait of Constance Dygatova' (1907), ended up in the prestigious collection of King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy.

Frequent and regular participation in exhibitions was a conscious strategy for Boznanska to build her reputation. Thanks to well-considered promotional activities, her works found their way into both private and public collections during her lifetime, which was an ennoblement and a confirmation of the high artistic level of her work.

Portrait art

During her Parisian period, Boznańska developed her original portrait formula. In her compositions she concentrated on the model's face, conveying the mental state, character and mood of the model. Sketchy depictions of figures, a nervous brushstroke, narrow colour tonality with a predominance of greys and browns, convey the often merciless story of the human soul. A hallmark of Boznanska's portraits was sadness and melancholy, as she mentioned in a letter to her friend from Krakow, Julia Gradomska, in 1908: "all the critics write that they are sad, what will I do that is sad? I can't be other than I am, if the foundation is sad, then everything that grows on it must be sad". Despite the unflattering opinions of critics about the mood prevalent in her work, Boznańska believed in the artistic value of her works, as she mentioned in another letter to Julia: "My paintings look wonderful because they are the truth, they are honest, lordly, there is no pettiness in them, no mannerism, no blandness. They are quiet and alive and as if a light veil separates them from the onlookers. They are in their own atmosphere".

Boznanska's most virtuosic works - portraits in light colours, enlivened with white, which give the impression of being delicately misty - date from the first decades of the 20th century. These works captured the viewer's attention with their refined costumes and discreet accessories. The clientele for Boznanska's portraits was mainly the intelligentsia, sometimes the bourgeoisie or aristocracy; the artist created portraits of wealthy emigrants and sad and tired children posing for long periods. These paintings were created both in Paris and during her almost annual holiday stays in Krakow. Interestingly, the artist liked to interfere with the appearance of her models, dressing them up and posing them, explaining: "Sometimes there is an interesting female face, but well, it comes so greased that I have to ask you to wash yourself, because, I say, how am I supposed to paint a lady, you have already painted yourself!".

Boznanska's oeuvre includes portraits of many prominent figures, including the writer Henryk Sienkiewicz and the collector Feliks Manggha Jasieński. A special place in the painter's oeuvre is occupied by images of influential women, maintained in a characteristic sketch-like convention, such as the portrait of Jadwiga Sapieżyna, Elza née Sara Krausowa, Mrs Dygat or the wife of the Minister of Industry and Trade Józef Kiedroni and the sister of the Prime Minister Władysław Grabski and the Minister of Religious Denominations and Public Enlightenment Stanisław Grabski, Zofia Kirkor-Kiedroniowa.

The art critic Alfred Basler described them as "lordly, exquisite, refined", adding that "she persistently painted and continues to paint the same 'blurred' portraits, which average tastes cannot bear. Never beautifying the model, but bringing out from him only that which is a painterly characteristic [...]. The individuality is the same in her first works as in her most recent ones. It is difficult to make a mistake when looking at her portraits. From afar, what stands out is her touch of the completely separate, that peculiar expression of mothers with children, lively boys on the railing, in groupings full of harmony, in the portraits of men and women, in that uniform grey colour with the emphasis on faces, as if petrified".

Still lifes

Alongside portraits, still lifes occupied an important place in Boznanska's artistic output, especially towards the end of her life - when she was receiving fewer and fewer commissions. In the last years of her life, plants became the almost exclusive subject of her works. Boznańska had a particular fondness for painting flowers in bloom, symbolising transience, and those in full bloom, expressing the vital forces of nature. She usually created small, sketch-like compositions. Full of finesse and subtlety, the works exuded peace and tranquillity.

Views from the studio

Boznańska's painting oeuvre also includes landscapes, which are mainly views stretching from the windows of successive ateliers over shady courtyards, Parisian and Krakow streets. Boznańska created them for herself, which makes them usually experimental, bravura compositions in which the painter allowed herself greater creative freedom. In her statements, she emphasised that she disliked landscape, and it was only towards the end of her life that she was to regret having devoted so little space to this genre. Her dislike of landscape was probably due to her agoraphobia, or fear of open space, and her peculiar disposition, manifested in the volatility and unpredictability of her moods. The artist maintained that: "landscape is terribly difficult. You can't plant a landscape on the sofa and have it come to the studio a dozen times...'.

The last twelve years of Boznańska's life are known from the descriptions and letters of Edward Chmielarczyk, a lawyer who was a friend of the Boznański family and helped administer the Krakow house on Wolska Street, and Jan Szymański, a counsellor at the Polish embassy who supported the artist in Paris. During this period, the artist was struggling with health and financial problems, but also with concern for the health of her sister Iza, who had been diagnosed with 'hysterical neurosis' and addiction to alcohol and morphine. After Iza's unexpected suicide in 1934, Olga never regained her inner balance. Although as an artist, as Szymański notes in one of his letters, 'she is undoubtedly in the fullness of her physical, mental, moral powers, her spirit, her artistry. The moment she picks up a palette or a paintbrush, or rather brushes, one can see, I would say instantly, the most complete balance in Mrs Olga Boznańska, simply unbroken nervous calmness, clarity of thought, inexhaustible power of work, work will and love, she becomes Olga Boznańska naturally, vividly, interestingly, calmly, reasonably, kindly and close to everyone. These are also the most pleasant moments in the present life of Mrs Olga Boznańska".

The last moments of her life

Olga Boznańska died on 26 October 1940. The day before, she was taken to the Sisters of Charity hospital on Boulevard Saint-Marcel, where she received her last anointing. She was buried a few days later, on 31 October, at Les Champeaux cemetery in Montmorency near Paris, in a necropolis considered to be the pantheon of Polish emigration in France.