Anna Bilińska (pronounced: also known as Anna Bilińska-Bohdanowicz; 8 December 1854 – 8 April 1893) was a Polish

painter Painting is a Visual arts, visual art, which is characterized by the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called "matrix" or "Support (art), support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with ...

, known for her portraits. A representative of realism, she spent most of her life in Paris, and is considered the "first internationally known Polish woman artist."

Life

Early years

She was born 1854 in Zlatopol (formerly a frontier town of the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...

, today a part of Novomyrhorod,

Ukraine Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...

) as ''Anna Bilińska'', and spent her childhood there with her father, a Polish physician. Of her background, she joked that she "ha a

Cossack The Cossacks are a predominantly East Slavic Eastern Christian people originating in the Pontic–Caspian steppe of eastern Ukraine and southern Russia. Cossacks played an important role in defending the southern borders of Ukraine and Rus ...

's temperament, but a Polish heart" (). The family then moved to Central Russia, where Anna's first art teachers were Ignacy Jasiński and Michał Elwiro Andriolli, both deported by the Tsarist government to Vyatka for their part in the

January Uprising The January Uprising was an insurrection principally in Russia's Kingdom of Poland that was aimed at putting an end to Russian occupation of part of Poland and regaining independence. It began on 22 January 1863 and continued until the last i ...

of 1863–1864. In 1875, Bilińska's mother moved the family to Warsaw, enrolling her of-age children in the conservatoire. Anna was a talented pianist, an activity considered a suitable achievement for a woman of her class and time. But painting, a more suspect pursuit, would become her preference. In 1877, she became a student of the painter

Wojciech Gerson Wojciech Gerson (; 1 July 1831 – 25 February 1901) was a Polish painter, educator, architect and art critic who was one of the foremost representatives of the Polish school of Realism during the foreign Partitions of Poland. He served as long ...

and began to exhibit her work at

Warsaw Warsaw, officially the Capital City of Warsaw, is the capital and List of cities and towns in Poland, largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the Vistula, River Vistula in east-central Poland. Its population is officially estimated at ...

's '' Zachęta'' Society for the Promotion of Fine Arts (). Against her parents' wishes, she hired her own studio at 2 Nowy Świat Street, selling her paintings and paying the studio's rent from her own funds.

Europe: travels to Austria, Italy & Paris

In early 1882, she accompanied her chronically ill friend Klementyna Krassowska on a journey to

Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...

Salzburg Salzburg is the List of cities and towns in Austria, fourth-largest city in Austria. In 2020 its population was 156,852. The city lies on the Salzach, Salzach River, near the border with Germany and at the foot of the Austrian Alps, Alps moun ...

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

and northern Italy, before traveling to and settling in Paris, where she studied along with

Marie Bashkirtseff Marie Bashkirtseff, born Maria Konstantinovna Bashkirtseva (; – 31 October 1884), was an émigré artist who was born into a noble family on their estate near the city of Poltava. She lived and worked in Paris, and died at the age of 25. L ...

and English artist Emmeline Deane at the

Académie Julian The () was a private art school for painting and sculpture founded in Paris, France, in 1867 by French painter and teacher Rodolphe Julian (1839–1907). The school was active from 1868 through 1968. It remained famous for the number and qual ...

, and where later she also taught. In 1884, her father, Jan Biliński, and Krassowska died, leaving her emotionally devastated. However, her future was financially secured in Krassowska's last will and she was taken care of by fellow painter Maria Gażycz who lived in

Normandy Normandy (; or ) is a geographical and cultural region in northwestern Europe, roughly coextensive with the historical Duchy of Normandy. Normandy comprises Normandy (administrative region), mainland Normandy (a part of France) and insular N ...

. In 1889, she presented her ''Self-Portrait'' at the Exposition Universelle in Paris for which she was awarded a silver medal and was granted the right to exhibit her works out of competition during future editions of the event. This proved to be her first major international success. In 1889, her works were exhibited at the Royal Academy of Art in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

. In 1891, they were displayed at an annual international exhibition in Berlin where she was awarded a gold medal. She lived in France until 1892, when she married Antoni Bohdanowicz, a doctor of medicine, and took his name. After their marriage, they returned to Warsaw, where she intended to open a Parisian-style art school for women, but fell ill with a heart condition and died a year later on 8 April 1893. She was interred at Warsaw's

Powązki Cemetery Powązki Cemetery (; ), also known as Stare Powązki (), is a historic necropolis located in Wola district, in the western part of Warsaw, Poland. It is the most famous cemetery in the city and one of the oldest, having been established in 179 ...

Works

Anna Bilińska is best known for her portraits, especially those featuring women, painted with great intuition. Her ''Self-Portrait with Apron and Brushes'' (1887) developed a new self-portrait pose by placing the artist in front of a model's backdrop, thus stating that she is her own model. Her portrait titled ''By the Window'' (1890), painted using the pastel technique, was regarded by 19th-century critics as Bilińska's most modern painting considering its subject matter, framing, and the use of light. It depicts a young girl leaning out of a window towards a sunlit garden and was probably painted during the artist's summer holiday spent in the fishing village of

Boyardville Boyardville () is a district in the town of Saint-Georges-d'Oléron on the eastern part of Oléron Island (''Île d'Oléron''), Charente-Maritime, Nouvelle-Aquitaine, France. The community has a small beach resort, fishing port, and marina, and it ...

. Among her notable male portraits is the portrait of American sculptor

George Grey Barnard George Grey Barnard (May 24, 1863 – April 24, 1938), often written George Gray Barnard, was an American sculptor who trained in Paris. He is especially noted for his heroic sized ''Struggle of the Two Natures in Man'' at the Metropolitan Museum ...

painted in 1890 at the request of Alfred Corning Clark. She also painted

still life A still life (: still lifes) is a work of art depicting mostly wikt:inanimate, inanimate subject matter, typically commonplace objects which are either natural (food, flowers, dead animals, plants, rocks, shells, etc.) or artificiality, human-m ...

s, genre scenes and landscapes using oil watercolors and sometimes pastels. Two of Bilińska's paintings went missing after

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

: '' A Negress'' (1884) and ''The Italian Woman'' (1880). The former was rediscovered at an auction in Germany in 2011 and successfully reclaimed in 2012 thanks to the efforts of the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage of Poland. It is currently displayed at the

National Museum in Warsaw The National Museum in Warsaw (, MNW) is a national museum in Warsaw, one of the largest museums in Poland and the largest in the capital. It comprises a rich collection of ancient art ( Egyptian, Greek, Roman), counting about 11,000 pieces, an ...

. Her paintings can be found in the

National Museum A national museum can be a museum maintained and funded by a national government. In many countries it denotes a museum run by the central government, while other museums are run by regional or local governments. In the United States, most nati ...

Wrocław Wrocław is a city in southwestern Poland, and the capital of the Lower Silesian Voivodeship. It is the largest city and historical capital of the region of Silesia. It lies on the banks of the Oder River in the Silesian Lowlands of Central Eu ...

Kraków , officially the Royal Capital City of Kraków, is the List of cities and towns in Poland, second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city has a population of 804,237 ...

, Victoria Art Gallery in

Bath Bath may refer to: * Bathing, immersion in a fluid ** Bathtub, a large open container for water, in which a person may wash their body ** Public bathing, a public place where people bathe * Thermae, ancient Roman public bathing facilities Plac ...

, Musée d'art moderne in

Saint-Étienne Saint-Étienne (; Franco-Provençal: ''Sant-Etiève''), also written St. Etienne, is a city and the prefecture of the Loire département, in eastern-central France, in the Massif Central, southwest of Lyon, in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes regi ...

, Lviv National Art Gallery, Gothenburg Museum of Art,

State Museum of Pennsylvania The State Museum of Pennsylvania is a non-profit history museum at 300 North Street in downtown Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, United States. It is run by the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission to preserve and interpret the Commonwealth's h ...

, Berlin Musical Instrument Museum as well as private collections.

Legacy

Bilińska is considered the first female Polish artist to receive a professional artistic education at an academic level and to earn critical acclaim abroad. She was included in the 2018

American Federation of Arts The American Federation of Arts (AFA) is a nonprofit organization that creates art exhibitions for presentation in museums around the world, publishes exhibition catalogues, and develops education programs. The organization’s founding in 1909 ...

' exhibition ''Women Artists in Paris, 1850–1900''. Shortly after Bilińska's father died in 1882, Bilińska's portrait, depicting the artist in deep mourning, was painted by her friend, Emmeline Deane, in Paris. This painting (now in the Victoria Art Gallery) evoked such emotional intensity of loss that, when exhibited in Paris and London, it "caused such a stir that it featured in a cartoon in Punch magazine." The work is considered to be significant because it was not common, at that time, for women painters to create formal salon-style portraits of other women painters, let alone to exhibit them. Bilińska's work was not well known through the 20th century, even in her home country. Some credit the "prejudices of the time and her own early death and short career" for this lack of recognition, but, if so, it was a fate she held in common with numerous other gifted women painters of the 19th century. In 2017, thirty-seven of these "forgotten female artists" were featured in the traveling exhibition, ''Women Artists in Paris, 1850–1900.'' The show codified the works of numerous 19th century women artists whose paintings had begun to be increasingly appreciated. The show was criticized for failing to fully explore why these artists "continue to be underestimated." In 2021 the National Museum in Warsaw held a major retrospective of Bilińska work, displaying over 120 paintings (including Deane's 1886 portrait). The exhibition's biographical notes provided a timely assessment of her work, proclaiming that Bilińska's paintings had become "part of the canon of Polish art," while simultaneously reflecting that the scholarship on her "entire œuvre and life story" remained, as yet, incomplete. The exhibition reviewers' consensus appeared to be that the show was finally bringing Bilińska the "recognition she deserves," and at the same time advancing further questions about her art and life.

Exhibitions

Posthumous

* ''Artystka, Anna Bilińska 1854–1893''; (26 Jun – 10 Oct 2021)

, Poland. Solo retrospective. * ''Women Artists in Paris, 1850–1900''; (22 Oct 2017 – 15 Jan 2018)

Denver Art Museum The Denver Art Museum (DAM) is an art museum located in the Civic Center of Denver, Colorado. With an encyclopedic collection of more than 70,000 diverse works from across the centuries and world, the DAM is one of the largest art museums betwe ...

Colorado Colorado is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States. It is one of the Mountain states, sharing the Four Corners region with Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. It is also bordered by Wyoming to the north, Nebraska to the northeast, Kansas ...

(17 Feb – 13 May 2018); Speed Art Museum in

Louisville, Kentucky Louisville is the List of cities in Kentucky, most populous city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky, sixth-most populous city in the Southeastern United States, Southeast, and the list of United States cities by population, 27th-most-populous city ...

; and (9 Jun – 3 Sep 2018) at the

Clark Art Institute The Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, commonly referred to as the Clark, is an art museum and research institution located in Williamstown, Massachusetts, Williamstown, Massachusetts, United States. Its collection consists of European ...

, Williamstown, MA.

Gallery

Selected paintings

File:Bilińska At the seashore.jpg, '' At the Seashore'' (1886),

File:Anna Bilinska-Bogdanowicz bretonkanaprogu.jpg, ''Breton Woman Standing on a Doorstep'', 1889, National Museum in Wrocław File:Anna Bilińska-Bohdanowiczowa - Self-portrait -unfinished- - MP 261 - National Museum in Warsaw.jpg, ''Self-Portrait, unfinished'' (1892),

File:Anna Bilińska - Portrait of Sculptor George Grey Barnard in His Atelier.jpg, ''Portrait of Sculptor George Grey Barnard in His Atelier'' (1890),

File:Bilinska-Bohdanowiczowa.StarzecZKsiazk.jpg, ''Old Man with a Book'' (1890s), Lviv National Art Gallery File:Bilińska Unter den Linden.jpg, ''Under the Linden Trees, Berlin'' (1890), National Museum in Warsaw File:Anna Bilińska - W oknie 1890.jpg, ''By the Window'' (1890), Musée d'art moderne in Saint-Étienne File:Bilinska-Zaglowki w Pourville.jpg, ''Sailing Boats in Pourville'' (1885), Private collection

Bibliography

* Clara Erskine Clement, ''Women in the Fine Arts from the Seventh Century B.C. to The Twentieth Century A.D.'', 1904 * Magdalena Schlender, ''Die Selbstbildnisse der polnischen Malerin Anna Bilińska'' (The self-portraits of the Polish painter Anna Bilińska), Hamburg 2005 * Magdalena Schlender,'' Anna Bilińska Bohdanowicz'', probably 2009.

References

External links

Anna Bilińska-Bohdanowicz
at culture.pl
Top 10 Treasures of Victoria Art Gallery: EMMELINE DEANE: ANNA BILINSKA
/ Series * Short, exhibition related video:
Artystka, Anna Bilińska 1854–1893
' (with Polish titles) * {{DEFAULTSORT:Bilinska, Anna 1854 births 1893 deaths People from Novomyrhorod People from Chigirinsky Uyezd Clan of Sas People from the Russian Empire of Polish descent 19th-century Polish painters Polish portrait painters 19th-century Polish women artists Polish women painters Académie Julian alumni Academic staff of the Académie Julian 19th-century painters from the Russian Empire 19th-century women painters from the Russian Empire