Olga Boznańska Plaque
Kraków Artists: Painters and Sculptors
A commemorative plaque in the Old Town dedicated to Olga Boznańska (1865-1940), the Kraków portrait painter and representative of modernism. The inscription pays tribute to the "great artist" on the 135th anniversary of her birth and the 60th anniversary of her death. Boznańska was born in Kraków, studied under Antoni Piotrowski and Kazimierz Pochwalski and at the Adrian Baraniecki Painting Courses, and from 1898 lived in Paris, where she died. Her "Girl with Chrysanthemums" belongs to the collections of the National Museum in Kraków.
History
The commemorative plaque hangs on the house at Piłsudskiego Street 21, formerly Wolska Street 21, where Olga Boznańska had her own studio in Kraków. The house was built by her father, and after his death it passed to Olga and her sister Izabela. The plaque was made by the sculptor Tadeusz Banaś in 2000, 135 years after the painter's birth and 60 years after her death. Boznańska left her part of the house in her will to the Kraków Academy of Fine Arts.
The painter was born in Kraków in 1865, the daughter of the engineer Adam Nowina Boznański and a Frenchwoman, Eugenia de Mondain. Her first drawing lessons came from her mother. She studied with Antoni Piotrowski and Kazimierz Pochwalski, and then at the Adrian Baraniecki Painting Courses. In 1886 she went to Munich, where as a woman she was not admitted to the academy, so she studied at private schools. In 1898 she moved to Paris.
Boznańska was a portrait painter; she usually painted in her studio, and her pictures are marked by a misty, muted palette. She was guided more by a psychological analysis of the sitter than by capturing a fleeting moment. "Girl with Chrysanthemums" from 1894 can be seen in the collection of the National Museum in Kraków. In 1937 she received the Grand Prix at the World Exhibition in Paris. In 1932 she came to Kraków for the last time. She died in Paris in 1940 and was buried in Montmorency near Paris.
Did you know?
Once asked about her connection with Impressionism, she found the question absurd: "Me and Impressionism?".