Olga Boznańska

 During the long weekend I had an extraordinary occasion to see the exhibition of a Polish painter Olga Boznańska. She was one of the most eminent female artists who lived at the turn of 19^th and 20^th centuries.

The National Museum in Warsaw presented 150 works from various periods of her activity. Her artistic heritage was contrasted with paintings by such names as Diego Velázquez, Édouard Manet, Eugène Carrière, Henri Fantin-Latour and Édouard Vuillard as well as Japanese woodcuts so as visitors were able to see her work from the global artistic perspective. Boznańska is usually associated with the French impressionism what seems to be not entirely true. In the circle of her interests were still lifes, interiors, landscapes (views from the window at her atelier) and predominantly portraits of the members of her family, friends, high society and self-portraits.

Despite the crowd every sight at the each painting was mystic. Boznańska was a real master of emphasizing the spirituality and psychological expression of her models. The moderate technique based on a wide brush strokes, narrow but harmonised range of colours made her paintings nearly monochromatic. Thanks to the sketchiness of forms she was able to maintain intimacy and melancholy. Her paintings make impression of dematerialisation and eternity. Under the guise of austerity Boznańska's paintings hide a range of emotions and profoundness of feelings. Her paintings emanate sincerity.

With no doubt Boznańska's paintings are the masterpiece of it's kind. It was just astonished. It was a really good decission to spend some of my free time during the long weekend to see that exhibition. It was absolutely worthwile standing in a queue around two hours.