A. Bilińska, Kopciuszek, 1884, olej na płótnie, kolekcja prywatna
Anna Bilinski. Woman
27.10-08.12.2013
Curator: Anna Król
Regional Museum in Stalowa Wola, 1 Sandomierska St.
Anna Bilinskaya is an intriguing and tragic figure. She lived only 36 years, and managed to gain international recognition in a field hitherto dominated by men. This multi-talented painter from the second half of the 19th century was the first Polish artist to gain fame in Paris. A master of portraiture, she also painted still lifes, genre scenes and landscapes, and was part of the trend of European realism. Her exhibitions were admired and her paintings were bought by connoisseurs in France, Germany, England and the USA.
Anna Bilinskaya was born in 1857 in Zlotopol, Ukraine, and died in 1893 in Warsaw. She was a multi-talented, interesting, and under-appreciated artist of the late 19th century. At the age of twenty, she enrolled in a drawing and painting course at Wojciech Gerson’s private school, where she befriended Klementyna Krassowska, Maria Gażycz and Zofia Stankiewiczóna. In 1882, she began studying in the women’s studio at the Académie Julian in Paris, additionally attending the studio of Olivier Merson. Repeatedly awarded at school exhibitions, she rotated in the Polish émigré community. The most difficult period in the artist’s life was the years 1884-1886, when Bilinska painfully experienced the death of those close to her: her father, her friend, and finally – her fiancé, painter Wojciech Grabowski.
The turning point came in 1887, with the exhibition of the bravura Self-Portrait at the Paris Salon. Awarded a silver medal, the painting received excellent reviews, and the artist gained international recognition, which was reflected in subsequent awards received at exhibitions in Paris, London and Berlin. In June 1892 Anna Bilinskaya married doctor of medicine Antoni Bohdanovich, with whom she settled in Warsaw in January 1893, where she planned to open a painting school for women. She died there on April 8 at the age of just 36, leaving behind an intriguing, scattered oeuvre illustrating the artist’s various interests and explorations.
Bilinska exhibited a lot: her works were displayed in Paris, London, Berlin, Munich, Grenoble, Roanne, in the United States and in Poland – in Warsaw and Krakow.
She was an artist who consciously built her career, thus modern and open-minded. She painted magnificent portraits, still lifes and landscapes. She was valued for her extraordinary skill and technical maturity, supported by a great sense of color. In a male-dominated artistic environment, Bilinska found herself thanks to her uncompromising love of painting.
The exhibition presented in Stalowa Wola is the first retrospective exhibition of her works, prepared by the Manggha Museum of Japanese Art and Technology in Cracow. It features excellent psychological, detailed portraits of men and women, studies from nature and landscapes. The collection of dozens of Bilińska’s works was complemented by several paintings by her female colleagues, thus outlining the milieu of women painters of the late 19th century.
For further information: Anna Szlazak, tel. 15 844 85 56, ext. 15
