The Great Painters

Józef Chełmoński

- eminent painter of nature

Józef Chełmoński
Józef Chełmoński, Self-portrait, 1902, Wikipedia

Józef Chełmoński (1849-1914)

He created paintings, considered to be outstanding examples of realism in Polish painting. Fascinated by his native landscape and famous for his extraordinary, almost photographic memory, the artist painted genre and hunting scenes and rural landscapes, depicting with a great deal of authenticity the life of peasants and nobles of that time. In his atmospheric and realistic paintings, he wonderfully reproduced the colours of nature.

LEADING REPRESENTATIVE OF POLISH REALISM

ILLUSTRATOR

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MOODY LANDSCAPE ARTIST

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POETRY OF IMAGES

ANIMALIST

Józef Chełmoński

1849

On 7 November in Boczki near Łowicz, Józef Marian Chełmoński, son of Józef Adam (the owner of the manor, alderman, gifted in music and painting) and Izabela Łoskowska was born.

1867-1872

he started learning in the Warsaw Drawing Class and in Wojciech Gerson's private studio

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1872-1874

Study in Munich under H. Anschütz and A. Strähuber. There, Józef Chełmoński became involved with the Polish Munich community, especially with Stanisław Witkiewicz, Józef Brandt, Maximilian Gierymski and Adam Chmielowski.

1874

he stayed in Ukraine, from where he returned to Warsaw, where with Witkiewicz and Chmielowski shared the studio, rented in the building of the Europejski Hotel

1875

Józef Chełmoński went to Paris, where he gained critical and public acclaim, showing the Salons pictures of the life of the Polish countryside and famous performances of rushing horse-drawn carriages. The canvases were willingly bought by collectors from Europe and America.  

1878

On 18 June Józef Chełmoński married Maria from Korwin-Szymanowski; after the wedding they went to Vienna, Munich, Venice and Paris

1879

the artist became a father. In total, the spouses had seven children: Maria, Zofia, Jadwiga, Wanda, Anna, Józef and Tadeusz. Unfortunately, three children died (Józef, Anna and Tadeusz).

1884-1892

the artist worked with the Parisian "Le Monde Illustré" as a cartoonist-illustrator

Józef Chełmoński
Partridges on Snow, 1891, National Museum in Warsaw, Wikipedia

1887

Józef Chełmoński returned to Warsaw with his whole family

1889

the purchase of the manor house in Kuklówka, to which the painter had already travelled frequently before to paint

Józef Chełmoński