Akademiestraße 2-4, 80799 München, Germany
Academy of Fine Arts, Munich.
Akademiestraße 2-4, 80799 München, Germany
Academy of Fine Arts, Munich.
Chełmoński was born in Boczki, Poland, on November 7, 1849. His father, Józef Adam Chełmoński h. Ślepowron, II, was a small leaseholder and administrator of Boczki village. His mother was Izabela (Łoskowska) Chełmońska, who was considered a woman read and familiar with the world of contemporary culture. Chełmoński's grandfather, Józef Chełmoński h. Ślepowron, I, served as a personal secretary of Michał Hieronim Radziwiłł.
Józef Chełmoński finished high school in Warsaw. During 1867-1871 he attended the Warsaw Drawing Class and was given private lessons by Wojciech Gerson. Betweeen 1871 and 1874 the artist resided in Munich, at the end of January 1872 he applied to the Academy of Fine Arts, Naturklasse. He also studied for a few months at the Academy of H. Anschutz and A. Strahuber. During 1872-1874 Józef Chełmoński also visited the Polish Territories (Poland did not exist during this time as an independent country), Tatra Mountains as well as Ukraine.
Chełmoński's first paintings were created under the apparent influence of Wojciech Gerson, a leading Polish painter of the mid-19th century, and one of the foremost representatives of the Polish school of Realism. Thanks to him two paintings by Józef - Black horse carrying a sled and Boy and Girl - appeared at the Zachęta exhibition. In 1875 he moved to Paris, where he had many important exhibitions and gained great popularity thanks to his paintings. He worked as an illustrator for the Parisian "Le Monde Illustré".
During 1878-1887 Józef Chełmoński visited Poland, Venice and Vienna. The artist moved back to Poland in 1887 and two years later settled in the village of Kuklówka Zarzeczna. In his artworks, he actively depicted his homeland and local nature, Polish and Ukrainian villages and hunting scenes. He very rarely painted portraits. Józef Chełmoński was known to be a great painter of horses. A good example is the painting titled Fours and Threes.
Chełmoński was also closely connected with the Górski family, moreover, he was Pia Górska's teacher of painting.
Józef Chełmoński was the most outstanding representative of Polish realism. He represented the trend in art called "Polish Patriotic Painting". Such paintings as Partridge on the Snow, The Storks or Before Thunderstorm are considered to be the most beloved and well-known of Chełmoński's works.
The National Museum in Warsaw has a large collection of his works, some of his paintings can also be seen in other National Museums, including Kraków, Wrocław, Gdańsk and Sczczecin, as well as at the Silesian Museum in Katowice, the Museum of Art in Łódź, the Museum of Masovia in Płock. Some of the paintings are also held in private collections.
Storks
Indian Summer
Cranes, Landscape from Meadow
Three in the Snow
Zjazd Na Polowanie
Partridges in the snow
Case Before the Mayor
Wołyńskie Maymeczko
Flight of Cranes
In the Rain
Night in Ukraine
Return from a Ball (Sleigh Ride)
Dawn. The Kingdom of Birds
Morning in the Forest
Dniester at Night
Flight of Cranes
Moonlight
Four in Snowdrifts
Cross in the blizzard
Four
Oberek dance
On a hunt
In the Garden
Ploughing
Scythe-Man
Army at Prayer Before the Battle of Raclawice
Study for the Wood-Grouse
Evening in Polesie
Horses Resting
Episode of the 1863 Insurrection
Cossack
Path Through a Field
Before the Sunrise. Venus
Lapwings
Wood-Grouse Hunting
Eurasian Jay. White Frost
In the spring of 1878, during Józef Chełmoński's stay in Warsaw and preparations for the Paris Salon, Józef Chełmoński met and became engaged to Maria Szymanowska, his distant relative. The wedding with Maria took place on June 18, 1878, at the church in Leszno. Their first daughter, Jadwiga, was born in Paris in July 1879, the second daughter Maria in 1881, the third, Zofia, in 1883, and then their son Józef was born. In 1887, the Chełmoński family returned to Poland and settled in Warsaw. The firstborn son, Józef, died the same year. Chełmoński's daughter Hanna was born in 1888, and son Tadeusz - in 1889.
