Józef Chełmoński (1849 Boczki near Łowicz - 1914 Kuklówka in Mazovia), "View of a village" ("Village"), ca. 1900-10

oil/plywood
Dimensions: 19.2 x 33.5 cm
On the reverse a paper exhibition sticker of the Society for the Encouragement of Fine Arts in Warsaw, below the sticker a description in the hand of Jadwiga Chełmońska, the artist's daughter: 'The authenticity of the sketch of my late Father Jozef Chelmonski is ascertained by J. Chełmońska.', numbered in pencil: 'VII' and 'wł. M. Dutkiewicz', framing notes on the frame

Condition
opinion of Tadeusz Matuszczak dated January 25, 2011

Origin
legacy of the artist
owned by the artist's daughter Jadwiga Chelmonska (1879-1928)
collection of Dr. Józef Gutowski (1873-1937), a physician and member of the committee of the TZSP in Warsaw, Warsaw
collection of Maria Chelmonska-Loskowska (1881-1950), daughter of the artist and her heirs
private collection, Poland
Space Gallery Salon of Old and Contemporary Art, Cracow, December 2010
private collection, Cracow

Exhibited
Exhibition of works by Jozef Chelmonski 1849-1914. works from the collection of Marja née Chelmonska Loskowska and Dr. Jozef Gutowski, Hall of the Rev. Jozef Poniatowski Male Gymnasium, Lowicz, June 11-14, 1936
Exhibition of sketches by Józef Chelmonski from the collection of Dr. Józef Gutowski, Dr. Ludwik Bryndz-Nacki and the artist's family, Society for the Encouragement of Fine Arts, Warsaw, July-August 1922

Literature
Józef Chełmoński in private collections. On the 90th anniversary of the painter's death, exhibition catalog, ed. Tadeusz Matuszczak, Dom Pracy Twórczej w Radziejowicach, Radziejowice 2004, p. 39 (ill. as "Village", other titles: "View of a village")
Tadeusz Matuszczak, Józef Chełmoński, Cracow 2003, p. 29 (il. as "Village")
Catalog of the exhibition of works by Józef Chełmoński. Works from the collections of Marja née Chelmonska Loskowska and Dr. Jozef Gutowski, Łowicz 1936, item 15 (as "View of a village")
Report of the Committee of the Society for the Encouragement of Fine Arts in Warsaw for 1922, Warsaw 1923, p. 5 (not listed, only mention of an exhibition of sketches by Chelmonski from the collection of Dr. Jozef Gutowski; during the exhibition as "View of a village")

Biography
In 1867-71 he studied painting at the Drawing Class and at the private studio of Wojciech Gerson in Warsaw. In 1871-74 he studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich, where he was associated with the Polish artistic colony centered around Jozef Brandt and Maksymilian Gierymski. A formative moment for Chelmonski's work was his travels to Podolia and Ukraine (1872 and 1874-75). Until 1887 he lived in Paris, where his paintings were very popular. He then returned to Poland, settling in Kuklówka near Grodzisk Mazowiecki. He was one of the most outstanding Polish landscape painters of the second half of the 19th and early 20th centuries. He painted realistic and atmospheric in character landscapes and genre scenes inspired by Mazovian or borderland nature. Chelmonski's paintings are in the most important public collections in Poland, as well as European and American private collections.