Biography
Anna Bilińska (also known as Anna Bilińska-Bohdanowicz; 8 December 1854 – 8 April 1893) was a Polish painter, known for her portraits. A representative of realism, she spent most of her life in Paris, and is considered the first internationally known Polish woman artist.
She was born 1854 in Zlatopol (formerly a frontier town of the Russian Empire, today a part of Novomyrhorod, Ukraine) as Anna Bilińska, and spent her childhood there with her father, a Polish physician. Of her background, she joked that she “ha[d] a Cossack’s temperament, but a Polish heart”. The family then moved to Central Russia, where Anna’s first art teachers were Ignacy Jasiński and Michał Elwiro Andriolli, both deported by the Tsarist government to Vyatka for their part in the January Uprising of 1863–1864.
In 1875, Bilińska’s mother moved the family to Warsaw, enrolling her of-age children in the conservatoire. Anna was a talented pianist, an activity considered a suitable achievement for a woman of her class and time. But painting would become her preference.
In 1877, she became a student of the painter Wojciech Gerson and began to exhibit her work at Warsaw’s Zachęta Society for the Promotion of Fine Arts. Against her parents’ wishes, she hired her own studio at 2 Nowy Świat Street, selling her paintings and paying the studio’s rent from her own funds.
In early 1882, she accompanied her friend Klementyna Krassowska on a journey to Munich, Salzburg, Vienna and northern Italy, before traveling to and settling in Paris, where she studied along with Marie Bashkirtseff and English artist Emmeline Deane at the Académie Julian, and where later she also taught. In 1884, her father, Jan Biliński, and Krassowska died, leaving her emotionally devastated. However, her future was financially secured in Krassowska’s last will and she was taken care of by fellow painter Maria Gażycz who lived in Normandy.
In 1889, she presented her Self-Portrait at the Exposition Universelle in Paris for which she was awarded a silver medal, her first major international recognition. She was granted the right to exhibit her works out of competition during future editions of the event. In 1889, her works were exhibited at the Royal Academy of Art in London. In 1891, they were displayed at an annual international exhibition in Berlin where she was awarded a gold medal.
She lived in France until 1892, when she married Antoni Bohdanowicz, a doctor of medicine, and took his name. After their marriage, they returned to Warsaw, where she intended to open a Parisian-style art school for women, but fell ill with a heart condition and died a year later on 8 April 1893. She was interred at Warsaw’s Powązki Cemetery.
Anna Bilińska is best known for her sensitively painted portraits, especially those featuring women. Her Self-Portrait with Apron and Brushes (1887) displayed an innovative self-portrait pose, placing the artist in front of a model’s backdrop, thus stating that she is her own model. Her portrait titled By the Window (1890), painted using the pastel technique, was regarded by 19th-century critics as Bilińska’s most modern painting considering its subject matter, framing, and the use of light. It depicts a young girl leaning out of a window towards a sunlit garden and was probably painted during the artist’s summer holiday spent in the fishing village of Boyardville. Among her notable male portraits is the portrait of American sculptor George Grey Barnard painted in 1890 at the request of Alfred Corning Clark. She also painted still lifes, genre scenes and landscapes using oil watercolors and sometimes pastels.
Two of Bilińska’s paintings went missing after World War II: A Negress (1884) and The Italian Woman (1880). The former was rediscovered at an auction in Germany in 2011 and successfully reclaimed in 2012 thanks to the efforts of the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage of Poland. It is currently displayed at the National Museum in Warsaw.
Her paintings can be found in the National Museum in Warsaw, National Museum in Wrocław, National Museum in Kraków, Victoria Art Gallery in Bath, Musée d’art moderne in Saint-Étienne, Lviv National Art Gallery, Gothenburg Museum of Art, State Museum of Pennsylvania, Berlin Musical Instrument Museum as well as private collections.
Bilińska is considered the first female Polish artist to receive a professional artistic education at an academic level and to earn critical acclaim abroad. She was included in the 2018 American Federation of Arts’ exhibition Women Artists in Paris, 1850–1900.
Nationality:
Polish
Dates:
December 8, 1854 – 8 April 8, 1893
Occupation:
Painter
Schools attended:
Académie Julian
Taught at:
Académie Julian
Student of:
Ignacy Jasiński, Michał Elwiro Andriolli
Teacher of:
Group / Movement:
Zachęta Society for the Promotion of Fine Arts