"Unter den Linden Street in Berlin," Anna Bilińska, 1890.

Bilińska (1854-93) was the first internationally noted woman artist from Poland, but only in the last few years has she gained any real recognition.

Born in present-day Ukraine, the daughter of a Polish physician, she often joked she had "a Cossack's temperament and a Polish heart." The family moved here and there in Russia before settling in Warsaw. There Anna learned piano, which was suitable for a woman of her class at the time, but she rebelled and took up painting, which in Warsaw society was seen as almost indecent.

She emigrated to Paris where she found artistic freedom and a chance to work and exhibit freely. She did mostly portraits, but also a few landscapes, like we have here. She married a Polish doctor and returned to Warsaw with the intention of opening a women's art school, but her life was cut short by a heart condition.

Her work was largely ignored in the 20th century, in part because of her sex, but also her short career. But in the 2010s her work was rediscovered and in 2021 the National Museum in Warsaw held a major retrospective. More scholarship on her is definitely in the works...

From the National Museum in Warsaw.

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