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Józef Chełmoński’s paintings on show at Kraków's National Museum

09.08.2025 15:58
A major exhibition of works by Józef Chełmoński, one of Poland’s foremost 19th-century painters, opened on Friday at the National Museum in Kraków, southern Poland.
Józef Chełmońskis 1875 painting Indian Summer.
Józef Chełmoński's 1875 painting "Indian Summer."Józef Chełmoński, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

On display is a total of 195 of Chełmoński’s oil canvasses, watercolours and drawings.  A representative of the Polish realism, the artist won particular renown for his vivid portrayals of village life, landscapes and horses, often depicted in scenes of galloping sleighs or rural hunts.

The Kraków Museum writes on its website: “Chełmoński captured the world of his time, which, though real and everyday, was filtered through his emotional perspective. This resonated in the artist's attitude as a special symbiosis of realism and romanticism.”
Born in 1849, Chełmoński studied in Warsaw and Munich.  Having spent over a decade in Paris, where he achieved artistic success, he returned to Poland in 1887 and bought a small manor house in Kuklówka near Grodzisk Mazowiecki, where he lived and worked till the end of his life. He died in 1914.

The Kraków exhibition comes as the  climax of a joint research project on Chełmoński’s legacy by the National Museums in Warsaw, Poznań and Kraków. The first two hosted the exhibition earlier in the year, in both instances attracting a record number of visitors, 170,000 and 140,000 respectively.

The exhibition at the National Museum in Kraków runs until November 30. (mk/tf)