Unfinished Self-portrait

"I must be independent; I must break the obligations on me. I believe in my abilities and have a love for this work. Were I to encounter obstacles, I would despise them. And what then? Now I have liberty; I am as happy as anybody else…" These are the words of the Polish artist Anna Bilińska.

Bilińska was part of a generation of women who fought hard for access to formal art training at a time when European art academies still barred women from full enrollment. Like several of her contemporaries, she had to study abroad; she trained in Munich and Paris, where women could at least attend private ateliers and gain the kind of professional instruction denied to them at home in Poland. She built a reputation particularly for portraiture and genre scenes, rendered with the loose, tonal brushwork typical of academic realism at the end of the 19th century.

Her Unfinished Self-Portrait is one of her most quietly affecting works. The canvas breaks off mid-process; passages of the face and clothing are worked up with real finish, while other areas remain in a bare, sketch-like state, exposing the underdrawing and the sequence of her working method. This isn't a stylistic choice; it's simply where the painting stopped. Bilińska died in 1892 at just 39, leaving the portrait unfinished.

P.S. Don't forget that your 2027 deserves more art. Our new calendars are here to make sure it gets it. 

P.P.S. Want to learn a bit more about today's artist? Meet Anna Bilińska-Bohdanowicz and her paintings!