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oil on canvas
Dimensions: 76 x 144 cm
signed, inscribed, and dated lower left: 'JOZEF CHELMONSKI | pARIS 1877'
other historical titles: An Extensive Winter Landscape with Horsedrawn Sleighs, Souvenir de Voyage pendant la nuit en Ukraine
On the reverse, on the frame: an exhibition label from the National Museum in Poznań, a note of ownership, and on the stretcher: 'JOZEF CHEŁMONSKI | "RETURN ON A WINTER NIGHT - THE RETURN ON THE WINTER'S NIGHT" | 75 X 143 cm S.I.D. PARIS 1887 | See National Museum, Warsaw No. 73532'
Provenance
purchased from the artist, February 1877
Goupil & Cie collection, February–March 1877
Perruis (Perrius) Collection, March 1877
F. B. Jacob Collection, England, 1970s
Christie’s auction house, London, February 1975
Christie’s auction house, London, October 1975
Private collection, London
Exhibited
Chełmoński. Chmielowski. Witkiewicz. Studio at the Hotel Europejski in Warsaw, 1874–1883, National Museum in Poznań, March 21–June 6, 2010
Bibliography
Józef Chełmoński 1849–1914, exhibition catalog, vol. 2, ed. Ewa Micke-Broniarek, Wojciech Głowacki, Warsaw 2024, p. 84, cat. no. 60 (ill.)
Tadeusz Matuszczak, “Chełmoński in the Goupil & Cie Ledgers,” *Biuletyn Historii Sztuki*,
2014, no. 4, p. 650, cat. no. 4, ill. 3
Tadeusz Matuszczak, Chełmoński Wanted, ed. Elżbieta Charazińska, Radziejowice 2014, p. 48
Tadeusz Matuszczak, Józef Chełmoński, “Good Friday.” The first public exhibition of the painting since 1875, House of Creative Work in Radziejowice, starting Dec. 9, 2011, Radziejowice 2011, p. 13
Chełmoński.
Chmielowski. Witkiewicz. Studio at the Hotel Europejski in Warsaw, 1874–1883, exhibition catalog, National Museum in Poznań, ed. Maria Gołąb, Poznań 2010, p. 307, cat. no. 107, p. 104 (ill.)
Tadeusz Matuszczak, Chełmoński Goes to Paris; [in:] Tadeusz Matuszczak, Małgorzata Maria Grąbczewska, Józef Chełmoński’s Parisian Trail.
Photographs from “Karol Smólski’s Portfolio” in the collection of the Polish Library in Paris, Radziejowice 2009, p. 23, ill., p. 53, no. 21
Tadeusz Matuszczak, Józef Chełmoński, Kraków, 2003, p. 20, p. 47 (ill.)
*World Collectors Annuary*, ed. Frederik A. van Braam, vol. 27, Delft 1975, p. 58
ARCHIVAL MATERIALS:
France, Paris, Polish Library in Paris, Karol Smólski Collection, Gift of Karol Smólski from Paris (collection of photographs of Chełmoński’s paintings donated by the painter to Cyprian Godebski), fol. 2
Los Angeles, Getty Research Institute, Special Collections, Dieterle family records of French art galleries, Accession no. 900239, Series I: Goupil & Cie Ledgers, 1846–1879, and Series II: Galerie Boussod, Valadon ledgers, 1879–1919, manuscript, book 9, p. 95, no. 11721
Biography
From 1867 to 1871, he studied painting in the Drawing Class and in Wojciech Gerson’s private studio in Warsaw. From 1871 to 1874, he studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich, where he was associated with the Polish artistic colony centered around Józef Brandt and Maksymilian Gierymski. Chełmoński’s travels to Podolia and Ukraine (1872 and 1874–75) were formative for his artistic development. He lived in Paris until 1887, where his paintings enjoyed great popularity. 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 landscapes and genre scenes inspired by the natural scenery of Mazovia and the Eastern Borderlands. Chełmoński’s paintings are found in Poland’s most important public collections, as well as in European and American private collections.





