1865 -1940 · Krakow, Munich and Paris

Gray palettes, vibrant contours and silent glances make Olga Boznaÿska one of the great portraitists of European modernism.

Olga Boznaÿska was born in Krakow in 1865 and died in Paris in 1940. Official schools were then closed to women, she took private lessons in Krakow then trained in Munich from 1886. She assimilated psychological portraiture, painting of tone and the example of Whistler, without adopting academic description. In 1898, she moved to Paris, where her career became fully international. Her models emerge from a background worked in small dry touches, often on cardboard, in subtly tuned grays, greens, browns and blues. The outline remains deliberately unstable: its models emerge from a background worked in small dry touches, often on cardboard, in subtly tuned grays, greens, browns and blues. The outline remains deliberately unstable: the resemblance is constructed less by detail than by atmosphere, pose and above all the look. In his self-portraits, Boznaÿska presents himself without heroic decor, aware of his profession, reserved but directly turned towards the spectator. The light face, the dark eyes and the clothing absorbed by the background make up a presence that is both firm and fragile. Portraits of children, writers, musicians and women of his time prolong this search for a silent truth, far from worldly brilliance. The "Olga Boznaÿska" selection notably compares Self-portrait.

Boznaÿska does not stare at the face: she lets it appear through a vibration of gray, as if the resemblance were slowly forming in silence.