Olga Boznańska - Motif from Paris 1907
Olga Boznańska - Motif from Paris 1907
Title: Motif from Paris
Author: Olga Boznańska
Date: 1907
Type: Painting
Medium: Oil on panel
Dimensions: height: 33 cm, width: 24 cm; with frame: height: 44.5 cm, width: 38 cm, depth: 3 cm
The vertically oriented painting presents a view from the artist’s Paris studio on Boulevard Montparnasse. It shows a street with a tram passing through, and a tall building rising behind it. The scene is observed at a slight angle, from a room on an upper floor.
The palette is light and pastel, consisting of bleached shades of pink, yellow, green, and blue. The paint was applied directly to the wooden surface, without an underpainting. The dark brown of the wood shows through the colors across the entire surface, especially on the right, where it emphasizes shadow. Light falls from the left, where the tones are brighter and the paint applied more thickly.
At the top of the composition stands a tall, pale building, running vertically across the upper part of the painting, slightly left of center. Its divisions between floors are indicated with horizontal bands and faint rectangular windows. The right side of the building is left partially unpainted, suggesting shadow. To the right, a vertical yellow line descends, resembling a tram wire. Slightly below, the darker roof of a smaller structure—perhaps a kiosk or booth—emerges with a soft green accent.
In the lower central band lies the street, painted loosely, almost sketch-like. The brushstrokes suggest a roadway with tram tracks. In the foreground, in the lower left corner, a tram appears, moving from the left toward the center of the scene. It is rendered with a few horizontal strokes in gray-green and blue, giving a sense of movement.
The entire painting is blurred, the contours indistinct, with elements only faintly emerging. It resembles a sketch or a hazy landscape glimpsed through a window.
The work feels unfinished, more like a preliminary study. Short brushstrokes outline only the general structure of the street, with few details. At first glance, the subject is unclear, dominated by a bright cluster of colors in the lower corner. Only after prolonged observation do the individual forms become distinguishable: the greenish-yellow tram in the lower left, and the tall tenement house stretching nearly to the top edge of the painting, positioned just left of center. The remaining buildings and smaller features of the cityscape are rendered broadly, serving mainly to balance the composition.
Audio description prepared by Emilia Szymańska
Consultation: Adrian Wyka
Substantive Consultation: Urszula Kozakowska - Zaucha
Author: Olga Boznańska
Date: 1907
Type: Painting
Medium: Oil on panel
Dimensions: height: 33 cm, width: 24 cm; with frame: height: 44.5 cm, width: 38 cm, depth: 3 cm
The vertically oriented painting presents a view from the artist’s Paris studio on Boulevard Montparnasse. It shows a street with a tram passing through, and a tall building rising behind it. The scene is observed at a slight angle, from a room on an upper floor.
The palette is light and pastel, consisting of bleached shades of pink, yellow, green, and blue. The paint was applied directly to the wooden surface, without an underpainting. The dark brown of the wood shows through the colors across the entire surface, especially on the right, where it emphasizes shadow. Light falls from the left, where the tones are brighter and the paint applied more thickly.
At the top of the composition stands a tall, pale building, running vertically across the upper part of the painting, slightly left of center. Its divisions between floors are indicated with horizontal bands and faint rectangular windows. The right side of the building is left partially unpainted, suggesting shadow. To the right, a vertical yellow line descends, resembling a tram wire. Slightly below, the darker roof of a smaller structure—perhaps a kiosk or booth—emerges with a soft green accent.
In the lower central band lies the street, painted loosely, almost sketch-like. The brushstrokes suggest a roadway with tram tracks. In the foreground, in the lower left corner, a tram appears, moving from the left toward the center of the scene. It is rendered with a few horizontal strokes in gray-green and blue, giving a sense of movement.
The entire painting is blurred, the contours indistinct, with elements only faintly emerging. It resembles a sketch or a hazy landscape glimpsed through a window.
The work feels unfinished, more like a preliminary study. Short brushstrokes outline only the general structure of the street, with few details. At first glance, the subject is unclear, dominated by a bright cluster of colors in the lower corner. Only after prolonged observation do the individual forms become distinguishable: the greenish-yellow tram in the lower left, and the tall tenement house stretching nearly to the top edge of the painting, positioned just left of center. The remaining buildings and smaller features of the cityscape are rendered broadly, serving mainly to balance the composition.
Audio description prepared by Emilia Szymańska
Consultation: Adrian Wyka
Substantive Consultation: Urszula Kozakowska - Zaucha