Self-Portrait

Chełmoński’s life and artistic path can be divided into several periods: as a young man, he pursued art education in Warsaw and Munich, followed by more than a decade in Paris, and then twenty-five years of creative work after returning to Poland. In his only surviving oil self-portrait, Chełmoński depicted himself at fifty-three, more than ten years after he left Paris for Poland. This image of a bearded man, whose penetrating gaze meets the viewer’s, resonates with the memories of those who visited him in the Masovian village of Kuklówka, where he moved in 1888.
His contemporaries noted Chełmoński’s unconventional manner, sometimes described as odd. In the final decades of his life, the painter shunned social contacts and paid little attention to his appearance. The loner artist was often seen sporting a thick, uncombed beard, a straw hat, and calf-length boots – an attire that features in numerous photographs of him.