Forest track

The painting Forest Track is one of the landscapes painted by Józef Chełmoński (1849-1914) immediately after his return from Paris. The dominant motif is a pine forest with springtime undergrowth. Tow peasant carts visible in the middle of the composition drive down a sandy track, walled in by trees. The carts introduce an element of motion and give a sense of scale to the trees. The painting was accepted for exhibition at the Zachęta gallery in 1889 as only one of five submitted by the artist, the jury of the time having rejected Noon, Nightjars, Starry Night and Moonlit Night. The rejected works were exhibited by Aleksander Krywult in his Salon. Stanisław Witkiewicz initiated a polemic dispute with the Zachęta jury in an article entitled “Permanent misunderstanding”, writing: “It seems that the single reason for these painting not being accepted by the jury for exhibition at the Society is the fact that each young new generation in relation to its predecessors finally stiffens and fossilises in small and narrow formulas is in no way able to understand or assess things which are new for it. (…) The connoisseurs of today sitting on the commission already have a certain template of what they consider to be a painting, a template.”