Anna Bilińska-Bohdanowicz (1857 Zlotopole - 1893 Warsaw), Portrait of Jean Louis Vincent de Vaugelas

(Portrait of Monsieur de Vaugelas, Portrait of a Man), 1889.

pastel, cardboard, 58.5 × 47.5 cm in light frame
Signed and dated p. g.: "Anna Bilińska/1889."

on the back a sticker of the framing studio Thorel & Desvaux Pere & Fils in Lyon (DORURE MIROITERIE |ENCADREMENTS EN TOUS GENRES |THOREL & DESVAUX PERE & FILS |27, Quai de lArcheveché |LYON |1927 Lith. Storck. Lyon)

Provenance:
- Private collection, Poland,
- Agra-Art Auction House, Warsaw 2015,
- collection of Marek Mielniczuk (Marek Gallery), Paris 2015,
- Collection of Jean Louis Vincent de Vaugelas, Lyon 1889 (purchased directly from the artist).

Exhibited:
- "Artist. Anna Bilinska 1854-1893," National Museum in Warsaw, June 26-October 10, 2021
- "Anna Bilinska. Woman", Manggha Museum of Japanese Art and Technology, Cracow 20 May - 13 September 2013, Regional Museum in Stalowa Wola, 25 October - 8 December 2013.

Inscribed and Reproduced:
- "Artist. Anna Bilińska 1854-1893", exhibition catalog, National Museum in Warsaw, Warsaw 2021, cat. no. 217, pp. 306-307

Archives:
- Anna Bilińska's Notebook, collection of the Podlasie Museum in Bialystok, item 61, p. 10.

"Miss Anna Bilinska, who is currently being recognized in Paris, where she left a few years ago for her final education in painting, is undoubtedly the most talented and accomplished in the technique of painting (...) Ms. Bilinska's distinguishing quality in painting was her bold and brave painting, especially for a woman. Many a man could envy this young artist the certainty of her hand, the correctness of her drawing and the plasticity of her working on an object."
W. Gerson, "Dawn," 1885 ("Mémorial Album," Jagiellonian Library, BJ Rkp. Przyb. 15/78)

The offered painting was created at a time when Anna Bilinska intensively presented her work to the Lyon public during exhibitions organized by the Sociéte lyonnaise des beaux-arts, founded in 1887. This period fell between 1888 and 1893 and was extremely important for the artist not only because of her consistently pursued career development plan, but also for income reasons ("Artist. Anna Bilińska...", op. cit., p. 36). Regular participation in exhibitions was closely connected with the flow of new painting commissions from wealthy and respected families living in the surrounding area. For the artist, who did not have large financial resources, such commissions were the foundation that enabled her to continue her education and make a living. Thanks to Bilińska's meticulously kept notebook, it is known that during this period she made about thirty oil and pastel portraits for the principals (Bilińska's notebook, MPB, pp. 10-15).

A similar genesis is associated with the creation of the offered portrait. The commissioner was Lyon-born Jean Louis Vincent de Vaugelas (1841-1921), who commissioned a pair of portraits from the artist, in which he and his wife Adèle Alice Vincent de Vaugelas (b. 1848, Lyon), now in a private collection, were to be immortalized. In her notebook, the artist noted that she had worked on the portrait in Launay, Normandy, and sold it to the commissioner on November 23, 1889 for 500 francs (Bagińska's notebook, op. cit., item 61, p. 10). Agnieszka Bagińska, in the catalog for the exhibition of Anna Bilińska's work, which took place at the National Museum in Warsaw in 2021, characterized the artist's activities as follows: "Bilinska's simultaneous participation in international and local exhibitions proves that the artist has thoughtfully managed her career. Large expositions organized in different countries, where she showed her best and usually already well-known paintings, gave her a chance for publicity and prestige-building through the press and art critics, especially if she received an award. Local presentations, in turn, provided a space for contact with a regular audience. Thanks to such exhibitions, the artist satisfied the ambitions of her existing clients and acquired new commissions" ("Artist. Anna Bilińska...", op. cit., pp. 36-37).