Without Lifting A Finger

Józef Marian Chełmoński (November 7, 1849 – April 6, 1914) was a Polish painter . Chełmoński was born in the village of Boczki near Łowicz in central Congress Poland , Russian Empire . His first drawing teacher was his father (a small leaseholder and administrator of Boczki village). After finishing high school in Warsaw , Jozef studied in Warsaw Drawing Class (1867–1871) and took private lessons from Wojciech Gerson . From 1871 to 1874 Chełmoński lived in Munich . He worked with Polish painters assembled around Jozef Brandt and Maksymilian Gierymski . There, he also studied for a few months at the academy of H. Anschutz and A. Strahuber. In 1872 and 1874 Chełmoński visited the Polish Territories (Poland, as an independent country, did not exist during this time), Tatra Mountains and Ukraine . His first paintings were done under the influence of Gerson. The works that followed were landscapes and villages. In 1875 Chełmoński went to Paris, where he had many important exhibition...

Babie_lato-Chelmonski.jpg , a photo by ania_blog on Flickr. My wife--she's the polka--says this is one of his most famous paintings.

National Museum in Warsaw: Jozef Chelmonski "Kuropatwy" ("Partridges") 1891 , a photo by votum_separatum_bialostocensis on Flickr. I've found a couple more paintings by Chelmonski. "Partridges" is particularly beautiful (IMO).

Sielanka by Jozef Chelmonski, circa 1885 hung at Arden , a photo by Trader Chris on Flickr. I noticed this striking painting in Modjeska's library at Arden (a replica was on the bookshelf where she had kept the original--and you could also see it in old photographs of the room which were on display). My wife remembered the artist and looked him up when we returned home. Apparently Chelmonski gave the painting to Modjeska when she got married.