Chełmiński, Jan

Chełmiński, Jan (Jan von Chelminski), Polish painter, member of the “Munich School”.

1873-76: student at the Munich Academy of Fine Arts. *27.1.1851 Brzustów, †1.11.1925 New York. 1866-68: studies in the Warsaw drawing class/Klasa Rysunkowa, and under the painter Juliusz Kossak (1824-1899). He earns a living as a retoucher in a photography institute, and as a lithographer. On 9.10.1873 he enrols in the antiquity class at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Munich, studies under Alexander Strähuber (1814-1882) and Sandór (Alexander von) Wagner (1838-1919); on 14.4.1875 he enrols in the painting class, and studies under Józef Brandt (1841-1915) and Franz Adam (1815-1886). 1874-83 and 1887: a member of the Munich Art Club. 1877: the Duke of Coburg-Gotha buys one of his paintings: “Setting off for the Hunt”. 1879: the King of Bavaria purchases a “Par force Hunt in the 18th Century”. In 1882 he travels to England, then throughout Europe. From 1884 he lives in New York. 1888-99: in London. 1889: travels to St. Petersburg. From 1899: resident in Paris. 1910-15: founding member and President of the Polish Literary and Artistic Society in Paris. 1915: moves back to live in New York. Chełmiński paints genre and hunting scenes; from 1890 paintings of battles, mainly from the era of the Napoleonic Wars, and pictures of Polish regiments in the style of Juliusz Kossak, Józef Brandt and Maksymilian Gierymski (1846-1874). He paints historical uniforms and weapons with great accuracy for their era. He paints equestrian portraits (amongst others) for the Bavarian Court (Princess Theresa of Bavaria, 1879; Prince-Regent Luitpold, 1888) and for the Court of the Czar in St. Petersburg (“The Russian Czarina on a Fox Hunt”, 1889). He does the illustrations for “L’Armée du Duché de Varsovie (1807-1815)”, Paris 1913; and for the hunting tales written by his friend, President Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919). His works can be found in the Kunsthalle Bremen, in the National Gallery of Art, Dublin, in the National Gallery in Lviv, in the Museum at Radom/Muzeum im Jacka Malczewskiego w Radomiu and in the National Museum in Warsaw/Muzeum Narodowe w Warszawie. 

Solo exhibitions: 1892 London, Continental Gallery / Warsaw: 1894 Resursa Obywatelska; Salon Krywult; 1907 Salon Kulikowski; 1913 Salon Rychling / Paris: 1901, 1904 Galerie des Artistes Modernes; 1901 Galerie Chaine; 1913 Galerie Knoedler & Cie.

Group exhibitions: Munich, Berlin, Vienna, New York, London (Royal Academy), Paris, Brussels, Pittsburgh.

Further Reading: Feliks Kopera: Chełmiński, Jan, in: Polski Słownik Biograficzny, vol. 3, Kraków 1937, p. 279; Hans-Peter Bühler: Jäger, Kosaken und Polnische Reiter. Josef von Brandt, Alfred von Wierusz-Kowalski, Franz Roubaud und der Münchner Polenkreis, Hildeshein, 1993; Halina Stępień/Maria Liczbińska: Artyści polscy w środowisku monachijskim w latach 1828-1914. Materiały źródłowe, Warsaw 1994, p. 11, 32; Saur Allgemeines Künstlerlexikon, vol. 14, Munich/Leipzig 1996, p. 381 f.; Halina Ste̜pień: Artyści polscy w środowisku monachijsk w latach 1856-1914 (Studia z historii sztuki / Instytut Sztuki, Polska Akademia Nauk, 50), Warsaw 2003; Egzotyczna Europa. Kraj urodzenia na płótnach polskich monachijczyków/Exotic Europe. Home visions in the paintings of Polish Artists in Munich, exhibition catalogue. Suwałki 2015

Online: Matriculation data base, Matriculation book 2, Academy of Fine Arts Munich,

02909 Johann Chedminski (sic!), http://matrikel.adbk.de/matrikel/mb_1841-1884/jahr_1873/matrikel-02909; 03144 Johann Chetminski (sic!), http://matrikel.adbk.de/matrikel/mb_1841-1884/jahr_1875/matrikel-03144

Axel Feuß: Polnische Künstler in München 1828-1914, p. 3, Ill. 11, at Porta Polonica, http://porta-polonica.de/de/Atlas-der-Erinnerungsorte/polnische-kuenstler-muenchen-1828-1914

Many works at artyzm.com: http://artyzm.com/e_artysta.php?id=584

Andrei Mochola: Jan Chełmiński, on Brzustów – Moje Strony, http://www.brzustow.pl/home/jan-chelminski/

Axel Feuß, March 2017