“ONE HAS TO BE A FEMINIST HERE.” ON THE FORGOTTEN FEMALE ARTISTS ACTIVE IN PARIS DURING THE YEARS 1900–1914

Abstract

During the years 1900–1914 in the capital of France one could find a large number of Polish female artists, who worked in the shadow of those well-known. Among them were: Leokadia Maria Ostrowska, Maria Koźniewska, Blanka Mercère, Nina Aleksandrowicz. These artists referred to the traditional, academic styles in art and presented their oeuvre on the Salon de la Société nationale des beaux-arts and Salon de la Société des artistes français. A separate group of female-artists was formed by, among others, Reno Hassenberg, Helena Kwiatkowska, Stefania Ordyńska-Morawska who experimented with the new avant-garde trends. The artistic output of both groups was described and promoted by critics born in Poland (Adolf Basler, Wacław Gąsiorowski, Wacława Kislańska, Sanisława Kaniowa-Kraszewska, Alexander Schurr, Kazimierz Waliszewski) whose texts, published both in the French and Polish press, often serve as the only document concerning their oeuvre.