Girl with Chrysanthemums

Olga Boznanska painted it in Munich in eighteen ninety four, when she was not yet thirty and already recognised as one of the leading women painters in Europe. She worked on cardboard, which absorbs the oil and gives the surface its matte, dusty softness. Look at how few colours there are: greys, blacks, a little pink in the face and hands, the white of the flowers. The brushstrokes are small and vibrating, close to the technique of Whistler and the Impressionists, but the mood is symbolist, a study of a soul rather than a face. The chrysanthemums, flowers of autumn and of the dead, add a note of melancholy.

Boznanska lived most of her life in Paris, surrounded by mice, cats and unfinished canvases, and her portraits were sought after across Europe. The museum bought this picture early, and it has become the best known image of her work. It hangs at the start of the twentieth century gallery in the Main Building, where the collection moves on to the Young Poland artists, the interwar avant garde and the postwar years, and it is the picture visitors return to.

Did You Know? Boznańska preferred to paint on cardboard rather than canvas because it soaked up the oil and gave her the powdery, matte surface she loved.