Daily Dose Of Art: Woman Combing Her Hair

"Woman Combing Her Hair" by Władysław Ślewiński, 1897

Władysław Ślewiński was one of the first Polish artists who went to study art not in Munich, like everyone in Poland then, but to Paris.

There, in 1888, in the studio of Philipp Colarossi or in the neighbouring restaurant Chez Madame Charlotte, Ślewiński met Paul Gauguin. This meeting and acquaintance, followed by a visit to Brittany where he joined the Pont Aven group, influenced Ślewiński's works. Based on synthetism, the artist developed his own way of imaging, and his calm, thoughtful and deeply reflective art, avoided literary symbolism.

Ślewiński painted Woman Combing her Hair in Paris in 1897. It is an intriguing and disturbing composition combining the Art Nouveau form with the young artist’s sensuality, unparalleled in other, usually restrained works by Ślewiński.

We do not know who the portrayed woman was. Perhaps it was the wife of the artist, Russian painter Eugenia Szewcow, who he met in Paris. Perhaps, as Antoni Potocki remarked, the woman portrayed in the painting is an unknown red-haired mermaid. Equally intriguing, next to the model is a mirror in which a face is reflected.

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