JÓSEF CHELMONSKI | Midnight Ride

Helena Modrzejewska later Modjeska (1840-1909), renowned Polish actress who emigrated to the United States in 1876; probably acquired from the artist 

Ralph Modjeski (born Rudolf Modrzejewski, 1861-1940); son of the above. Ralph Modjeski was a renowned civil engineer who became a pre-eminent bridge designer in the United States pioneering suspension bridges 

Purchased from the above by the husband of Maria Zaleska; thence by descent

New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Nineteenth Century Polish Paintings: A Loan Exhibition, 1944, no. 16 (as Midnight Ride), illustrated in the catalogue

Montreal, McGill University, Polish Art Exhibition, 1966

Encapsulating the key elements of Chelmonski’s artistic idiom, including dynamism, expression, motion and picturesque costumes, this impressive canvas is among the most important works by the artist ever to come for sale on the international market.

A sleigh charges through the snow on a winter's night. Driven by a man whose face is concealed by a plume of black hair, his passenger is a woman whose nostalgic gaze is a reminder of what, or whom, she might have left behind in the haste of her departure. The intensity and power of the composition is further enhanced by the yellow cape ruffled by the wind and by the exhaustion palpable in the horses’ faces.

Born in Boczki, a small village near Lowicz in central Poland, Chelmonski learned basic drawing technique from his father. At the age of thirteen, he began training with Wojciech Gerson at the Warsaw School of Drawing and - thanks to the assistance of fellow Polish artist Josef Brandt - continued his studies at the Munich Academy of Fine Arts.

In 1875 Chelmonski moved to Paris where he developed an impressive international reputation through the promotional efforts of his dealer Adolphe Goupil. By the late nineteenth century, Chelmonski's compositions were eagerly sought by many prominent British and American collectors who coveted the artist's depictions of Polish peasant life and of Troikas and Chetverkas (threesomes and foursomes) galloping across the steppe in particular.

A smaller canvas of this same subject, dated 1879, is in the Muzeum Śląskie, Katowice, Poland.