Jan Chelminski, FROM THE FRENCH CAMPAIGN OF 1814, before 1904

58.3 x 84.3cm - oil, canvas signed p.d.: Jan V. Chelminski

On the reverse, on the crossbar of the loom, number (in black crayon): 10496; below, a sticker with the same printed number; also, on the loom and crossbar, numbers (in black crayon): 0782 and 0791 bis, 28 [in a circle], and numbers relating to the size of the sub-image.

On the left loom bar a faintly legible sticker of the American Express Co. shipping company, indicating that the artist sent the painting through it to the New York gallery Knoedler & Co.

The painting listed:

- M. Knoedler & Co., Painting stock book 5: 8800-12652, 1899 April - 1911 December, p. 96, cat. no. 10496 (Les parlementairs Campaign of France 1814) - purchased by the Washington gallery of the V.G. Fischer Art Company.



From his earliest years, Jan Chelminski created scenes of rides, hunts or dynamic battle compositions, in which horses always took center stage. After graduating from the Munich Academy of Fine Arts, the first painting exhibited by the artist at the Munich Kunstverein was A Ride showing couples in Rococo costumes. This canvas immediately found a buyer, giving rise to a great career for the painter. In time, it became very popular among American art dealers
and collectors. His paintings were very much to the taste of a wealthy clientele from overseas, which led the artist to leave Europe and move to New York in 1884.

Over time, the work of the artist, who modeled himself on the works of his professors Juliusz Kossak and Jozef Brandt, was dominated by battle themes, mainly related to the Napoleonic wars and the Polish troops taking part in them. Following the example of Jozef Brandt, Chelminski amassed a sizable collection of weapons - mainly from the Napoleonic period. This allowed him to reproduce the details of historical weaponry and uniforms with great care. The presented work is an excellent example of this.



Jan Chelminski (Brzustow near Opoczno 1851 - New York 1925), a popular painter from the circle of "Polish Munich painters," began his education with Juliusz Kossak, and then studied at the Warsaw Drawing Class and in Munich - at the Academy under Alexander Strähuber and Alexander Wagner (1873-1875) and the private studios of Jozef Brandt (1875) and the battle painter Franz Adam (1876). After his studies he was already permanently abroad - in Munich, London (years 1882, 1888-1899), Paris (1899), traveled to St. Petersburg (1889) and New York (1884), where he later settled permanently around 1915. However, he did not break contacts with the country, and often sent his works to Warsaw exhibitions. His paintings enjoyed great success. He painted mainly military and battle scenes, most often from the times of the Duchy of Warsaw and the Napoleonic Wars, as well as genre paintings and hunting episodes. He was involved in book illustration; among other things, he illustrated a volume of hunting stories by Theodore Roosevelt. He was a collector of old weapons and an outstanding expert on soldier uniforms. Many of the artist's paintings are still abroad - in England, Germany or the United States. Few of them appear in antiquarian sales, constantly arousing keen interest among collectors.