Olga Boznańska at the Gallery of 19th-Century Art

An extended display of nearly thirty works by Olga Boznańska in the permanent Gallery of 19th-Century Art, marking the 160th anniversary of the birth and 85th anniversary of the death of one of the leading Polish painters of the turn of the 20th century.

National Museum on the exhibition:

This year marks the 160th anniversary of the birth and the 85th anniversary of the death of Olga Boznańska (1865-1940) - we decided to mark both anniversaries with a display of nearly thirty of the painter’s works from the collection of the National Museum in Warsaw.

Olga Boznańska ranks among the most outstanding European women artists. The daughter of a Frenchwoman and a Pole, she was born in Kraków.

What to expect

The display runs from 10 September 2025 to 3 January 2027 (extended) within the Gallery of 19th-Century Art - part of the permanent collection, not a separate ticketed show or dedicated room. You’ll see nearly thirty works by Boznańska, a painter known for her hazy, muted portraits, shown to mark a double anniversary: 160 years since her birth and 85 since her death.

The works hang in a specially arranged section of the gallery in the Main Building at Al. Jerozolimskie 3 in central Warsaw. According to the museum’s director, Agnieszka Lajus, quoted by the Polish Press Agency (PAP), the museum owns about 80 works by Boznańska and keeps nine on permanent view. The curator says Warsaw’s holding of her work is second only to the National Museum in Kraków. The paintings and pastels in this display normally sit in storage, and they are hung on metal mesh stretched over frames, the way a museum store looks. One ticket gets you both the storage finds and the permanent Boznańska room.

Worth looking out for:

• “Interior of the Studio” (Wnętrze pracowni, 1895) and “Self-Portrait” (Autoportret, 1896) - the two works from the display with an audio description (in Polish) in the museum’s online section.
• “Girl with a Basket of Vegetables” (Dziewczyna z koszem jarzyn) - a large canvas named in the PAP report from the opening, alongside a study of a woman with a girl, an interior of her Munich studio, a portrait of a woman in a blue blouse and “Poppies”.
• Boznańska through her friends’ eyes - portraits of her by Wanda Chełmońska and Xawery Dunikowski, among others, hung next to her self-portraits.
• The permanent Boznańska room - “In the Orangery” (1890), “Portrait of a Boy in a Gymnasium Uniform” (c. 1890) and “Still Life with a Vase” (1918), each with an online audio description.

Tickets and opening hours are on the National Museum’s website.

Context

Olga Boznańska (1865-1940) was born in Kraków, trained in Munich and from 1898 lived and worked in Paris, where she died. Culture.pl, Poland’s state-run culture portal, calls her the greatest painter of Young Poland, the country’s turn-of-the-century modernist movement. She was above all a portraitist, focused on the sitter’s face and mood, with a debt to Whistler and Manet. France gave her the Legion of Honour in 1912, and the Polish parliament named 2025 the Year of Olga Boznańska.

Tickets and time

• No separate ticket. The display is covered by the permanent galleries ticket: 30 PLN regular, 15 PLN reduced; a combined ticket with the museum’s branches costs 60 PLN / 40 PLN.
• Children, school pupils and students under 26: 1 PLN, at the ticket desk only. Children under 7 go free.
• Free on Tuesdays - the museum counts the display as part of the permanent galleries, which are free on Tuesdays. In September 2026 the free days move to Wednesdays 23 and 30 September.
• Friday 17:00-20:00 (5-8 PM): 50% off every ticket except the 1 PLN one.
• A temporary exhibition ticket also covers the permanent galleries, so a visit to the Menzel show gets you Boznańska too.
• Warsaw Pass: free entry with priority access. The Warsaw resident card (Karta Warszawiaka) gives 10% off; the Large Family Card (Karta Dużej Rodziny) gives adults 50% off.
• Hours: Tuesday-Sunday 10:00-18:00 (10 AM - 6 PM), Friday until 20:00 (8 PM), closed Mondays. Ticket desks close 45 minutes before closing time (17:15, or 19:15 on Fridays).
• September warning: the museum is closed 19-22 and 28-29 September 2026 for technical work; on 18 September it closes at 18:00.
• Buy at the desk or online. If the online allocation runs out, the desk keeps selling, though the museum may pause sales briefly when it is very busy.
• Audio: the museum’s Polish visit page lists a 10 PLN headset rental for the Gallery of 19th-Century Art, but its English page says headsets are not provided, so bring your own headphones for the free online guide on your phone.
• How long: the museum does not say. Nearly thirty works plus the permanent room take about an hour; add half an hour if you also want Matejko’s “Battle of Grunwald” in the same gallery.
• English on site: the museum publishes an English audio guide to the Gallery of 19th-Century Art for your own phone, but does not say whether it covers this display or whether labels are in English. English guided Boznańska tours ran in February and March 2026; none is announced now.

Who it is for: anyone who knows Boznańska from reproductions and wants to see her lesser-known work before it goes back into storage. Tuesday is the cheapest day to go; in September 2026 the free days are Wednesday 23 and Wednesday 30 September instead. If you want a large stand-alone monographic exhibition, this is not that: it is a section of the permanent gallery.

Events

• 03.10.2026, 11:00 - guided tour “Olga Boznańska - an artist of the late 19th century” with Lena Lewandowska, covering the display and the permanent room, in Polish, approx. 80 min, 30 PLN / 15 PLN, tickets online from 22 September, and in practice at the desk from 23 September (the museum is closed 19-22 September): details

What the press says

Four pieces from the display’s first month, all news reports or interviews; no critical review and no English-language coverage found.

• TVN Warszawa (10.09.2025, via PAP): a report from the press conference, where the director described the display as hidden treasures coming out into daylight - article, in Polish
• Polish Radio Three (Trójka) (11.09.2025, Izabela Dudkiewicz): an overview focused on the portraits, including those in which her friends painted Boznańska herself - article, in Polish
• Polish Radio Four (Czwórka), “Stacja Kultura” (18.09.2025, Kasia Dydo): an interview with the museum’s Agnieszka Bagińska on Boznańska’s highly individual way of painting and her self-portraits - article with audio, in Polish
• Polish Radio, Redakcja Polska (08.10.2025, editorial team): an interview with curator Renata Higersberger on why the anniversary display draws on works outside the permanent hang - article with audio, in Polish

Curator Renata Higersberger told Polish Radio that for the anniversary the museum “decided to show the works that nobody normally gets a chance to see” (our translation).

Updates

• 2026-08-12 - the museum’s page gives the extended closing date of 3 January 2027 (the museum has not said when it decided; press reports from the opening gave 5 July 2026) (exhibition page)
• 2026-09-07 - the museum announced closures on 19-22 and 28-29 September and free admission on Wednesdays 23 and 30 September (notice, in Polish).

See also

• National Museum in Warsaw - the museum profile with its permanent galleries; the Gallery of 19th-Century Art with Matejko is on the same ticket, and so is the current temporary show “Adolph Menzel (1815-1905). The Tireless Observer”, running to 13 December 2026 and devoted to a painter of the same era.
• Academy of Fine Arts Museum in Kraków on muzea.org.pl - the museum owns Boznańska’s house and studio at ul. Piłsudskiego 21 in Kraków, where she spent her summers.

Museum profile: National Museum in Warsaw.