Gossamer

Gossamer is one of Chełmoński’s most recognizable works. Formally, the artist drew inspiration from a piece by the Munich painter Franz von Lenbach, created 15 years earlier, which depicted a shepherd boy resting in a meadow. In both works, the reclining figures are shown in the foreground, rendered with realist precision, emphasizing details such as dirty feet. Initial reactions from critics to both canvases were also similar – they bemoaned the glaring authenticity and rawness of the representation.
The second, perhaps even more important source of inspiration for the Polish painter, one that had a lasting influence on his career, was his stay in Ukraine. Chełmoński first visited in 1871 and again in 1874 after returning from Munich. In Ukraine, he became captivated by the vastness of the steppe landscapes and the lives of the local people. As was common at the time, he succumbed to Romantic myth of the steppes as a symbol of freedom and nature untamed by civilization. By setting Gossamer against a Ukrainian steppe, Chełmoński heightened the poetic tone of the work. Its proper subject is a country girl at rest, lost in dreams.
It wasn’t until years later that Gossamer won the favour of critics. In 1890, during Chełmoński’s monographic exhibition at Zachęta in Warsaw, Wiktor Gomulicki remarked that “the painting was ahead of its time, and that is why today, fifteen years later, it seems so fresh and so aligned with the spirit of the latest school.”