{{Short description|1884 painting by Anna Bilińska}} {{About||the bronze sculpture by Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux|The Negress|the painting by Manet|La Négresse (Manet)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=February 2021}}
{{Infobox artwork | title = A Negress | image_file =Anna Bilińska-Bohdanowiczowa - Black girl - MP 5531 - National Museum in Warsaw.jpg | artist = Anna Bilińska | year = 1884 | medium = Oil on canvas | height_metric = 63 | width_metric = 48.8 | metric_unit = cm | imperial_unit = in | city = Warsaw | museum = National Museum }} '''''A Negress''''' ({{langx|pl|Murzynka}}) is an 1884 oil painting by the Polish artist Anna Bilińska. The painting was stolen from the National Museum in Warsaw during World War II and remained missing until it appeared at auction in 2011 and was returned to the museum in 2012.<ref name="museum">{{cite web |title=Murzynka |trans-title=Negress |url=https://muzeumutracone.pl/kolekcje/murzynka/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220528215134/https://muzeumutracone.pl/kolekcje/murzynka/ |archive-date=28 May 2022 |access-date=28 February 2021 |publisher=Muzeum Utracone |language=pl}}</ref>
==Description== The work was painted in Paris, while the artist was studying under Tony Robert-Fleury at the Académie Julian.<ref name="museum"/><ref name="dzieje">{{Cite web |date=19 March 2012 |title=Odnaleziony obraz "Murzynka" wraca do Muzeum Narodowego |trans-title=Negress Back in the National Museum |url=https://dzieje.pl/kultura-i-sztuka/odnaleziony-obraz-murzynka-wraca-do-muzeum-narodowego |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220528215454/https://dzieje.pl/kultura-i-sztuka/odnaleziony-obraz-murzynka-wraca-do-muzeum-narodowego |archive-date=28 May 2022 |access-date=29 January 2021 |website=dzieje.pl |language=pl}}</ref> It may take inspiration from the ''Portrait of Madeleine'' made in 1800 by Marie-Guillemine Benoist.<ref name="nimoz">{{Cite web |author=Renata Higersberger |date=2012 |title="Piękna, skradziona, odzyskana" |trans-title=Beautiful, stolen, recovered |url=https://issuu.com/nimoz/docs/cenne_bezcenne_utracone_2_71/2 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220528215953/https://issuu.com/nimoz/docs/cenne_bezcenne_utracone_2_71/2 |archive-date=28 May 2022 |access-date=28 February 2021 |pages=4–7" |language=pl |issn=1428-6467 |magazine=in "Cenne, Bezcenne, Utracone" [Precious, Priceless, Lost] |issue=2/71}}</ref>
The painting is a realist half-length portrait of a black woman, shown from waist up dressed in a white robe which has slipped off one shoulder, exposing the left breast. She is wearing a gold necklace, gold hoop earrings, and a yellow head scarf, and holding a Japanese fan to her right with trailing green fabric. The sitter may have been a life model posed on a stage. She is viewed from below, tightly framed against a plain light background, looking back over the head of the viewer, with an uncomfortable expression: perhaps self-conscious or embarrassed. The paint is applied thinly but the work is highly finished, in academic style. This type of painting of an exotic person was popular in the late nineteenth century. The canvas is prominently signed and dated in the upper right corner, "Anna Bilińska / {{nowrap|- Paryż 1884 -}}".<ref name=dzieje/>
==History== The painting was exhibited in Paris and in London in 1888, and was probably brought to Poland after the artist's death in 1893 by her husband, the doctor Antoni Bohdanowicz.<ref name="nimoz"/> It was acquired by the Polish art collector {{ill|Dominik Witke-Jeżewski|pl}} before 1916. He deposited the canvas with the rest of his collection at the National Museum in Warsaw in 1933.<ref>{{Cite web |date=21 March 2012 |title="Murzynka" wróciła do Muzeum Narodowego |trans-title="Negress" returned to the National Museum |url=https://tvn24.pl/tvnwarszawa/najnowsze/murzynka-wrocila-do-muzeum-narodowego-59736 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220528220823/https://tvn24.pl/tvnwarszawa/najnowsze/murzynka-wrocila-do-muzeum-narodowego-59736 |archive-date=28 May 2022 |access-date=29 January 2021 |website=TVN Warszawa |language=pl}}</ref> In 1939, the painting was purchased by the National Museum for 700 zlotys <!-- Under the gold standard, the exchange was fixed at 5.18 zloty/US$ from 1933 until the 1939 devaluation, so ~135 US$ -->(roughly {{Inflation|US|135|1939|fmt=eq|r=-2}}). The painting was stolen in unknown circumstances at some point during World War II and was sought by Poland after 1945.<ref>{{Cite web |title=''Black girl'', The National Museum in Warsaw - Digital Collections |url=https://cyfrowe.mnw.art.pl/en/catalog/517992 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220528221605/https://cyfrowe.mnw.art.pl/en/catalog/517992 |archive-date=28 May 2022 |access-date=16 January 2021 |website=cyfrowe.mnw.art.pl}}</ref> The painting reappeared in 2011 when it was put up for auction at {{ill|Villa Grisebach|de}} in Germany. It was purchased for Poland thanks to the effort of the Polish Ministry of Culture and National Heritage and the support of the Kronenberg Foundation of Citi Handlowy Bank. The picture has been on display again at the National Museum in Warsaw since 2012.<ref name="museum"/>
==See also== *Looted art *World War II looting of Poland
==References== {{reflist}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Negress, A}} Category:1884 paintings Category:Afro-Polish history Category:Anti-black racism in Poland Category:Paintings by Anna Bilińska Category:Recovered works of art Category:Paintings of black people Category:Paintings in the National Museum in Warsaw Category:19th-century portraits Category:Portraits of women Category:Oil paintings on canvas Category:Portraits by Polish artists Category:Nude paintings of women