# A Negress
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{{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](/source/Anna_Bili%C5%84ska)
| year = 1884
| medium = [Oil on canvas](/source/Oil_painting)
| height_metric = 63
| width_metric = 48.8
| metric_unit = cm
| imperial_unit = in
| city = [Warsaw](/source/Warsaw)
| museum = [National Museum](/source/National_Museum%2C_Warsaw)
}}
'''''A Negress''''' ({{langx|pl|[Murzyn](/source/Murzyn)ka}}) is an 1884 [oil painting](/source/oil_painting) by the Polish artist [Anna Bilińska](/source/Anna_Bili%C5%84ska). The painting was stolen from the [National Museum](/source/National_Museum%2C_Warsaw) in Warsaw during [World War II](/source/World_War_II) and remained missing until it appeared at auction in 2011 and was returned to the museum in 2012.[{{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}}]
==Description==
The work was painted in [Paris](/source/Paris), while the artist was studying under [Tony Robert-Fleury](/source/Tony_Robert-Fleury) at the [Académie Julian](/source/Acad%C3%A9mie_Julian).[{{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}}] It may take inspiration from the ''[Portrait of Madeleine](/source/Portrait_of_Madeleine)'' made in 1800 by [Marie-Guillemine Benoist](/source/Marie-Guillemine_Benoist).[{{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}}]
The painting is a [realist](/source/Realism_(arts)) 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 earring](/source/hoop_earring)s, 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](/source/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](/source/academic_painting) style. This type of painting of an [exotic person](/source/Exoticism) was popular in the late nineteenth century. The canvas is prominently signed and dated in the upper right corner, "Anna Bilińska / {{nowrap|- Paryż 1884 -}}".[
==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.][{{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}}] In 1939, the painting was purchased by the National Museum for 700 [zloty](/source/Polish_zloty)s (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.[{{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}}] 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](/source/Ministry_of_Culture_and_National_Heritage_(Poland)) and the support of the [Kronenberg](/source/Leopold_Stanis%C5%82aw_Kronenberg) Foundation of [Citi Handlowy Bank](/source/Bank_Handlowy). The picture has been on display again at the National Museum in Warsaw since 2012.