Nude Woman Lying

Nudes are rare in Wyczółkowski's work, which makes this canvas from around 1908 something of an exception. A young woman lies on her back on a low couch spread with glossy brown fabric, her right arm under her head and her left forearm drawn across her face, so we never see who she is. Behind her hangs a patterned eastern wall hanging in gold and beige, and at the right edge a narrow strip of crimson curtain breaks the warm browns. That red is why the picture is also known as Nude with a Red Drapery. In Kraków at the time, one of the great supporters of new Polish painting was the collector Feliks Jasieński, who also brought thousands of Japanese prints to the city. The painting belonged to him. It already appears in the printed guide to the National Museum in Kraków of 1909, and it became the museum's property with Jasieński's gift in 1920.