Portrait of Helena Modrzejewska

By 1879 Helena Modrzejewska had already left Poland for California, learned English, and made herself a star on the American stage under the easier name Modjeska. This portrait caught her on a visit home, back on a Krakow stage for the first time since emigrating. The idea came up at a ball in the Cloth Hall, the Sukiennice, held to raise money for a monument to the poet Mickiewicz, and the young painter Ajdukiewicz set to work while she posed between rehearsals. He showed her full length in a pale gown, a book paused in one hand, turning toward us with a faint smile. He gave the finished canvas to the new National Museum in Krakow, which opened its doors in 1883.