Sketch Portrait of a Woman

Described as a sketch portrait, this 1915 oil suggests that Boznańska allowed it to remain at a stage of development that she considered complete — not a finished commission but a study that captured what she needed without elaboration. The distinction between sketch and finished work was complicated in her practice: her finished portraits often retained a quality of immediate observation that made them appear more spontaneous than they were, while her sketches had a clarity and confidence that belied their rapid execution. Working in Paris during the First World War, Boznańska maintained her studio discipline even as the larger art world was severely disrupted. A sketch portrait in oil in 1915 represents both her continued engagement with the female figure as a subject and her pragmatic use of whatever access to models or sitters the wartime situation permitted. The work is consistent with a European tradition of oil sketching — from Velázquez to Sargent — in which the sketch was valued precisely for what it preserved of direct observation.

The sketch designation implies thinner paint application and less reworking than a finished commission, leaving the brushwork more openly legible. Boznańska's characteristic grey-green ground likely shows through more extensively than in her finished portraits. The face may be more resolved than the surrounding passages, as was typical of her practice even in exploratory work.