Portrait of Helena Sulima, actress, as Gorgon

In this remarkable 1903 work, Malczewski portrays Helena Sulima — the same actress he painted in a straightforward portrait that year — transformed into the mythological Gorgon, a female monster of Greek myth whose gaze turned men to stone. The Gorgon in Polish Symbolist art carried associations of destructive female power and the dangerous fascination of theatrical performance. By placing Sulima's actual face within the Gorgon's mask, Malczewski blurs the boundary between the actress's real identity and the roles she inhabited, making the portrait a meditation on performance, identity, and transformation. It is one of his most psychologically complex works, held at the National Museum in Warsaw.

Malczewski uses theatrical costume and pose to signify the Gorgon identity while retaining the sitter's facial individuality. The painting employs his characteristic Symbolist palette of warm golds, deep reds, and shadowed earth tones. The face retains careful, realistic modelling even within the fantastical context.