Description:

Józef Bozdziech (1874–1905) studied at the Warsaw real gymnasium. He was a student of J. Maszyński. He mainly painted moody landscapes and still lifes. He exhibited his works at the Warsaw and Krakow Society of Friends of Fine Arts and at the Krywult Salon in Warsaw. He died young, at the age of thirty–one.

Description of the painting:

A white–gray wasteland fades into a dimmed blue creating an indistinct line of the horizon. The tracks of feet, hooves, and sleds left in the foreground become less sharp the further into the landscape they lead. Similarly, lone gray clumps of shrubs, clear up close, blur and lose shape in the distance. The snow reflects the bright light of the moon, unseen in the painting. The first plan is sharply illuminated, emphasizing the light shade in the ridges of snow. High above the horizon, on a gray–blue sky, a single star shines brightly. The painting conveys a sense of emptiness, confusion, and loneliness, yet a certain fascination with the beauty and silence of the windless winter night. The landscape invites contemplation and pause, to simply contemplate the humble landscape. The color palette of the composition is narrowed down to the absolute minimum, but chosen with an incredible sensitivity that can astonish a 22–year–old artist. Such a synthesis, both chromatic and compositional, is often the result of many years of artistic experience, but in this case is the result of an extraordinary sensitivity of a young person.

It is likely that Edward Aleksander Raczyński not only bought this moody nocturne to support a young artist, but also certainly because of the exceptional talent Bozdziech has manifested in this painting.