Study of the head for the painting “Symbolic dance”

Ciągliński employs fluid brushwork, allowing individual strokes to remain visible and convey texture. A limited palette of muted flesh tones, deep hair pigments, and a light ground creates subtle modeling of the face. The handling reflects post‑impressionist concerns with color modulation and expressive surface, while the rapid application retains a sense of immediacy.

Created during the artist’s productive period in St. Petersburg under Tsars Alexander III and Nicholas II, the study was later acquired by the National Museum in Warsaw. It remains part of the museum’s permanent collection, where it is displayed alongside other works by Ciągliński, illustrating his development as a Polish expatriate painter.

Jan Ciągliński, a Polish-born artist who spent much of his career in Russia, contributed to the diffusion of post‑impressionist ideas beyond France. This study exemplifies his synthesis of Russian academic training with modernist tendencies, reflecting the cultural exchanges occurring at the turn of the twentieth century in the imperial capital.