Człowiek wśród zwierząt. Obrazy Józefa Chełmońskiego z lat 90. XIX wieku

On the grounds of Chełmoński’s declarations and the opinions of the individuals who knew him it can be concluded that the painter treated both humans and animals as the fruit of Divine creation. Such a conviction was of particular importance over the period of the heated debate on Darwin’s theory of evolution. Hence the question whether this attitude has ever found a visual expression in Chełmoński’s oeuvre? The discussed study analyzes works representing humans and animals painted in the 1890s when on many occasions the artist displayed his perception of the world as being in compliance with the letter of the Holy Scriptures.