I received the most wonderful gift today and I must thank my father and my cousins for working so hard to give it to me. There is a very special portrait that I wanted to take on my Forefather Traces Tour with Zenon. When I visited Dutchie a few months ago, I scanned a photo that she had of her grandmother, Jozefa Gal Kadłub, probably taken at her farm in Odrowąż. She told me that this was a photo of a photo….a snapshot she took of a portrait in a round frame with convex glass. Since the snapshot was a little fuzzy, I wanted to find the portrait and get a better image of it. My father and my cousin took some digital images for me and to my suprise, the portrait was colorized! When I took a closer look, I realized that this was not the portrait that Dutchie had. Dutchie must have taken a snapshot of the original photograph. I don’t yet know who has that original, but how wonderful that there are two versions of her portrait!
This wonderful colorized portrait, in an oval frame and convex glass was handed down from my great-grandmother Aniela to her daughter Stanislawa (Stella), then to her granddaughter Stella (Sis), and then to her great-granddaughter Stella. I don’t know if the colorizing was done in Poland or in the U.S. Does anyone have any knowledge of this colorizing technique and use of oval frames in early 20th century Poland? If anyone recognizes her clothing, please comment. Is she wearing traditional Gorale clothing?