Phryne.

"Phryne" (1867) depicts the famous ancient Greek hetaira (courtesan) who was put on trial for impiety in Athens and whose acquittal — according to one ancient tradition — was secured when her defender Hyperides unveiled her nude body before the court, so overwhelming the jury with her beauty. The subject was enormously popular in nineteenth-century academic and Romantic painting, allowing artists to explore the female nude within a legitimizing classical narrative. Grottger's treatment, made in 1867, belongs to a wider European engagement with this story that produced celebrated works by Jean-Léon Gérôme and others. For a Polish artist primarily known for patriotic historical imagery, the Phryne subject represents a deliberate engagement with the international themes of academic painting, demonstrating range and technical ambition. The National Museum in Kraków holds this canvas.

The Phryne subject demands virtuoso rendering of the nude female form in a dramatic context — the moment of unveiling, with a crowd's reaction to negotiate. Grottger would rely on controlled academic technique: careful anatomical construction, smooth modelling of skin with warm light on ivory tones, and the contrast between the exposed figure and the surrounding clothed or reacting crowd. Compositional drama is achieved through the directional gaze of surrounding figures.