''Portrait of Countess Potocka'' is an oil on canvas portrait of Katarzyna Potocka née Branicka by German artist

Franz Xaver Winterhalter Franz Xaver Winterhalter (20 April 1805 – 8 July 1873) was a German painter and lithography, lithographer, known for his flattering portraits of royalty and upper-class society in the mid-19th century. His name has become associated with fashio ...

, created in 1854. He was at the time one of the foremost portraitists of

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

's royalty and aristocracy. It is held in the

National Museum A national museum can be a museum maintained and funded by a national government. In many countries it denotes a museum run by the central government, while other museums are run by regional or local governments. In the United States, most nati ...

, in

Warsaw Warsaw, officially the Capital City of Warsaw, is the capital and List of cities and towns in Poland, largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the Vistula, River Vistula in east-central Poland. Its population is officially estimated at ...

History and description

Winterhalter was a painter who received many commissions from the various European courts and therefore also from the aristocracy of his time. The pictured, Countess Potocka (1825–1907), belonged to the wealthy nobility of

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

and was a member of the Branicki family. She was born Katarzyna Branicka and in 1847 married Adam Józef Potocki (1822–1872), a member of the

Potocki family The House of Potocki (; plural: Potoccy, male: Potocki, feminine: Potocka) was a prominent szlachta, Polish noble family in the Kingdom of Poland (1385–1569), Kingdom of Poland and magnates of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. The Po ...

. The couple had seven children, three of whom were also painted by Winterhalter, including Andrzej Kazimierz, Artur Władysław, Zofia Potocka, and Róża. The Countess Potocka is depicted here in an oriental costume in a three-quarter size, in the painter's favorite format, an oval. It was commissioned by her sister, Elżbieta Krasińska (1820–1876), who was also painted by Winterhalter. The costume is taken from the exile the couple had spent in the Middle East after Adam Potocki was accused, incorrectly, of an 1848 bombing. Winterhalter follows the examples from the 18th century when such a costume was more common and worn at costume balls.''Genealogisches Handbuch des Adels'', 35, 1965, p. 232 (German) Winterhalter made at least three portraits of Countess Potocka in the period 1854 to 1858. The whereabouts of the third portrait is unknown and it has presumably been lost. The second is also in Warsaw. A copy of this oriental portrait is in the possession of the French Château Montrésor.

Provenance

The portrait belonged to the Potocki family and hung in

Krzeszowice Krzeszowice () is a town in southern Poland, situated in the Lesser Poland Voivodeship. As of 2004, its population was 9,993. Krzeszowice belongs to ''Kraków Metropolitan Area'', and lies 25 kilometers west of the center of the city of Krakó ...

's Potocki Palace . In 1946 it was acquired by the

Warsaw National Museum The National Museum in Warsaw (, MNW) is a national museum in Warsaw, one of the largest museums in Poland and the largest in the capital. It comprises a rich collection of ancient art (Art of ancient Egypt, Egyptian, Art in ancient Greece, Greek, ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Portrait of Countess Potocka 1854 paintings Paintings by Franz Xaver Winterhalter Portraits of women Paintings in the National Museum, Warsaw