Józef Potocki from Antoniny

Painting from the collection of the Potocki family, former owners of the castle, depicts a portrait of a young man, shown in a standing posture, medium-long frame, with his arms crossed on his chest and with a book on the table behind him. In the upper right corner the Pilawa coat of arms, under a count crown with nine arches. Józef Mikołaj Potocki, depicted in the painting (born September 1862 in Lviv, died August 1922 in Montresor), was the son of Alfred Józef Potocki, Second Entailer of Łańcut, and Maria Klementyna, née Sanguszko. He was a traveller and book collector, as well as a deputy to the Russian State Duma, as well as a Russian and Austrian chamberlain. He was a progressive landowner – he abolished the serfdom of his peasants, supported education, had sugar mills built and a railway built on his orders. He travelled extensively and was the first European to visit the Shinar situated by the Blue Nile. He was the author of several books including Hunting Notes from the Far East. India, Ceylon, Hunting Notes from Africa. Somalia, By the Blue Nile. He died as a result of injuries sustained in a car accident. The Łańcut painting by T. Axentowicz is signed in lower left corner “T. Axentowicz”. Teodor Axentowicz (born in May 1859 in Brasov, died in August 1938 in Kraków) was a Polish painter, graphic artist and draughtsman. He came from a family of Polish Armenians who were granted nobility and the Gryf coat of arms in the 17th century. From 1878 to 82 he studied in Munich, later in Paris. He travelled to London and Rome, where he painted many portraits of Polish aristocrats. It was then that the Łańcut painting could be created. From 1895, he lived in Kraków, where he became a professor at the School of Fine Arts, which was reorganised by J. Fałat, and from 1910 he was the rector of the Academy of Fine Arts. As a painter he gained recognition by creating portraits and also genre scenes of Hutsul life. He was also an illustrator and designer of exhibition posters. The Łańcut painting, framed in a narrow, wooden, gilded channel frame, is exhibited in the White Corridor on the first floor of the Łańcut Castle.