Roman Potocki

This painting from the Potocki collection is a portrait of Roman Potocki, Third Lord Ordynat of Łańcut. Shown in half-figure, he is holding an open parasol, protecting him from the sun. The painting is signed “K. Mastelski” in the lower right corner. It is not dated, but judging by the age of the subject, it must have been painted in the early 20th century. Kazimierz Mastelski (born 1869, died 1954 in Szczecin) was a Polish painter, who studied with Wojciech Gerson in the Warsaw Drawing Class. He initially lived in Munich, then in Warsaw. He specialised in the pastels technique, in which the Łańcut picture is painted. He painted landscapes, flowers, genre and religious scenes; however, he mainly made portraits. In 1927, he was in Łańcut, restoring portraits of the Potocki family. Roman Alfred Maria Potocki (born December 1851 in Łańcut, died September 1915 in Łańcut), statesman and politician (although not as fervent as his father, Alfred II), was a deputy to the national assembly of Galicia, decorated with the Pontifical Order of St. Gregory the Great (1900) and the Spanish Order of Charles III (1906), as well as the Order of the Golden Fleece (1906). Thanks to his second marriage (his first wife died young) to Elżbieta Radziwiłł, from the Berlin line, he was connected with nearly all the European ruling houses of the time; he was also one of the wealthiest landowners in Galicia. Roman and Elżbieta Potockis’ most important accomplishment was the ordering of the modernisation and partial reconstruction of the Łańcut castle at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries.