Zofia Potocka née Branicki

A painting from the former collection of the Potocki family, taken abroad by Alfred Potocki, the last Entailer of Łańcut, in 1944; it was bought from the Heim Gallery in London by the Ministry of Culture and Art in 1981 and donated to the Łańcut Castle. The small picture shows a portrait of a middle-aged woman against a background of suspended curtains, architecture and landscape. The portrayed woman is Zofia Potocka, née Branicka (born in January 1790 in Warsaw, died in January 1879 in Krzeszowice), daughter of Franciszek Ksawery Branicki and Aleksandra von Engelhardt. In 1816 she married Artur Stanisław Potocki, owner of, among others, Krzeszowice and the Pod Baranami Palace in Kraków. She was a philanthropist. She was interested in art, collected Italian paintings, and initiated the rebuilding of the Chapel of  Saint Leonard at the Wawel Castle, she also founded the Potocki Chapel in the Wawel Cathedral. The picture is signed and dated in the lower right corner “Kriehuber 1839”. Joseph Kriehuber (born in December 1800 in Vienna, died in May 1876 in Vienna) was an Austrian lithographer and painter. His main passion was lithography and he worked as a lithographer for several Viennese publishing houses. In 1818 he was employed as a draftsman by Prince Sanguszko. In 1826 he produced his first portraits using the new technique of lithography. Apart from lithography, he also painted portraits in watercolour. Within a short period he became the most popular and best paid portraitist of the Biedermeier era in Vienna. He used to portray members of the nobility and aristocracy as well as government officials, and created idealised portraits of women. Unfortunately, with the development of photography, the demand for his services declined and commissions fell. He spent the last years of his life in poverty. The painting from Łańcut, maintained in light pastel colours, is framed by a rather wide, wooden, gilded frame with fancifully cut edges, decorated with palmettes and flowered branches. On the lower moulding of the frame a plate with the inscription “Zofia Branicka Arturowa Potocka”. The picture is exhibited in the living room forming part of the Gala Apartment on the first floor of the Łańcut Castle.