MYCIELSKI Jerzy, WASYLEWSKI St[anisław] - Polish portraits of Elisabeth Vigée-Lebrun 1755-1842....

MYCIELSKI Jerzy, WASYLEWSKI St[anisław] - Polish portraits of Elisabeth Vigée-Lebrun 1755-1842. 24 engravings in heliagrave on separate plates. Lvov-Poznan 1927, Nakł. Polish Publishers. 4, pp. XIV, [2], 148, 15, [1], plates 234. psk. gilt, upper border stained.
Cover rubbed, block slightly cracked, stains inside in places. Missing 1 plate (no. 2 "Henryk Lubomirski as a 'Glory Genealogy'", three plates (1 (Mrs. Vigée-Lebrun), 7 (Pelagja of Potocki) and 19 (Helena of Massalskis de Ligne Wincentowa Potocka)) loose from another piece, with losses and folds in margins. Edition in an unsigned binding by Boleslaw Zjawinski - red half leather, 5-paneled spine, gilt titulature in the 2nd field, floral ornaments in the others. Stamp: "Bibljoteka Farynów." Boards in heliogravure, in part protected by tissue guards (some refracted). Handmade paper (with watermarks of the Polish Publishing House) came from Mirkow. The heliogravures were made by the Viennese firm of F. Paulussen. The lettering layout of the title page was designed by Ernest Czerper. Elisabeth-Louise Vigée-Lebrun is the most famous painter of the 18th century. She was the portraitist of Queen Marie Antoinette of France. She painted mainly portraits of European aristocracy, including Polish. Among the people portrayed were: H. Lubomirski as the "Genii of fame", Izabela of the Czartoryskis Stanislawowa Lubomirska, Anna of the Cetners Kajetanowa Potocka, Rev. Adam Czartoryski, Pelagja of the Potockis Franciszkowa Sapieżyna, Marja of the Lubomirskis Protowa Potocka, Szczęsny Potocki junior, Feliks Woyna, King Stanislaw August Poniatowski. The portraits were described from the point of view of an art historian by Jagiellonian University professor Jerzy Mycielski (1856-1929). Biographical notes of the portrayed figures were compiled by Stanislaw Wasylewski (1885-1953) - writer and historian, employee of the Ossolineum in Lviv. At the end a bibliography and a list of the Polish portraits of Elisabeth Vigée-Lebrun with their date of creation, dimensions, signature, owner data and copies.