oil on canvas, 51x40,5 cm, signed on the reverse: Kazimierz Xza Sapieha / Marszałek / friend of Jacek Kościa / 1776 / General of Artillery / Polish / Kodeński
state of preservation: quite good, restored painting, cracks, dirt and small losses of the paint layer
The person depicted in the painting is Kazimierz Nestor ks. Sapieha (1757 Brest Litewski - 1798 Vienna) h. Lis, representative of the Koden line. As a youth he was appointed general of the Lithuanian artillery (1776?); in 1774 he received the Order of St. Stanislaus, and five years later the Order of the White Eagle. He became one of the marshals of the Great Seimas (confederation of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania) 1788-1792. The presence of a symbolic marshal's staff in the painting indicates that the painting was created no earlier than 1788, probably based on a graphic or painting representation. Jacek Kościa mentioned in the inscription on the back of the painting is most likely Jacek Kościa-Zbirohowski h. Leliwa (1734-1808), who is mentioned as a colonel in the Lithuanian army in 1776.
