Size: 84.4 × 73.7 cm
gift of Tadeusz Wierzejski, 1964
Inv. no. M.Ob.1275 MNW
Adoption period: 1 year
Biography
The portrait, executed with freedom and skill, bears many of the hallmarks of the work of the distinguished French painter Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun. The idealization of the model, combined with the prominence of her individual features, carefully chosen clothing and headdress, form a coherent whole. The oriental headdress on the portrait's head is reminiscent of other works by the artist from the late 18th and early 19th centuries.
The painting was created in Vienna, where the painter stayed between 1793 and 1795, protecting herself from the terror of the French Revolution. There she met a number of Poles, and above all renewed her acquaintance with Princess Izabela Lubomirska, née Czartoryska, a wealthy and influential aristocrat, who commissioned her portrait. In her salon she met Adam Kazimierz Czartoryski and his daughter Maria Wirtemberska, whom she also portrayed. The Viennese period abounded in a large number of images of Polish aristocrats, some of which are still preserved in European and American museums.
The painting, "Portrait of a Woman in a Wrap," comes from the former Przeździecki collection in Warsaw; unfortunately, the identity of the portrayed person has not yet been established.
