#countess katarzyna potocka

[annas-oc-blog]

Who is your favorite character from each kingdom?

Molian - I'm sorry Francis it's going to be Auguste

Asidian - Benedicta

Setaris - Either Ada or Olympia Nicolai, Countess of Rosenshafen

Birye - Christina Amalia

Almswit - Anne Louisa, Duchess of Lindown

Athaigary - Archduchess Clementina

Riya - Joaquina, who happens to be the Empress of Athaigary

Tourene - Infanta Isabel

Rouvalon - Elisabet Ruthven

Aivac - Elzbieta Katarzyna Potocka

[pokadandelion]

Countess Katarzyna Potocka

[king-lafayette]

Katarzyna Potocka in oriental costume by Franz Xaver Winterhalter

National Museum, Warsaw. Countess Potocka sat for this portrait in Paris, where she went after returning from a trip to the Holy Land. Róża Krasińska, who with her mother went to Paris, wrote that she was "a few times in the Winterhalter's studio, while the mother posed for her portraits"

Concerning Winterhalter's method of working, it is thought that, practiced as he was at drawing and representing figures, he painted directly onto the canvas without making preliminary studies. He frequently decided upon the dress and pose of the sitter. His style was suave, cosmopolitan and plausible. Many of the portraits were copied in his workshop or reproduced as lithographs.

As an artist he remained a difficult figure to place; there are few painters with whom to compare him, and he does not fit into any school. His early affinities were Neoclassical but his style can be described as Neo-Rococo. After his death, his painting fell out of favor, being considered romantic, glossy, and superficial. Little was known about him personally and his art was not taken seriously until recently. However, a major exhibition of his work at the National Portrait Gallery (United Kingdom) in London and the Petit Palais in Paris in 1987 brought him into the limelight again. His paintings are exhibited today in leading European and American museums.

part 2

[books0977]

Portrait of Katarzyna Potocka née Branicka (1850). Ary Scheffer (Dutch-French, 1795-1858). Oil on canvas. National Museum in Warsaw. 

The delicate beauty of the countess fits perfectly with Scheffer’s style. Her white skin, the long neck, oval face, small lips, the large and open eyes and dark hair makes her a model of feminine beauty of the time. The countess leans seductively against the arm of a chaise-longue, half smiling, dressed in a tunic gown and fashionable Indian shawl.