DOI Artikel:
Polanowska, Jolanta: Kazimierz Pochwalski, portrecista cesarza Franciszka Józefa I
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.49352#0410
396
Jolanta Polanowska
number of these pictures, the limę of their origins
and expression.
Pochwalski painted a „portrait of the emperor in
a white uniform” as early as in the year 1891, but it is
not known if this picture was ever completed, it being
possible that no morę than a preliminary study for a
portrait ever arose, the appearance of which is
unknown today. The first portrait to be confirmed by
documentary sources was a painting completed in
1893 which was offered by Franz Joseph as a gift to
the British ambassador, Augustus Paget, to mark the
end of his mission in Vienna. The portrait (ill. 5)
depicts the emperor in a standing position, reaching
almost as far down as the knees, wearing a
fieldmarshaPs gala uniform with the blue ribbon of
the Order of the Garter, Star of the Order of the Garter
and Order of the Golden Fleece. The fate of the
original picture, probably transported to England,
remains unknown. It may be presumed that the causes
behind the ordering of this portrait were connected
with a certain detail pertaining to diplomatic protocol.
English legislation forbad diplomats to accept orders
of any kind from foreign governments, for which
reason the Austrian emperor madę a gift to Paget of
his own portrait, in which he was depicted wearing
the order of the Habsburg Dynasty, the Order of the
Golden Fleece, together with the Star of the Order of
the Garter awarded to him by Queen Victoria.
In 1894 Pochwalski painted a successive portrait
of the emperor intended for the grand hall of the
Governor-General’s Pałace at Lemberg (Lwów,
L’ viv). In 1895 a replica of this painting, the current
whereabouts of which are unknown, was madę to
hang in the assembly hall of the Jagiellonian
University at Cracow (destroyed in 1918). Both
Galician portraits were replicas of the 1893 original
painted for the British ambassador.
It is likely that Pochwalski painted a further variant
of the 1893 portrait around 1900. In September 1900
the emperor offered his painted likeness to the
successive English ambassador, Sir Horace Rumbold,
to mark the end of a sucessive British diplomatic
mission to Vienna (ill. 7). This is an oval bust of the
monarch depicted in the uniform of fieldmarshal with
insignificant alterations to the 1893 prototype. This
portrait is the property of the Govcrnment of Art
Collection in London and is to be found in the residence
of the British Embassy in Yienna.
In 1896 Pochwalski painted a portrait of Franz
Joseph I in the uniform of a field generał, this being
intended for a publishing house whose identity has
never been estasblished. In the same year this likeness
became the property of Vienna’s Moderne Galerie,
to be acąuired subeąuently by the Osterreichische
Galerie, also in Vienna (ill. 8). Pochwalski repeated
in this portrait, based on the 1893 likeness, both the
figure’s posturę, together with the arrangement of his
arms and accessories.
1910 marks the year in which the emperor’s
portrait in hunting costume arose, this being intended
for the hunters’ exhibition, Die Erste Internationale
Jagd-Ausstellung, held in that year in Vienna, and of
which the Emperor was the honorary protector. This
painting (ill. 10) was subseąuently purchased for the
Prince Fiirstenberg collections and today is
considered as having perished. Moreover, there
existed an actual bust of the emperor in hunting dress.
Portraits of the Emperor in the basie postures
described in this article were multiplied in the form
of sketches, replicas and alternative versions, the total
number of which is impossible to establish. Sketches
belonging to the painter might have served as
preliminary materiał in the painting of successive
likenesses in relation to the imperial court’s
reąuirements at a given time, as in the case of the
above-mentioned situations where the need had arisen
to offer gifts to accredited diplomats at the imperial
court. In this respect Pochwalski might be recognised
as having been a court painter. The character of his
talent and the mastership he demonstrated as a realist
portraitist, upheld in a somewhat traditional style, met
with the needs dictated by convention of an official
portrait of the monarch. The emperor’s portraits
painted by Pochwalski represent examples of the finał
phase in the evolution of the great post-mediaeval
form of painting of a State leader’s official portrait.
The rigidness and conventions of an officially
approved likeness of a ruler could only be broken in
Pochwalski’s numerous portraits of archdukes,
painted with a greater freedom and lightness, in which
the artist permitted himself Solutions where certain
searchings for colour, such as in his Portrait of the
Archduke Karl Stefan in naval uniform (ill. 13),
among others, are visible.
Translated by Peter Martyn
Jolanta Polanowska
number of these pictures, the limę of their origins
and expression.
Pochwalski painted a „portrait of the emperor in
a white uniform” as early as in the year 1891, but it is
not known if this picture was ever completed, it being
possible that no morę than a preliminary study for a
portrait ever arose, the appearance of which is
unknown today. The first portrait to be confirmed by
documentary sources was a painting completed in
1893 which was offered by Franz Joseph as a gift to
the British ambassador, Augustus Paget, to mark the
end of his mission in Vienna. The portrait (ill. 5)
depicts the emperor in a standing position, reaching
almost as far down as the knees, wearing a
fieldmarshaPs gala uniform with the blue ribbon of
the Order of the Garter, Star of the Order of the Garter
and Order of the Golden Fleece. The fate of the
original picture, probably transported to England,
remains unknown. It may be presumed that the causes
behind the ordering of this portrait were connected
with a certain detail pertaining to diplomatic protocol.
English legislation forbad diplomats to accept orders
of any kind from foreign governments, for which
reason the Austrian emperor madę a gift to Paget of
his own portrait, in which he was depicted wearing
the order of the Habsburg Dynasty, the Order of the
Golden Fleece, together with the Star of the Order of
the Garter awarded to him by Queen Victoria.
In 1894 Pochwalski painted a successive portrait
of the emperor intended for the grand hall of the
Governor-General’s Pałace at Lemberg (Lwów,
L’ viv). In 1895 a replica of this painting, the current
whereabouts of which are unknown, was madę to
hang in the assembly hall of the Jagiellonian
University at Cracow (destroyed in 1918). Both
Galician portraits were replicas of the 1893 original
painted for the British ambassador.
It is likely that Pochwalski painted a further variant
of the 1893 portrait around 1900. In September 1900
the emperor offered his painted likeness to the
successive English ambassador, Sir Horace Rumbold,
to mark the end of a sucessive British diplomatic
mission to Vienna (ill. 7). This is an oval bust of the
monarch depicted in the uniform of fieldmarshal with
insignificant alterations to the 1893 prototype. This
portrait is the property of the Govcrnment of Art
Collection in London and is to be found in the residence
of the British Embassy in Yienna.
In 1896 Pochwalski painted a portrait of Franz
Joseph I in the uniform of a field generał, this being
intended for a publishing house whose identity has
never been estasblished. In the same year this likeness
became the property of Vienna’s Moderne Galerie,
to be acąuired subeąuently by the Osterreichische
Galerie, also in Vienna (ill. 8). Pochwalski repeated
in this portrait, based on the 1893 likeness, both the
figure’s posturę, together with the arrangement of his
arms and accessories.
1910 marks the year in which the emperor’s
portrait in hunting costume arose, this being intended
for the hunters’ exhibition, Die Erste Internationale
Jagd-Ausstellung, held in that year in Vienna, and of
which the Emperor was the honorary protector. This
painting (ill. 10) was subseąuently purchased for the
Prince Fiirstenberg collections and today is
considered as having perished. Moreover, there
existed an actual bust of the emperor in hunting dress.
Portraits of the Emperor in the basie postures
described in this article were multiplied in the form
of sketches, replicas and alternative versions, the total
number of which is impossible to establish. Sketches
belonging to the painter might have served as
preliminary materiał in the painting of successive
likenesses in relation to the imperial court’s
reąuirements at a given time, as in the case of the
above-mentioned situations where the need had arisen
to offer gifts to accredited diplomats at the imperial
court. In this respect Pochwalski might be recognised
as having been a court painter. The character of his
talent and the mastership he demonstrated as a realist
portraitist, upheld in a somewhat traditional style, met
with the needs dictated by convention of an official
portrait of the monarch. The emperor’s portraits
painted by Pochwalski represent examples of the finał
phase in the evolution of the great post-mediaeval
form of painting of a State leader’s official portrait.
The rigidness and conventions of an officially
approved likeness of a ruler could only be broken in
Pochwalski’s numerous portraits of archdukes,
painted with a greater freedom and lightness, in which
the artist permitted himself Solutions where certain
searchings for colour, such as in his Portrait of the
Archduke Karl Stefan in naval uniform (ill. 13),
among others, are visible.
Translated by Peter Martyn