DOI issue:
No. 4
DOI article:Ryszkiewicz, Andrzej; Schadow, Wilhelm von [Ill.]: Paintings by Wilhelm Schadow in Polish collections
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.17161#0147
large, blue eyes and a tong nose, is turned towards the left shoulder. The head is protected by
a green printed veil and Iong, curly, dark blond hair is streaming fromunderitover the shoulders.
The velvet dress in a deep wine-red tone is in the „old-German style", namely a half-circle
neckline and laced opening. It is bordered in black with golden ornamentation, an analogy to
the garment of her elder son. There is a large, golden cross hanging from her neek on a double
chain. The forehead is adorned with a thin, golden diadem, decorated with a coral crown in
the centrę. Thus Schadow presented a great lady in a very modest way, referring to the convention
of Italian Renaissance portraits.
This idealistic and timeless style of the portrait of a Polish noble woman becomes the more
striking if compared with the simultaneously painted and almost identically composed image
of Princess Marianna of Prussia,15 which is definitely realistic (fig. 5).
The portrait of Mme Potocka was taken over by the Warsaw Museum together with the
Krzeszowice collection. In the nineteenth century it was hanging in the Palące called Pod
Baranami in Cracow.16 Its existence has left no tracę in print.
Both Potocki portraits, which we publish here for the first time, are obviously not outstanding
works of art. Schadow, as it has been often emphasized, was much more of a teacher and organizer
of artistic life than an independent artist. The paintings are, however, very characteristic exam-
ples of early Nazarenism, and enrich the rather smali number of artist's works. They also introduce
amendments in the catalogue of his oeuvre. Finally, they belong to the few painter's works,
•conserved outside his German fatherland. In Poland, however, they are not the only examples
of his art: the Poznań National Museum keeps two of his large size compositions, belonging
to his later „Diisseldorf-period", which are of more importance among his works. As these
paintings are, furthermore, connected with several letters by Schadow, they cali for a more
detailed presentation at another occasion.
15. Canvas 62 by 45 cm, G. Schafer collection, Schweinfurt. Sec Klassizismus und Romantik, op. ri(., No 149.
16. District State Archives in Cracow, op. cit., No 82.
a green printed veil and Iong, curly, dark blond hair is streaming fromunderitover the shoulders.
The velvet dress in a deep wine-red tone is in the „old-German style", namely a half-circle
neckline and laced opening. It is bordered in black with golden ornamentation, an analogy to
the garment of her elder son. There is a large, golden cross hanging from her neek on a double
chain. The forehead is adorned with a thin, golden diadem, decorated with a coral crown in
the centrę. Thus Schadow presented a great lady in a very modest way, referring to the convention
of Italian Renaissance portraits.
This idealistic and timeless style of the portrait of a Polish noble woman becomes the more
striking if compared with the simultaneously painted and almost identically composed image
of Princess Marianna of Prussia,15 which is definitely realistic (fig. 5).
The portrait of Mme Potocka was taken over by the Warsaw Museum together with the
Krzeszowice collection. In the nineteenth century it was hanging in the Palące called Pod
Baranami in Cracow.16 Its existence has left no tracę in print.
Both Potocki portraits, which we publish here for the first time, are obviously not outstanding
works of art. Schadow, as it has been often emphasized, was much more of a teacher and organizer
of artistic life than an independent artist. The paintings are, however, very characteristic exam-
ples of early Nazarenism, and enrich the rather smali number of artist's works. They also introduce
amendments in the catalogue of his oeuvre. Finally, they belong to the few painter's works,
•conserved outside his German fatherland. In Poland, however, they are not the only examples
of his art: the Poznań National Museum keeps two of his large size compositions, belonging
to his later „Diisseldorf-period", which are of more importance among his works. As these
paintings are, furthermore, connected with several letters by Schadow, they cali for a more
detailed presentation at another occasion.
15. Canvas 62 by 45 cm, G. Schafer collection, Schweinfurt. Sec Klassizismus und Romantik, op. ri(., No 149.
16. District State Archives in Cracow, op. cit., No 82.