Bulletin du Musée National de Varsovie (10.1969)

Jan Białostocki

ESILIO PRIVATO:
KING STANISŁAW LESZCZYŃSKI PAINTED BY OUDRY

In 1925 the Polish State Art Collections accruired two paintings in Austria*: one of them,
signed by Jean Baptiste Oudry, represented the Polish. exiled king, Stanisław Leszczyński,
in pilgrim's clothing, seen in a landscape (fig. 1); the other depicted, as is proved by descrip-
tions, Leszczyński's daughter, Maria Leszczyńska, visiting a fortune-teller, and was also at-
tributed to Oudry.1 Until 1939 these paintings hung in a bedroom of the Warsaw Royal Castle.2
During the last war the second of the two pictures went astray and must be considered lost.
Today, only the portrait of the king remains in Warsaw, where it belongs to the Gallery of
Europ ean paintings in the National Museum.3

The portrait of King Stanisław was published and studied for the first time by Pierre Franca-
stel in 1934 in the Bulletin de la societe de l'histoire de l'art franęais.1 Francastel recalled that
Oudry had executed a considerable number of portraits in his youth (about 250), although his
fame Was later based on compositions representing trophies and hunting scenes. He also men-
tioned the fact that Oudry's portrait drawings are preserved in two albums belonging to the
collections at Vaux-le-Vicomte.6 Francastel interpreted the date to be found below the signature,
and whose third digit is hardly legible, as 1720. This was contested two years later by Simon
who read the date as 1730," and this reading was accepted by the present writer in his publica-
tion (jointly with Professor Walicki) of 1955.'

Francastel based his dating on historical evidence too. He wrote: "En 1720 Leszczyński
refugie a Wissembourg peut fort bien avoir pose devant Oudry." He studied the known portrait
drawings by Oudry but did not find one connected with our portrait. He added that most of the
portraits included in the albums belonged to the period before 1720, although he pointed out
that the albums are far from complete. Francastel did not accept the attribution to Oudry
of the other portrait accruired at the same time as the Stanisław and regarded as its pendant.
Since he was convinced that the date was to be interpreted as 1720, he thought that a picture
representing a gypsy foretelling the crown to Maria Leszczyńska could not have been painted
before 1725 — the date of her marriage to Louis XV. The costume of the lady represented
seemed to Francastel to belong to an earlier period. For these reasons he concluded that the

* The Polish version of this urticlc has uppeared in the Book of Essays in Honour of Professor Stanisław Lorentz:
Muzeum i Twórca, Warsaw, 1969. For iniproving the English wording I am indebted to the colleagues from the Courtauld
Institute of Art, London.

1. National Museum, Warsaw, No. 131472; canvas, 104.5 by 87 cm. In the State Art Collections before the war the picture
had the number 1242. A note in an old inventory statcs that it was bought from Maria Rummerskirch in Salzburg. General
bibliography: Jan Białostocki and Michał Walicki, Europaische Malcrei in polnischcn Sammlungen, Warsaw, 1957, No. 363.

2. K. Broki, Przewodnik po zaniku królewskim te Warszateie, Warsaw, 1936, p. 37, M. Wallis, Sztuka obca w zbiorach polskich
(addition to the Polish edition of Hamann's History of Art), Warsaw, 1936, p. 1207.

3. Galeria Malarstwa Obcego, Przewodnik, Warsaw, 1964, p. 95.

4. Pierre Francastel, "Oeuvres d'art franęaises en Pologne et en Suede," Bulletin de la societe de l'histoirc de l'art franęais,
1934, pp. 66-71.

5. Jean Cordey, "Deux albums de portraits iuedits peiuts par Oudry," Bulletin, op, cii., 1920, and the same, "J. B. Oudry,
peintre de la familie de Noailles," ibid., 1921. See also L. Locquin, "Catalogue de l'oeuvre de J. B. Oudry,1' Archiies de
fart franęais, 1912.

6. K. E. Simon, "Ausltindische Kunst in Polen," Zcilschrift fur Kunstgeschichte, V, 1936, p. 150.

7. Polish edition of the book quoted in note 1 ahove.

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