Bulletin du Musée National de Varsovie (27.1986)

Iwona Danieleivicz

GEORG FRIEDRICH KERSTING’S FAINTING „EMBROIDERESS” IN
THE COLLECTION OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM IN WARSAW

In 1984, the National Museum in Warsaw acquired a version of one of the better known
painsings by G.F Kersting (1785-1847), the Embroideress (signed: 18GK, interlaced with 17)
to its collection of 19th-century painting (fig. 1).

Kersting executed three versions of tbe painting:

1, in 1812, oil on canvas, 47,5 X 37.5 cm in the Staatliche ICunstsammlungen in Weimar (fig.2);

2, in 1817, oil on panel, 47.5 X 36.5 cm in the National Museum in Warsaw;

3, in 1827, oil on panel, 47.5 X 36.5 cm in the Kunsthalle in Kieł (fig. 3).

The paintings differ in several details. In the Weimar and Kieł versions, the young woman’s
face is reflected in a rnirror hanging near the w indów, while no such solution is used in the War-
saw painting. In the Weimar version, a portrait of a young man in a garland hangs above the
sofa, while in the Kieł version, there is also a portrait though of a different man. In the Warsaw
version, there .lic two paintings above the sofa: one of the Virgin and Child, the otlier, a small-
-sized portrait of a man iń a black beret. In each of the three yersions the furniture in the room
is different, and in the Warsaw picture also the young woman is dressed in a different way.

The young woman represented in the paintings is Luise Seidler, a painter and J.W. Goethe’s
protege. Kersting portrayed her in the house of his friend, Gerhard von Kiigelgen, likewise
a painter. Aware of Kersting’s difficult financial situation, Luise Seidler asked Goethe to help
the artist with the sale of his works. Kersting sent his paintings to Weimar where Prince Karl
August, advised by Goethe, purchased them for his collection.

The painting in our possession was executed during Kersting’s visit to Poland in 1815-1818
when the painter was employed by Anna nee Zamoyska widów of Aleksander Sapieha as a dra-
wing master of their children, Anna and Leon, at Radzyń Podlaski1.

It is not possible to establish ICersting’s reasons for Corning to Poland on the basis of materials
accessible here. He painted several works during his stay in this country. A miniaturę of Leon
Sapieha as a child comes from 1815. Initially in the Czartoryski collection at Gołuchów, it was
deposited in the National Museum in Warsaw in 19412. Then it was lost, probably sometime
during the last war. Another work by Kersting executed in the same period, Man and Woman
by the Windoie, initially believed to be by G.v. Kiigelgen is now in Georg Schafer’s collection
at Schweinfurt3. There is one morę work associated with Kersting’s visit to Poland, the painting
of the Virgin Mary with Saints, formerly in the Zamoyski collection4.

1. Anna nee Sapieha,(1798-1864), wife to Prince Adam Czartoryski, one of the leaders of the Polish emigration in Paris,
after 1831. Leon Sapieha (1802-1878), Chamberlain to tsar Nicholas I, later fought in the November Uprising. After 1831
he emigrated to Galicia and settled at Krasiczyn. He was one of the most influential politicians in Galicia. Kersting resided
in the pałace at Radzyń Podlaski which in 1799-1831 was owned by Anna and Leon’s mother, Anna nee Zamoyska Sapieha,
widów of Aleksander Sapieha, Chamberlain to Napoleon I.

2. Z. Batowski, Katalog miniatur Muzeum Narodowego w Warszawie, Manuscript, Warszawa, 1940/1941, p.G 6, Nr 2342.

3. Oil on panel, 47 x 36,5 cm, signed: 18 GK (interlaced with) 17.

4. H. Skimborowicz, Ku czci Boga Rodzicy. Wystawa Mariańska, Warszawa, 1905, Nr 608. The painting has not been located.

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