Anna Teofila Potocka née Sapieha
- Date
- c 1780-1783
- Object type
- painting
- Technique
- oil
- Material
- canvas
- Dimensions
- 92,6 x 71,5 [107,5 x 88,0] cm
- Acquisition date
- 1793
- Location
- The Palace on the Isle - Small Gallery, 1st floor
- Marks and inscriptions
- red number 1875 of the Stanisław August collection, bottom right, repeated in another hand
- Place of Origin
- Poland (Europe)
- Owner
- The Royal Łazienki
- Museum number
- ŁKr 118
The first marriage of Anna Teofila (1758–1813), daughter of Magdalena Agnieszka Sapieha to Hieronim Janusz Sanguszko-Kowelski in 1774 ended in divorce in the same year (it is possible the marriage lasted until 1777 … ). Anna Teofila married again in 1786, to Seweryn Potocki of the Pilawa Srebrna coat of arms.
According to Alina Chyczewska, the portrait was made in c. 1780, but it should undoubtedly be dated to the end of that decade. The painting reveals the influences of the art of Thomas Gainsborough … as well as that of Elisabeth Vigée-Lebrun … . The costume and hair style are characteristic of the late 1780s. The terminus ante quem is 1793, when the painting was first recorded in the catalogue of the king’s collection of that year.
The Łazienki collection already had a portrait of the sitter’s mother, Magdalena Sapieha, which was enlarged to the size of her daughter’s portrait, so that both likenesses created pendants (cat. no. 4). [See D. Juszczak, H. Małachowicz, The Stanisław August Collection of Paintings at the Royal Łazienki. Catalogue, Royal Łazienki Museum, Warsaw 2016, no. 7, p. 69.]
