UK
Collection

Portrait of Tekla Bielska

Jozef Chojnicki

Basic information
ID
Ж-1356
Author
Jozef Chojnicki
Name
Portrait of Tekla Bielska
Date of creation
1782
Technique
oil painting
Material
canvas oil
Dimensions (height x width, cm)
91.2 x 69.7
Additionally
Type
painting
Genre
portraiture
Provenance
Collection of Boleslaw Orzechowicz the Dzieduszycki collection Lviv Historical Museum
Information about author
Author
Jozef Chojnicki
Artist's lifetime
c. 1745 – after 1812
Biography
Jozef Chojnicki was a Polish painter, who was born and died in Lviv. He was a student of Stanislaw Stroinski. He was working with religious and portrait painting. He painted the Dominican church in Ternopil, as well as several works for the Lviv Cathedral Basilica of the Assumption, namely "Angels and St. Stanislaus", "St. Wenceslaus and Florian" and others. The portrait of the French queen Marie Antoinette (Ж-1782) signed by the author is a part of the Olesko Castle collection.
Object description
Tekla Bielska of the Kalinowski family, wife of Antoni Bielski, the Crown Court Master of the Hunt. The portrait of Tekla Bielska is one of the examples of the spouses’ portraits from the 18th century. The portrait is paired with the one of Tekla’s husband, Antoni Bielski. The representative portrayal shows the waist-length figure of a woman painted on a dark background. The details of the woman's costume are depicted meticulously: she is wearing a mob cap – a simple cap accessorised with a pink satin ribbon, and a silver-coloured dress with flared sleeves. The woman is depicted with many pieces of jewellery – pearl bracelets on her hands, a necklace around her neck, expensive earrings in her ears, and rings on her fingers. Right on the portrait, there is a sign “Tekla Bielska lowczyna nadworna/koronna. Josephus Choynicki pinxit 1782 12 Aprilis”, which translates as “Tekla Bielska Crowned Court Master of the Hunt, painted by Józef Chojnicki, April 12, 1782”.
Portrayed person
The name of the person portrayed
Tekla Bielska
Lifetime of the person portrayed
?–1792

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