UK
Collection

Portrait of Jan Mier

Ostap Biliavskyi

  • Portrait of Jan Mier 2
  • Portrait of Jan Mier 3
Basic information
ID
Ж-4528
Author
Ostap Biliavskyi
Name
Portrait of Jan Mier
Date of creation
1787
Technique
oil painting
Material
canvas oil
Dimensions (height x width, cm)
68 x 49
Additionally
Type
painting
Genre
portraiture
Provenance
Lviv Historical Museum
Exposition
Olesko Castle
Information about author
Author
Ostap Biliavskyi
Artist's lifetime
1740–1803
Biography
Ostap (Eustachy) Biliavskyi (1740–1803) was a Ukrainian artist who worked in Western Ukraine. He is known for portrait paintings and religious artworks. He was born in the village of Horodyshche near Berezhany. In the 1760s, Ostap studied at the Academy of St. Luke in Rome. The artist lived and worked in Lviv after 1771. He painted numerous portraits of burghers on order. In the late 1790s and early 1800s, he created a gallery of portraits of Armenian archbishops. In addition to portrait painting, Ostap Biliavskyi was engaged in monumental painting. A significant collection of works by Ostap Biliavskyi has been preserved nowadays.
Object description
Jan Mier (1740–1790) was an Austrian count, a member of the Galician Sejm from the group of magnates, and a cavalier of the Order of St. Stanislaus and the White Eagle. Jan Mier was the court physician of Stanislaw August Poniatowski, the last King of Poland. He was a younger brother of Jozef Mier, the elder of Busk. The portrait depicts a waist-length image of Jan Mier dressed in a uniform. The artist realistically depicted a tired face with a double chin, a high forehead, and thin lips. On Jan Mier's head there is a fashionable light-coloured wig "en catogan". Ostap Biliavskyi managed to depict the image of a strong-willed, determined, restrained, and experienced man. A white camisole can be seen from under the unbuttoned uniform. There is a blue ribbon of the Order of the White Eagle over his shoulder; a cross of the Order of St. Stanislaus hangs on his chest. On the back side of the portrait there is an inscription: “Bielauski, pix 1787. Isopoli Krabia Mior. Kasztelan Inflantski".
Portrayed person
The name of the person portrayed
Jan Mier
Lifetime of the person portrayed
1740–1790

Other