Portrait of Marie Antoinette

Jozef Chojnicki

Basic information

ID: Ж-1378
Author: Jozef Chojnicki
Name: Portrait of Marie Antoinette
Date of creation: 19th c.
Technique: oil painting
Material: canvas oil
Dimensions (height x width, cm): 81 x 62.5

Additionally

Type: painting
Genre: portraiture
Exposition: Olesko Castle

Information about author

Author: Jozef Chojnicki
Artist's lifetime: c. 1745 – after 1812
Country: Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, now Ukraine
Biography: Jozef Chojnicki was a Polish painter who was born and died in Lviv. He was a student of Stanislaw Stroinski. He created religious and portrait paintings. The artist painted the Dominican church in Ternopil and several works for the Lviv Cathedral Basilica of the Assumption: "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 part of the Gallery collection.

Object description

Marie Antoinette (1755–1793) was Queen of France, a wife of Louis XVI and a daughter of Marie Theresa and Franz I. She was condemned and executed by guillotine. The waist-length image of a woman in a low-necked dress is depicted against the darkened background. The artist mainly aimed to show the inner world of the portrayed woman. The author detailed the graceful woman's features, namely dark eyebrows, expressive brown eyes, and lips with a flirtatious smile. A fashionable ashy wig is decorated with a bouquet of wildflowers, namely chamomiles and cornflowers. The figure of Marie Antoinette is slightly turned to the left. The master realistically conveyed the texture of fabric and lace. The haughty pose shows that this woman belongs to the aristocratic world. The work is done in silver tones. On the reverse side of the picture, there is an author's signature: "Jose Choinicky pinxit".

Portrayed person