Back

Portrait of an Unknown Woman

Ostap Biliavskyi

Basic information

ID: Ж-2317
Author: Ostap Biliavskyi
Name: Portrait of an Unknown Woman
Date of creation: 18th c.
Country: Austria
Technique: oil painting
Material: canvas oil
Dimensions: 65 x 73 cm (height x width)

Additionally

Type: painting
Genre: portraiture
Provenance: Lviv Historical Museum

Information about author

Author: Ostap Biliavskyi
Author in the original: Ostap (Eustachy) Biliavskyi
Artist's lifetime: 1740–1803
Country: Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, now Ukraine
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 executed numerous commissioned portraits of burgers. 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

The half-length figure of an elderly woman emerges from the dark background. The artist paid much attention to the individual features of the subject: blushing cheeks, small eyes, thin lips. On the woman's head, there is a lush updo hairstyle with decorative flowers. She is wearing a luxurious dress of striped cloth of black, white and pink colours with a large neckline. On her neck is a necklace of green stone. The image of the unknown woman is inspired by a sentimental and lyrical mood.

Legal regulation

Borys Voznytskyi Lviv National Art Gallery

Portrait of an Unknown Woman

Other