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Female Portrait

Karl Schweikart

  • Female Portrait 2
  • Female Portrait 3
Basic information
ID
Ж-4779
Author
Karl Schweikart
Name
Female Portrait
Date of creation
1821
Country
Austrian Empire
Technique
oil painting
Material
canvas oil
Dimensions (height x width, cm)
61 x 47.5
Additionally
Type
painting
Genre
portraiture
Plot
Portrait
Provenance
Purchased from a private individual
Information about author
Author
Karl Schweikart
Artist's lifetime
1772–1855
Country
Germany, Austrian Empire
Biography
Karl Gottlieb Schweikart (February 28, 1772, Ludwigsburg, Germany – April 16, 1855, Ternopil, Ukraine) was an Austrian portrait painter and miniaturist. He was the father of the singer Wilhelmina Skibinska. K. Schweikart's body of work features a broad social spectrum of residents of Lviv, including portraits of the ancient Polish nobility, numerous Austrian military figures, townspeople, and the bourgeoisie. Among his works is the portrait of Franz Xaver Mozart. Schweikart turned to painting early, studying in Stuttgart and Strasbourg from 1787 to 1792. He continued his studies at the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts in 1795. In 1800, the artist went to Prague. In 1807, he travelled to Moscow, Hungary, and Bukovina. From 1802 to 1846, he lived and worked in Lviv. Karl Schweikart married, had a studio, and taught painting lessons here. Between 1810 and 1830, the artist was one of Galicia's most renowned portrait painters. Among his students were Antoni Laub and Korneli Szlegel. In 1846, the artist moved to Sambir, and in 1853, he relocated to Ternopil. It is known that Schweikart kept an accurate record of his works, describing them in a special book, which is now considered lost. According to these records, he created 2,000 portraits. His works are held in the collections of the National Museums in Krakow, Warsaw, and Lviv.
Object description
Almost the entire height of the vertical composition features a half-length portrait of a middle-aged woman, depicted in a slight turn to the left, with her gaze directed at the viewer, set against a neutral olive background. The portrayed woman is dressed in the Empire-style fashion of that time. She wears a dark blue velvet dress with puffed sleeves. The plunging neckline is adorned with white lace made of tulle. The outfit is complemented by a white velvet shawl decorated with a red and green patterned border. For jewellery, she wears two strands of pearls around her neck. A white lace cap tied under her chin with a bow is on the woman's head. Bouncy, light brown curls frame the high forehead. The full, round face has a simple and kindly expression. The woman gives a slight smile, which adds a more intimate quality to the portrait. The painting is likely a pair to the "Male Portrait" (Ж-4780). The form of the paired family portrait is characteristic of the Biedermeier painting style and is expected in the works by K. Schweikart.
Inscriptions
In the bottom left, there is the artist's signature and the date: "1821".
Legal regulation
Borys Voznytskyi Lviv National Art Gallery

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