„The Dreamer”

„The Dreamer”, JB Greuz. 1920s-1930s. The photograph is a portrait from the collection of princess Izabella Lubomirska. This gouache, passionate depiction of a young woman is believed in Łańcut to be one of Karolina Woynianka, married as Jabłonowska – as indicated by the plate on the frame – and is really a copy from a painting by Jean Baptiste Greuz, one of his erotic depictions of dreaming, loosely-dressed and posing young women that gained the description “The Dreamer” in the 19th century. The original of the Łańcut copy was painted by Greuz around the 1760s. Its first known owner was madame du Barry (d.1793), the official mistress of Louis XV. The time of acquisition of the copy from the work by Greuz by the princess is unknown, and the context of attribution to the person of Karolina Woyna is puzzling. It is not really possible that princess Izabella would do this, as she knew the family of Franciszek Ksawery Woyna, the envoy of Poland to Vienna in 1789-1794, later a high Austrian official and chamberlain to the emperor, well. When the Woyna family was in Vienna, the princess took them under her care. It is likely that the Greuz gouache, found in Łańcut since the times of the princess, was tied to Karolina Karoliną Woynianka much later. Aldona Cholewianka-Kruszyńska