Portrait of a woman in a red shawl

The painting from the collection of the Potocki family, former owners of Łańcut Castle, shows a portrait of a young woman against the background of a landscape with a castle. The subject is portrayed in half-position, her eyes directed at the viewer. A red shawl is placed on her head and shoulders, its ends flowing down freely. This is probably Anna Małachowska, née Stadnicka (died 1852), daughter of Franciszek and Teresa, née Wężyk, wife (1793) of Stanisław Aleksander Małachowski (1770–1849). In the castle, this portrait was regarded as an image of an unknown woman, the identification of the subject was possible thanks to the courtesy of the Museum in Oporów, which possesses a very similar portrait, differing only in details (blue shawl, different set of hands) and depicting Anna Malachowska with Stadnicki. The Łańcut painting is attributed to Antoni Brodowski (born in December 1784 in Warsaw, died in March 1832 in Warsaw), a Polish painter, one of the most prominent representatives of Classicism. He studied painting in Paris under J. David and F. Gerard. In 1814, he returned to Warsaw, where he initially worked as a clerk and, from 1819, as a professor of drawing and painting at the Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of Warsaw. He was a renowned portraitist, but he also created paintings on religious and mythological themes. His two sons, Józef and Tadeusz, were also painters. The Łańcut painting, in a wide wooden gilded frame, decorated with an Ionic cymatium, is displayed in one of the rooms on the second floor of the castle.