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Portrait of a woman
Castle Museum in Łańcut
Part of the collection: Malarstwo i rysunek
The painting "The Golden Slipper", for which Mrs Hertha Czedekowska posed, was created in the painter's Viennese studio in 1957. Dressed in a white tulle gown, she is seated on a bed, perhaps a couch, unfastening a golden slipper. Still smiling after the ball, she gracefully leans toward her exposed leg with the unfastened slipper. The gown’s wide, pleated skirt, cinched at the waist with a blue sash, unfolds like a fan. On her left shoulder rests a light pink shawl that cascades behind her, flowing downward in waves. It is colourfully matched by the rose on the left. Her bare shoulders and exposed neckline are adorned with nothing but a strand of pearls. Behind Hertha, on a small table, stands a vase of pink and purple chrysanthemums. The muted tones of the background (greys, ash greens, muted purple) and the pastel-toned reflections on the gown, the softened contours of the body, and the gown’s smooth blending into the dark background evoke comparisons with Impressionist painting. The way light is "led" through the painting, starting from the top left corner, guides the viewer’s eye from the tips of the flowers, across the model’s bare shoulder, down to the golden slipper disappearing into the shadows.
Bolesław Jan Czedekowski (1885–1969) was a Polish painter born in Voinyliv, in Eastern Galicia. He studied at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna and later became a student of Professor Kazimierz Pochwalski and Heinrich von Angeli, two renowned portrait painters. He opened his first studio in Vienna and was perhaps most associated with this city during his early artistic career. He also lived in Vienna during World War I, gradually gaining recognition for his portraits of aristocratic women and the wives of high-ranking officers. He exhibited his art in Vienna, Paris, Warsaw, and Kraków, though it was not initially well-received in Poland. After World War II, he immigrated to the United States. In the 1960s, he returned to Vienna, where he passed away on 8 July 1969. He was buried in Lofer, near Salzburg. Czedekowski was married twice. His first marriage, to Viennese Eugenia Nell in 1913, resulted in a daughter named Helena. As a widower, he met Hertha Aujezdecky, who became his second wife and, after the artist's death, the donor of numerous canvases collected in the Łańcut museum.
This portrait was painted in 1962, in the painter's studio in Vienna.
Dorota Błoniarz
Author / creator
Object type
painting
Technique
olej
Material
canvas, oil-color
Creation time / dating
Creation / finding place
Owner
Muzeum - Zamek w Łańcucie
Identification number
Location / status
Castle Museum in Łańcut
20th century
Castle Museum in Łańcut
2. połowa XX wieku
Castle Museum in Łańcut
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National Museum in Lublin
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