Klementyna née Potocki Tyszkiewicz

Klementyna Tyszkiewiczowa née Potocka (1856-1921), was the daughter of Alfred II Potocki and Maria Sanguszko. As a young girl, she lived with her parents and siblings in Lviv. She attracted admiration for her extraordinary beauty, and her love affairs were widely publicised. According to the diarist, Marian Rosco-Bogdanowicz, among the Lviv aristocracy, there was talk of her affair with Archduke Rudolf, the heir to the throne, who was willing to renounce his position to marry her. To prevent that from happening, the Potockis hurriedly married their daughter to Count Jan Tyszkiewicz, the third Entailer of Birże (M. Rosco-Bogdanowicz, Wspomnienia [Memories], Kraków 1959, vol. I, p. 70). This marble bust of Potocka was executed by Marceli Guyski (1830-1893) in 1882 in Kraków. He was one of the most outstanding Polish sculptors of the second half of the 19th century and a famous portraitist among the Polish aristocracy. He portrayed many personalities from aristocratic families: the Branickis, the Potockis, the Krasińskis, the Tarnowskis, and the Zamoyskis. The bust shows a young woman standing straight. She has an oval face with fine, regular features and her gaze is directed upwards. Her hair is parted in the middle, braided at the back of her head and adorned with a comb shaped like a nine-branched count's crown. Potocka is portrayed in a dress with a V-shaped neckline, decorated with a frill embracing her breasts, and her shoulders are bare.