Henryk Lubomirski

Portrait of duke Henryk Lubomirski A minor painting (an oval in a rectangle), it depicts the bust of a young man on a neutral background. The painting stems from the collection of the Lubomirscy, the former owners of the castle, and was taken abroad by Alfred Potocki, the last ordinary of Łańcut, in 1944. In the year 1981, the Polish Ministry of Culture and Art purchased the painting at the Heim Gallery of London and transferred it to the castle of Łańcut. The portrait has a broad, profiled, gilded frame, the points where the oval (portrait) is turned into the rectangular frame, triangles are exposed by bevelling. On the lower part of the frame, there is a lengthwise metal plate with the black inscription „Henryk X: Lubomirski”. The portrait by an unknown painter stems from the 1st half of the 19th century . Henryk Ludwik Lubomirski (b. September 1777 in Równe, d. October 1850 in Dresden) was son to Józef Aleksander Lubomirski, castellan of Kijów, and Ludwika Sosnowska. He was raised by duchess Izabela Lubomirska, the owner of Łańcut, who was hopelessly in love with him (herself having only borne daughters); she adopted him as her son and provided him with the best education. She also ordered numerous portraits of Henryk from the best contemporary artists.(Canova, Elisabeth Vigee-LeBrun, Maria Cosway). Henryk in turn, following the example of his adoptive mother, became a patron of arts, founder of the Museum of the Lubomirscy Dukes in Lviv, one of the founders and first curator of the National Ossiliński Centre and the first ordinary of Przeworsk. Even though a cosmopolitan by education of the duchess, he supported the November uprising, receiving a political supervisor from the Austrians. He authored Collection of Views of the Most Stunning Polish Gardens (being 15 at the time), which he dedicated to Izabela Lubomirska, his adoptive mother. The painting is displayed in the Boucher Salon in the first floor of the castle of Łańcut.