Miniature portrait of the Polish princess Lucja Franciszka Lubomirska

(1751 Heilbronn – 1818 Vienna) Significant miniature portrait of the Polish princess Lucie Franciszka Lubomirska, later Countess Tyszkiewicz (1770–1811), in a leather case. An oval depiction of the princess, turned to the left, looking at the viewer, plucking the winged feathers of a departing, reclining Cupid. She is dressed in a blue gown accented with lace and pearls, and a dark velvet corset dress. On her head, she wears a beautifully styled blue hat with dark gray ostrich feathers and pearls above her gray wavy hair. In the background, there is a bird in a cage, surrounded by a forest landscape. The cage is signed and dated "1788." Exquisite tempera on ivory. Decorative, gilded original brass frame with a pearl frieze, adjustable from the reverse side. On the back is engraved: "Lucy de Lubomirska in 1788, at the age of 18." The case is lined with wine-red velvet and silk. 16.5 cm x 13 cm. Comes with a CITES certificate.

The self-taught artist and miniaturist Heinrich Friedrich Füger studied law in Halle before becoming a student of the painter Adam Friedrich Oeser in Leipzig in 1768. In 1774, he went to Vienna and to the imperial court. There, he created a large number of portraits of nobility and figures from politics and society. As part of a scholarship in Rome in 1776, he became a student of Anton Raphael Mengs and returned to Austria in 1783 in connection with his appointment by State Chancellor Prince Kaunitz as vice-director of the Vienna Academy. From 1795, he was a court painter in Vienna and director of the Academy of Fine Arts, taking over the management of the Imperial Picture Gallery in Vienna in 1806. Füger is considered a forerunner of Austrian Classicism. His works can be found, among others, in the Albertina in Vienna and the National Gallery in Berlin. The portrait of Princess Lubomirska is listed in "Schidlof," 1964, Graz, vol. I, p. 273, pl. XI "Princess Lucie Lubomirska Plucking Cupid" and was there assessed as "magnificent." See also Keil, 1977, p. 79, Thieme-Becker, vol. XII, p. 553. Provenance: From the collection of a significant North German private collection, according to "Schidlof," previously from the collection of E. Arnold, Berlin.