Bright in the Dark

Lithuanian Art Fund holds an exlusive collection of portraits dated from  mid-18th century to early 20th century. This exhibition reflects only a part of the best portraits made by such famous Lithuanian painters as Tadas Lukosevicius, Napoleonas Ylakavičius, Kazimierz Alchimowicz, Konstanty Gorski (Górski) and many others.

The origins of Lithuanian art date back to the times of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. The Grand Duchy of Lithuania lasted from the 13th century to 1795. At its greatest extent, in the 15th century, it was the largest state in Europe.

A detail from the Portrait of Karol Stalisław Radziwiłł, member of the famous and powerful Radziwiłł family originating from the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.

Michał Deszert (1730–1792) was a Polish-Lithuanian nobleman of French descent, and the Grand Pantler of Navahrudak. Having married the daughter of the Grand Pantler of Smolensk and the Deputy Pantler of Zhytomyr, he farmed her dowry estate at Szumlanszczyzna (now in Ukraine), and managed the neighbouring lands of the Poniatowski family.

According to the labels on the back of the painting, here we see Aleksandra Voyeykova (1795–1829), the wife of the Russian poet, translator, critic, publisher and journalist Aleksandr Voyeykov (1779–1839).

Her distant look seems to reflect her thoughts, deep in the world of poetry and the imagination.

Portrait of a woman by Józef Peszka (1767-1831) is more chamber-like and without decorative character. However, the portait could be characterized by its realistic features.

The girl is wearing a fashionable, expensive but rather modest white dress with no adornments. Such woman’s outfit and hairstyle accurately reflects the 19th century. The type of the dress shown in the portrait (straight-cut at the waist with a wide yet flat neckline that visually enhances the shoulders, and puffed sleeves) became popular in first half of that century.

Pastel portraits were very fashionable in the 18th century, during the time of the Enlightenment and the Rococo style. The popularity of pastel is associated with French art.

The portrait of Countess Fabiana Czapska reflects rough surfaces and soft textures that are very suitable for drawing idealised images of people, reflecting objects and the forms of nature faithfully.

This portrait of a man shows Tadeusz Łukaszewicz great skill. It is hard to say whether the sitter was one of his patrons, or whether it was commissioned. It is an intimate image, typical of the style of portrait painting in which most attention is paid to the individuality of the sitter instead of showing his social position.

This portrait is interesting not only because it is a rare example of early portraiture by Feliks Antoni Smuglewicz, but it also provides some information about the artist’s life. It was painted in Biržai in the autumn of 1849. A surviving mid-19th century painting of the ruins of Biržai Castle by Feliks Antoni Smuglewicz suggests that the artist was close to Benedykt Jan Tyszkiewicz, the owner of Biržai.

Felix Antoni Smuglewicz painted a portrait of the landowner Emilia Baniewicz on a visit home to Biržai from St Petersburg (he studied at the St Petersburg Academy of Art from 1847 to 1852). Information about the time and the place of the painting of the portrait, as well as the date of the death of the woman depicted (29 September 1855), and where she was buried (the Catholic cemetery in Biržai), is indicated in an inscription on the back of the picture. Such precision in Lithuanian art is very rare.

The portrait shows a gentle and simply dressed woman, well wrapped-up in a shawl. Her open, direct look and her modest pose reveal her dignity and calm.

The portrait, conditionally titled Humbleness after the image of the woman shown in it, portrays a young woman dressed in the black attire of mourning, with a prayer-book in one hand.

Quite possibly, this image was a part of a much larger composition that was cropped later (there are two figures of elderly men that can be glimpsed in the shadows on both sides of the woman).

The Portrait of a woman, which was painted in Paris, is a valuable example of Napoleonas Ylakavičius’ mature period and reflects his typical manner of painting. The portrait shows an unknown woman, who was probably someone close to the artist.

Edward Bonifacy Pawłowicz (1825–1909) modelled the sitter, the details of his suit and the back of the red chair meticulously and with superb technique, while the face is rendered with almost photographic precision.

Portrait of a girl is probably from the late period of the artist’s oeuvre, the end of the 19th century. A small intimate portrait represents a girl in a white dress looking straight at the viewer.

The portrait gains some softness and gentleness because of the faded out contours in the lower part of the canvas where the figure seem to immerse in a white cloud (a similar principle of incompleteness and sketchiness is also seen in some other small size portraits by Bolesław Rusiecki).

Within the context of Lithuanian art history, this picture is interesting and valuable as a rare example of a portrait of a child. For a long time, portraits of children were left on the margins of portrait painting and began to spread in Europe in the 19th century, mostly in the second half of the century.

In the early 19th century, starting with Jan Rustem and his pupils, Lithuanian art developed a tendency towards exotic but not necessarily remote places. Artists sought to depict colourful scenes in the life of the Jews or the Roma who lived in small towns in Lithuania, and to capture their dress and the different types.

This small portrait study, painted with a sure and free hand, effectively captures the essence of the young woman with tactile realism, showcasing the artist's skill in rendering her character. 

Showing her colourful attire, the scarf over her head and her exotic neckpiece, but has also captured her mood and penetrated her character, and the freedom and defiance of her bearing.

Dressed-up peasant woman by Wincenty Leopold Sleńdziński (1837–1909), the son of the painter Aleksander Sleńdziński conveys elegance and unfathomable femininity.

Painted in 1885, shows Kazimierz Alchimowicz (1840–1916) talent for portraiture. This large portrait was most likely painted in Warsaw, and the sitter was probably a member of the educated nobility. It is a rather unusual portrait, as she looks serious and composed.

Black was in fashion as a sign of mourning after the 1863 uprising, and remained popular for a very long time, becoming even more fashionable at the end of the 19th century.

The format of the painting and the composition, with the figure cut off at the knees, are characteristics of society portraits, but the relaxed pose, with one hand in a pocket, avoids an official impression, and gives it a certain familiarity and nonchalance.

Depicted in the portrait is Stanislaw Szumski, an officer of the Napoleon Army, member of the Chief Uprising Committee during the 1831 Uprising in Lithuania, and chief of the Szlachta of the Vilnius district.