(Potsdam 1780–1859 Budapest)
Portrait of Princess Helene Poniński, née Countess Gorski (1791-1853), signed and dated F. Lieder pinxit 1821, oil on canvas, 81 x 65 cm, framed, oval cutout 76 x 60 cm

The present lot shows a portrait of the Polish Princess Helene Poniński, née Countess Gorski. She was the daughter of Walenty Górski-Pobóg (c. 1759-1832) and was born in Warsaw in 1791. In 1811 she married Karol Henryk Jerzy Poniński from Łodzia (1789-1830). She and her husband acquired the ruinous Czerwonogród Castle in western Ukraine (later part of the Austrian province of Galicia), and in 1820 they began to rebuild the castle in neo-Gothic style. After the death of her two children, she commissioned the tombstone for the chapel to the Danish sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen in Rome in 1834 (today in the L’viv Art Gallery, Ukraine, inv. no. A616). Her art affinity manifested itself not only in her appreciation of contemporary artists, but also in her work as an author. In 1834 she wrote the novel „Vanda ou La superstition“ in French, which she later translated into Polish.
The German portrait painter Friedrich Johann Gottlieb Lieder depicts a young woman probably around 30 years old, in a work dated 1821. She is portrayed with academic accuracy and her head and shoulders are enveloped by a delicate veil. The roses in her hair and the opulent earrings indicate her belonging to the Polish upper class.