CENTRAL EUROPEAN SCHOOL c. 1735–1750

PORTRAIT OF A LADY WITH A PUG, Presumably Anna Rzewuska (née Lubomirska)

CENTRAL EUROPEAN SCHOOL c. 1735–1750

Oil on canvas,  The original size of the painting has been changed : the canvas has been enlarged by 5 cm from the bottom, an exceptional 19th-century Rococo Revival frame of remarkable artistic quality.
81 x 65 cm / 31.9 x 25.6 inches, with frame 110 x 93 cm / 43.3 x 36.6 inches

PROVENANCE
Paris, private collection

Some ideas strike us as unmistakably modern. The desire to “be oneself,” for example — to feel natural, at ease, at least within the private sphere of life. Yet what if the first expressions of this intimate freedom emerged much earlier than we tend to imagine? In matters of dress, at least, their roots may be traced back to the early eighteenth century.

While official court attire of the period remained a true theatre of status — shaped by rigid corsets, elaborate silhouettes and strict codes of representation — portraiture of the 1730s and 1740s increasingly reveals a different mode of aristocratic self-fashioning: more intimate, less formal, and surprisingly personal. Such a vision first developed within bourgeois and artistic circles, yet was soon embraced by the aristocracy itself, eager to reconcile rank with a cultivated sense of natural ease. The present portrait belongs precisely to this cultural moment.

Rather than appearing in ceremonial court dress, the sitter is depicted wearing a luxurious sac-style dressing gown (schlafrock), a loose garment of Eastern origin that gained remarkable popularity in Europe during the age of expanding trade and the fascination with turquerie. In striking contrast to the carefully engineered female fashions of the eighteenth century — dependent upon corsets, panniers and rigid tailoring — such garments followed the contours of the body more freely, allowing movement and embodying a new ideal of refined domestic life. The vivid red fabric is enriched with deep blue silk trimming, heightening the impression of soft, intimate luxury.

Particular attention should be paid to the details of the sitter’s attire, which offer valuable clues for dating the portrait. Her coiffure is adorned with delicate floral hairpins — likely enamel on silver — reflecting the Rococo taste for refined ornament and miniature elegance. The lace decorating the bodice and sleeves closely resembles Brussels appliqué lace, highly prized among aristocratic circles for its delicacy and virtuoso craftsmanship. Equally noteworthy are the sitter’s pearl girandole earrings, a fashionable multi-drop design particularly associated with aristocratic portraiture of the 1730s to 1760s.

No less characteristic is the small dog — most likely a pug, a breed especially favoured in eighteenth-century aristocratic circles across Central Europe. Its ornamental collar with metallic pendants subtly echoes the visual language of the sitter’s own refinement, transforming the animal into an extension of this carefully orchestrated world of domestic elegance.

The identity of the sitter remains an intriguing question. Her physiognomy bears a striking typological resemblance to known portraits of Anna Rzewuska (née Lubomirska) preserved in the Borys Voznytskyi Lviv National Art Gallery. Particularly notable are the similarities in the oval of the face, the shape of the nose, the character of the eyes and the sitter’s overall physiognomic type. While such affinities alone cannot support a firm identification, they appear sufficiently compelling to warrant further investigation.