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Portrait of Jan Mier

Ostap Biliavskyi

Basic information

ID: Ж-4528
Author: Ostap Biliavskyi
Name: Portrait of Jan Mier
Date of creation: 1787
Country: Italy
Technique: oil painting
Material: canvas oil
Dimensions: 68 x 49 cm (height x width)

Additionally

Type: painting
Genre: portraiture
Provenance: Lviv Historical Museum
Exposition: Olesko Castle

Information about author

Author: Ostap Biliavskyi
Author in the original: Ostap (Eustachy) Biliavskyi
Artist's lifetime: 1740–1803
Country: Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, now Ukraine
Biography: Ostap (Eustachy) Biliavskyi (1740–1803) was a Ukrainian artist who worked in Western Ukraine. He is known for portrait paintings and religious artworks. He was born in the village of Horodyshche near Berezhany. In the 1760s, Ostap studied at the Academy of St. Luke in Rome. The artist lived and worked in Lviv after 1771. He executed numerous commissioned portraits of burgers. In the late 1790s and early 1800s, he created a gallery of portraits of Armenian archbishops. In addition to portrait painting, Ostap Biliavskyi was engaged in monumental painting. A significant collection of works by Ostap Biliavskyi has been preserved nowadays.

Object description

Jan Mier (1740–1790) was an Austrian count, a member of the Galician Sejm from the group of magnates, and a cavalier of the Order of St. Stanislaus and the White Eagle. Jan Mier was the court physician of Stanislaw August Poniatowski, the last King of Poland. He was a younger brother of Jozef Mier, the elder of Busk. The portrait depicts a waist-length image of Jan Mier dressed in a uniform. The artist realistically depicted a tired face with a double chin, a high forehead, and thin lips. On Jan Mier's head is a fashionable light-coloured "en catogan" wig. Ostap Biliavskyi depicted a strong-willed, determined, restrained, and experienced man. A white camisole can be seen from under the unbuttoned uniform. There is a blue ribbon of the Order of the White Eagle over his shoulder; a cross of the Order of St. Stanislaus hangs on his chest. On the back side of the portrait, there is an inscription: "Bielauski, pix 1787. Isopoli Krabia Mior. Kasztelan Inflantski".

Portrayed person

The name of the person portrayed: Jan Mier
Lifetime of the person portrayed: 1740–1790

Legal regulation

Borys Voznytskyi Lviv National Art Gallery

Portrait of Jan Mier

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