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Portrait of a Man with a Breast Badge

Karl Schweikart

Basic information

ID: Ж-7342
Author: Karl Schweikart
Name: Portrait of a Man with a Breast Badge
Date of creation: 1819
Country: Austrian Empire
Technique: oil painting
Material: canvas oil
Dimensions: 68 x 53.5 cm (height x width)

Additionally

Type: painting
Genre: portraiture
Plot: Portrait
Provenance: Collection of Mykola Tymchenko-Ostroverkhov

Information about author

Author: Karl Schweikart
Author in the original: Karl Gottlieb Schweikart
Artist's lifetime: 1772–1855
Country: Germany, Austrian Empire
Biography: Karl Gottlieb Schweikart (February 28, 1772, Ludwigsburg, Germany – April 16, 1855, Ternopil, Ukraine) was an Austrian portrait painter and miniaturist. He was the father of the singer Wilhelmina Skibinska. K. Schweikart's body of work features a broad social spectrum of residents of Lviv, including portraits of the ancient Polish nobility, numerous Austrian military figures, townspeople, and the bourgeoisie. Among his works is the portrait of Franz Xaver Mozart. Schweikart turned to painting early, studying in Stuttgart and Strasbourg from 1787 to 1792. He continued his studies at the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts in 1795. In 1800, the artist went to Prague. In 1807, he travelled to Moscow, Hungary, and Bukovina. From 1802 to 1846, he lived and worked in Lviv. Karl Schweikart married, had a studio, and taught painting lessons here. Between 1810 and 1830, the artist was one of Galicia's most renowned portrait painters. Among his students were Antoni Laub and Korneli Szlegel. In 1846, the artist moved to Sambir, and in 1853, he relocated to Ternopil. It is known that Schweikart kept an accurate record of his works, describing them in a special book, which is now considered lost. According to these records, he created 2,000 portraits. His works are held in the collections of the National Museums in Krakow, Warsaw, and Lviv.

Object description

Against a grey-green background, a bust-length portrait of a middle-aged grey-haired man is in a slight turn to the right, looking at the viewer. The main adornment of his formal attire is the breast badge of the Karl Franzens University of Graz on a long gold chain. This is a gold medallion in the shape of a double Maltese cross, suspended from the Austrian imperial crown of Rudolf. In the medallion's centre is a relief profile of Emperor Franz I (1768–1835). Such breast badges were worn by the rector and deans of the university during formal ceremonies.

Inscriptions

In the lower left, the artist's signature and date: "Schweikart 1819".

Legal regulation

Borys Voznytskyi Lviv National Art Gallery

Portrait of a Man with a Breast Badge

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