pastel/paper, 34x26 cm light frame,56.5x48.5 in frame,signed and dated l.d.K.Pochwalski 1890
portrait of Archduchess Elisabeth Maria(1883-1963) daughter of Archduke Rudolf Habsburg granddaughter of Austro-Hungarian Emperor Franz Joseph I(1830-1916)
He came from a Cracow family of painters. He was the son of Józef Pochwalski. He studied in 1871-78 at the Cracow School of Fine Arts, where he came into contact with Jan Matejko, among others. He became friends with Antoni Piotrowski, Jacek Malczewski and Leon Wyczółkowski. He also studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich, where he stayed in the studio of Alexander Wagner until around 1882. He graduated with a bronze medal award. He maintained close contacts with the Polish art colony. During this time he traveled extensively. He returned to Krakow in 1881. There he opened a painting studio with Antoni Piotrowski on Wolska Street (now Piłsudskiego Street). For a short time he went to Paris, where he stayed with Piotrowski from the winter of 1883, until the summer of 1883. In 1883-92 he again lived and worked in Cracow. He took an active part in the cultural life of the city and was active in numerous associations. He painted numerous representational portraits, which brought him fame and recognition. In the second half of the 1880s he took a long trip through Greece, Turkey and Italy, during which he was accompanied by Henryk Sienkiewicz. In the following years, he embarked on numerous exotic treks, and made his first contacts with the imperial court in Vienna.
In 1891, he exhibited his works at an exposition of the Vienna Künstlerhaus, where he received very favorable critical reviews. This event earned him an invitation to the imperial court, where the painter was introduced to Franz Joseph I himself. A year later he settled on the Danube River and remained there until 1919. He was a member of many art groups in the Vienna area and a professor at the Academy of Fine Arts there. He received numerous commissions for representational portraits, including images of representatives of the Habsburg family. Pochwalski returned permanently to Cracow in the summer of 1919. Until the end of his life, he painted official portraits of state dignitaries and aristocracy.
