Monumental portrait of a beautiful Lady with her child was executed in 1845 by famous Austrian portrait painter Heinrich Hollpein (1814 Vienna - 1888 Vienna). This masterfully work was painted by this artist during his life and work in the Russian Empire. It was purchased on the sale of a prominent German auction house in 2020. Due to the different labels on the back of the stretcher , previously it was in Russian collection of B. M. Elensky and was exhibited in the exhibition of a Russian State Museum.

Hollpein was a son of the engraver Leopold Hollpein and Wilhelmine nee Grob (also Kropp), an aunt of Franz Schubert´s childhood sweetheart Therese Grob. Since Wilhelmine was married to Ignaz Schubert, the eldest brother and first teacher of Franz Schubert, for the second time, Hollpein became Franz Schubert´s step-nephew. As a member of the musically diverse Schubert family, he turned to painting. He studied at the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts, where he exhibited his portraits from 1834 to 1836. In 1841 he went to Russia as a portraitist and portrayed aristocrats and artists. At first he visited Sankt Petersburg , where he studied collection of the Hermitage, then moved to Kiew. Here he settled for long time. In 1840s-1850s his high qualitative , in the European tradition Salon portraits received great acknowledge among Russian, Ukrainian and Polish nobility.

Hollpein  became popular portrait painter in Kiew, often exhibited his works by different exhibitions, came n the circle of the intelligentsia, which grouped around the University of St. Vladimir.

The artist´s brush belongs to many portraits of aristocrats and artists of the Russian Empire, of which only few have survived (!).The artist´s works are interesting for their scrupulous depiction of nature and show typical representatives of the Russian, Ukrainian and Polish nobility.

For other portraits of nobilitiertes of Russian Empire by this artist see our additional images.

Hollpein´s paintings are now in a number of galleries and museums: Hermitage, St.Petersburg, Vienna historical Museum; the National Art Museum of Ukraine, Kiew; the Transcarpathian Regional Museum; the Cherkassy Regional Museum, Czech National Gallery in Praque; as well as in private collections.

One of the most famous works of this Austrian artist is the portrait of Prince M.F. Golitsyn, written in Saint Petersburg in 1841.

Despite the successes in St. Petersburg and Kiev, Hollpein returned to his homeland in Vienna.

From 1851 he travelled to Rome , where he became president of the German artist association in 1853. In the same 1853 he travelled to Munich via Naples. In 1857-158 the artist worked and exhibited in Praque. Due to increasing visual impairment, he gave up painting and wrote comedies.

Literature: (in German) Artist Lexicons by Thieme / Becker, Leipzig, 1999 and Toman“Czech artists", Praque, 1968; Hollpein, Heinrich (1814–1888), painter and writer. In: Austrian Biographical Lexicon 1815–1950. Volume 2, 10th delivery. Publishing house of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna 1959, p. 404; Ignaz Schubert´s estate (private property); In Russian: New Viennese Magazine, article " Genrich Golpein", Nr. 5, 2020; Wikipedia in Russian.

Inscription: signed and dated 1845 lower left; on the back of the stretcher there are three labels in Russian , two of them: " From the collection of B.M. Elensky ( in Russian: Iz sobranija B.M. Elenskogo) and an exhibition label of a Russian State Museum.

Technique: oil on canvas, luxuriously original period Salon gilt frame.

Measurements: w 38" x h 45 1/4" (96,5 x 115 cm), framed w 44 7/8" x h 53 1/2" (114 x 136 cm).

Condition: in good condition, original canvas, professionally cleaned and restored, a few inpaintings in the unimportant areas (under UV light).