The work, dating from 1882 and entitled Portrait of Daughter Helena with a Sparrow Hawk, is set to be auctioned at the Polswiss Art auction house in the Polish capital on Tuesday, state news agency PAP reported.
The painting is estimated to be worth from PLN 8 million to PLN 10 million (EUR 2.13 million), but it may be auctioned for a higher amount, according to experts.
“Undoubtedly, this is a museum-class work of great importance to the history of Polish art - one of only a handful of paintings in which Jan Matejko depicted his children,” Marta Rydzyńska from the Polswiss Art auction house told the PAP news agency.
Portrait of Daughter Helena with a Sparrow Hawk, one of five images of children painted by the artist, was created in 1882 together with a portrait of daughter Beata with a canary, which is now in the collection of the National Museum in Warsaw, and a portrait of the painter’s son Jerzy, which is part of the collection of the Museum of Art in Poland’s Łódź.
The other two portraits of the painter's children belong to the collections of the National Museum in Warsaw and the Lviv Gallery in Ukraine.
Portrait of Daughter Helena with a Sparrow Hawk was painted during the artist's stay with his children in Krzesławice, Matejko's country estate. Helena is wearing a stylized outfit, probably referring to the late Renaissance.
Jan Matejko (1838-1893) was one of Poland’s most celebrated artists, often referred to as a "national painter." He was known for depicting watershed events from Polish history.
(jh/gs)
Source: PAP