French School 17th century
Possible Portrait of Marie Casimire Louise de la Grange d’Arquien, later Queen of Poland
Oil on canvas. 47.5 x 38.5 cm.
Inscribed to the back of the canvas: “Matka Moia Maria / Casimira R P et c.”
Marie Casimire Louise was the daughter of the French Marquis Henri Albert de La Grange d'Arquien, born in Nevers in 1641. In 1658 she married the Polish aristocrat Jan Sobiepan Zamoyski. After his death in 1665 she married Jan Sobieski (1629-1696), who was later elected King of Poland in 1674. Untill the death of her second husband Maria Kazimiera Sobieska was Queen of Poland and Grand Duchess of Lithuania.
Only four of the royal couple's 13 children survived into adulthood. Among them was Therese Kunigunde (1676-1730), who married the Bavarian Prince Elector Max Emanuel II in 1695 and was the mother of Emperor Charles VII and the Archbishop of Cologne and Prince Elector Clemens August (1700-1761). Maria Kazimiera moved to Rome two years after Jan Sobieski III's death. She later relocated to France, where she died in Blois in 1716. This portrait is comparable to several other images of the later Polish queen. It is especially similar to a painting in Wilanów Palace in Warsaw in which Maria Kazimiera not only holds her arms in the same position, but also wears the same pearl jewellery and gold embroidered red brocade gown.