Waleria Tarnowska

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Waleria Tarnowska (1782–1849) was a Polish painter and patron of the arts. She was best known for her miniature portraits, but she also painted religious scenes and drew many works.

She was born Waleria Stroynowska on December 9, 1782, in Horochów. Her parents were Walerian Stroynowski and Aleksandra Tarnowska. On September 7, 1800, she married Jan Feliks Tarnowski. They had several children, including Kazimierz, Rozalia, Jan Bogdan, Maria Felicja, Walerian, Wiktoria, Anna and Tadeusz Antoni, and she later became the grandmother of Jan Dzierżysław Tarnowski, Stanisław “Czarny” and Stanisław “Biały,” and Władysław.

Waleria was educated at home by governesses. Her teachers included archaeologist Wawrzyniec Surowiecki, chemist Jędrzej Śniadecki, and her uncle Hieronim Stroynowski, a bishop and rector of Vilnius University. Together with her husband, she built a large art collection at Dzików, featuring works by Lotto, Guercino, Guido Reni, Rembrandt, Annibale Carracci, Salvator Rosa, Holbein, van Dyck, Mengs, Bernini and Canova.

Her artistic training took place in several places. She studied painting in Horochów with Constantino Villani and the miniaturist de Hoflize, then with Wincenty de Lesseur (1800–1804 in Dzików and 1810 in Warsaw). She studied miniatures with Therese Maron and Antonio Cherubini in Rome, and Domenico del Frate painted family portraits for her in 1806 and a Virgin Mary in the Dzików chapel. She learned from Filippo Giacomo Remondini and studied in Paris from 1824 to 1826.

Waleria worked mainly as a miniaturist, painting portraits and religious subjects. She often signed her works “V. T.” and painted miniatures on ivory, usually with watercolors, sometimes with gouache. Many pieces were small copies of other paintings or portraits of family members.

Before World War II, her miniatures, paintings and drawings were kept in family collections at Dzików Castle, Chorzelów, Rudnik nad Sanem and Wiśniowa. After the war, her works can be found in the Polish Museum, in Rapperswil, at the National Museums in Warsaw and Kraków, at the Castle Museum in Pszczyna, and in the Jagiellonian Library (drawings). A notable work is Portret Walerii ze Stroynowskich Tarnowskiej, a portrait by Domenico del Frate from 1805–1806, in the National Museum in Kraków.

Waleria Tarnowska died in 1849 in Dzików, then part of the Austrian Empire.