Lot 118: ATTRIBUTED TO JOSEPH HICKEL

ATTRIBUTED TO JOSEPH HICKEL 1736 - 1807 PORTRAIT OF PRINCE DMITRY GOLITSYN (1771-1844) oil on canvas 105 by 79cm, 41 1/4 by 31 in.

Noble Austrian collection

Prince Dmitri Michailovich Golitsyn was born in 1722, the son of field marshal Prince Michail Michailovich Golitsyn. In 1745 he served in the Izmailov Household Regiment in St. Petersburg with the rank of a captain. In 1751 he became a gentleman of the Emperor's bedchamber (kammer-junker); before becoming gentleman in attendance (kammer-herr), then major-general, and, on the 6 June 1759, was awarded the Order of Alexander Nevsky.



From September 1760 Golitsyn was in the diplomatic service in Paris as an assistant to Ambassador Count M.P. Bestuzhev, and upon the latter's unexpected death, took over his functions until the arrival of the newly appointed Ambassador, Count P.G. Chernyshev. On the 28 May 1761 Prince Golitsyn was appointed Ambassador in Vienna, and remained in this function for thirty years.



During his first years in Vienna Prince Golitsyn participated in negotiations pertaining to the ending of the Seven Year War. He was greatly honoured by Empress Maria Theresa and her son, Emperor Joseph II, who regularly bestowed him with gifts and favours. He died in Vienna on 19 September 1793, and was buried at his Villa Predigstuhl on the outskirts of the city. In 1802 the coffin with his remains was transferred to Moscow. It was reburied in the church vault of the hospital that was built in accordance with a provision in his will, and named after him. The Golitsyn Hospital survives to this day as the Gradskaya Hospital.



Prince Golitsyn was an ardent patron of the arts and a collector, and created his own picture gallery.



The offered portrait was probably painted in 1772, the year Golitsyn was awarded the order of St. Andrew (he is depicted with the sash and star of this order, among others). This portrait shows all the stylistic characteristics of the Viennese court portraitist Joseph Hickel, and is in all likelihood by his hand.



Joseph Hickel was the elder brother of another renowned Austrian artist Anton Hickel. From 1766 Hickel enrolled in the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts, where he concentrated on learning portraiture. Very soon he became a favourite artist of Maria Theresia, who in 1768 granted him a scholarship to Italy, where he was named a member of the Florentine Academy in 1769.



Upon his return to Vienna he was appointed royal painter (Kammer-maler) and in 1776, was made a member of the Vienna Academy.



From the beginning of the 1770s Joseph Hickel paintied virtually all the members of the Austrian Court, supporting the attribution that the offered portrait is probably by his hand.