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Peter Adolf Hall, portrait of Helena Potocka, after 1779, pastel on paper, National Museum in Warsaw
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ID: OS-010578-P/193270

Helena Potocka

ID: OS-010578-P/193270

Helena Potocka

First name:

Helena

Last Name:

Potocka

Maiden name or alternative names:

z domu Massalska, primo voto de Ligne

Middle name:

Apolonia

Parents:

Józef Adrian Massalski i Antonina Radziwiłł

Crest:

Masalski III

Date of birth:

09-02-1763

Date of death:

31-10-1815

Place od death:

Paryż

Age:

52

Biography:

Helena Apolonia Potocka (1763-1815), born in Vilnius or Warsaw, daughter of Józef Adrian Massalski and Antonina Radziwiłł, aristocrat and diarist. After her father's death, she was cared for by her uncle, Ignacy Massalski, Bishop of Vilnius. She grew up in France, at the Abbaye-aux-Bois in Paris. At the age of sixteen, she married Prince Charles Joseph Emanuel de Ligne, with whom she lived in Brussels, Paris and Vienna. In 1788 she left for Warsaw, leaving her husband and daughter Sidonie. On the death of her first husband in 1792, she married Wincenty Potocki, Grand Chamberlain of the Crown, with whom she lived successively in Kowalówka, St Petersburg, Brody and finally Paris. Her daughter from her first marriage, Sydonia Franciszka de Ligne, married Helena's stepson, Franciszek Potocki.

Publication:

28.08.2025

Last updated:

28.08.2025
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Portrait of a woman with elaborate hairstyle and white lace dress, adorned with a pink bow and rose. The background is dark with a curtain.
Peter Adolf Hall, portrait of Helena Potocka, after 1779, pastel on paper, National Museum in Warsaw

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