Aleksander Kucharski is a painter from the second half of the 18th century who is now almost completely forgotten. He made his mark in art history as a portraitist of Queen Marie Antoinette and the French aristocracy. He was arguably one of the first outstanding Polish artists to live and work in France. Kucharski painted the last known portrait of the queen, dating from the time she was imprisoned at the Temple. This painting is held in the collection of the Palace of Versailles.

Aleksander Kucharski was born on 18 March 1741 in Warsaw, into a noble family. In Poland, he studied under Marcello Bacciarelli. Thanks to a scholarship and the patronage of Stanisław August Poniatowski, he travelled to Paris, where, under the tutelage of Carl van Loo and Joseph-Marie Vien, he continued his studies at the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture. Contrary to the king’s wishes, which were for him to become a historical painter, Kucharski specialised in portraits. He continued to work in this genre for the rest of his career. Using oil and pastel techniques, he created intimate portraits that revealed the subject’s psychological traits. He also did not shy away from miniature painting, which was popular amongst portraitists of the time. He worked mainly on commission for the French aristocracy, but also produced several portraits of Poles living in Paris, including Teresa and Maria Czartoryska, and Ignacy and Stanisław Kostka Potocki.

It was only his portraits of Marie Antoinette that brought him true fame. Kucharski was known as the queen’s last painter. He probably began creating her portraits as early as 1780, though today only a few of his later works are known.

Unfinished pastel

Despite losing his royal scholarship in 1768, Kucharski had no intention of leaving Paris. The professional standing he had established earlier, together with his connections amongst the aristocracy, enabled him to gain access to the court of the most important family in France – the royal family. When, in 1789, Marie Antoinette’s court portraitist – Élisabeth Vigée-Lebrun – left the country for fear of the impending revolution, it was Aleksander Kucharski who took her place. Although he was never officially given this title, the portraits of Marie Antoinette he created ensured that he went down in art history as the Queen’s painter.

The first of these works is an unfinished pastel from 1791, now in the collection of the Palace of Versailles. The oval composition depicts the queen in a half-length pose. Kucharski managed to complete the face of the subject, whilst the rest of the figure remains merely sketched. Work on the painting was interrupted by the royal family’s attempted escape from France and their arrest at Varennes, from where they were sent back to Paris. Following this event, the queen, together with her husband and children, was imprisoned in the Temple.

Marie Antoinette at the Temple

The queen’s last known portrait dates from her time at the Temple. Kucharski produced this so-called ‘prison’ portrait in 1793. According to tradition, the original of this work was painted entirely from life, using pastels, either at the Temple or the Conciergerie (where the queen had been held since 2 August 1793). What is certain is that Kucharski visited the Queen whilst she was imprisoned at the Temple between 26 January and 1 April 1793. It is likely that he made sketches and studies of her widow’s attire at that time, and completed the work in his own studio. Undoubtedly, when painting the face, Kucharski made use of the aforementioned pastel portrait of the queen.

Marie Antoinette is depicted wearing a black mourning veil, which she donned following the execution of Louis XVI. Her proud gaze is fixed on the viewer, her figure silhouetted against the grey stone wall of the prison. At the time this portrait was painted, the queen was 37 years old; shortly afterwards – on 16 October 1793 – she was executed by guillotine.

Kucharski’s painting was a great success and inspired numerous copies, produced both by the artist himself and by his pupils and followers. The work preserved at the Palace of Versailles is one of them. Another replica, painted by Kucharski’s pupil Aglaé Barbot, is held in the collection of the Royal Castle in Warsaw.

Another work by the painter from this period is a portrait of the then seven-year-old Dauphin Louis XVII. Painted in 1792, this work was also copied on numerous occasions. The best-known version, initially mistakenly attributed to E. Vigée-Lebrun, is housed in the Petit Trianon at Versailles.

Post-Revolutionary Reality

After his role as Marie Antoinette’s portraitist, Kucharski achieved no further major successes in his career. When his former clients disappeared in post-revolutionary France, he supported himself by producing graphic reproductions of his earlier works. Little is known about the final years of his life. In 1800, he married Marguerite Charvet in Paris, and from 1815 he lived in the Sainte-Périne almshouse in Paris, receiving a pension from King Louis XVIII. Towards the end of his life, his financial situation deteriorated rapidly, forcing Kucharski to sell off his entire estate. He died on 5 November 1819. He was probably buried at the Père-Lachaise Cemetery, although some believe this to be merely a symbolic burial.