A Man in a Black Hat

 … The painting is one of several canvases in the Stanisław August collection, which, with the use of various treatments—mainly by altering the dimensions—were modified … in order to fit into a specific place in the decorative scheme of the interiors of the Łazienki Palace. The desire to acquire pendants of appropriate dimensions, or to mount paintings into the previously existing stucco frames, as well as overdoors, prompted the artists working for the king to use certain stratagems that would not be allowed in current practice. The present portrait, showing the head of a man and a small fragment of the torso, was composed from a piece of canvas, almost square in shape, cut out of a larger picture (which may have been damaged or only partially preserved) and of the canvas that had been attached to it, on which the remaining part of the torso of the man and the background were painted. The size of the picture thus acquired may have allowed a companion piece to be made to a painting of the same dimensions displayed next to it in the Picture Gallery (no. 1992 in the catalogue of the king’s collection … current whereabouts unknown). …