The Penitent Magdalene

Born in Marcybiliszeze, Poland in 1815, Tysiewicz studied in Vienna with Frederick von Amerling, court painter and sought-after portraitist of the Biedermeier period. Through him, Tysiewicz became acquainted with the work of Sir Thomas Lawrence and Horace Vernet, with whom his teacher had studied in London and Paris. In the present work, the smooth modeling evokes the works of Anne-Louis Girodet (1767-1824), while the luminous glow and pronounced tenebrism harkens back to the Magdalenes of the seventeenth-century master Georges de la Tour (1593-1653).