Classical balance and severity of form, supplemented by a romantic mood, is combined in this picture with concrete individual characterization, which does not, however, go beyong the bounds of an idealized portrait. The only picture in Ukrainian museums by Jean Etienne Liotard, the well-known portrait painter of the XVIII century, is the "Portrait of the Austrian Empress Maria-Theresa". Liotard attained high artistry in the technique of pastel painting (for instance, the famous "Chocolate Girl" in the Dresden Gallery). But his portraits, in spite of their external beauty, are superficial in characterization of the subject. Mention should be made of the famous Barbizon School, one of the most important manifestations in European realistic art of the middle of the XIX century. One's idea of the art of the Barbizon School (the name given to the coterie of landscape painters who worke at in the village Barbizon near Paris) is broadened by an acquaintance with the profoundly lyrical "Autumn Landscape" by Narcisse Diaz de la Rena.

The collection of works of Polish art in the Lviv Art Gallery is unequalled in Ukraine as to completeness and variety. The exposition presents works of the XVI-XVII centuries, a number of paintings of the Age of Enlightenment in Poland (the XVIII century, the XIV century is represented by the canvases of Alexander Orlowsky and Artur Crobteger, Wilhelm Leopolski and Jan Matejko, Henryk Rodckowsky and Alexander Kobsis, Alexander Gierymsky and Ferdynand Ruszcyc). The major part of the exposition is made up by the works of the artists of the first half of the XX century, specifically, paintings by Jacek Malczewsky, Olga Boznanska, Jozef Mejoffer.

The greatest achievement of Polish artistic culture and a summit of European painting of the XIX century is the work of Jan Matejko. We do not possess any of his important historical pictures. However, the imposingly showy "Portrait of the Artist's Children" will give a good idea of Matejko as a brilliant painter, able to portray with genuine virtuosity the individual traits of a person and the sound materiality of the real world.