Katarzyna Sobieska (1634–1694), the only surviving sister of the future king, was born in Złoczów. Soon after her birth her parents Jakub and Teofila moved to Żółkiew. Under a watchful eye and a strict tutelage of her mother, Katarzyna grew up in the family castle in the atmosphere of piety and labour, surrounded by memorabilia of her great-grandfather Stanisław Żółkiewski. At home she received average education (for instance she spoke no foreign language), but inherited the habit of reading. Already in her childhood she was probably destined for monastic life. These plans were thwarted by her father’s death (1646) and her ambitious mother’s decision to marry Katarzyna off to a wealthy man. Teofila broke her daughter’s resistance and forced her to marry Prince Dominik Zasławski-Ostrogski, 20 years the bride’s senior. The marriage took place at the end of February 1650, presumably in the atmosphere of social scandal as Katarzyna gave birth to a baby boy as early as on 6 March. Her husband died already in 1656 and two years later Katarzyna married Michał Kazimierz Radziwiłł, the then Royal Cupbearer of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, later Deputy Chancellor and Lithuanian Field Hetman. From then on Katarzyna’s life was tightly bound with public activity exercised by both her husband and her brother. She partook in the coronation ceremony of Michał Korybut Wiśniowiecki and of Jan III. Accompanied by her spouse, she travelled to Italy (1677–1678), visiting Venice, Loreto and Rome and on return also Vienna. Radziwiłł’s death in 1680 left her with two young sons, supported by her royal brother and Andrzej Chryzostom Załuski, Bishop of Kiev. She divided her time between Warsaw, Żółkiew and Jaworów. At the end of the 1680s her relations with her sister-in-law deteriorated. After suffering further offences from Marie Casimire, in 1691 Katarzyna left Jan Sobieski’s court. Deeply pious, she made numerous foundations of religious and charity character (mainly in Biała Podlaska), but at the same time she avoided publicity. She also took care of Nieśwież [Nesvizh], for instance by granting to the local Jesuit church the sum of 40 thousand zlotys and by ordering copper coffins with silver inscription plates for members of the Radziwiłł family buried in the vault of the church. Her contemporaries referred to her as “Katarzyna the wise”, while her royal brother used to seek her advise in matters of high importance. She died in Warsaw on 29 September 1694 (the diagnosed cause of death was liver deficiency) and was buried in the vault of the Jesuit church in Nieśwież.
In her youth she was probably considered pretty, though not beautiful. A few extant oil portraits (in the gallery of the Nieśwież castle, at present in the National Museum in Warsaw and in the National Museum of the Przemyśl Land) depict Katarzyna at an already mature age, a stout matron of expressive facial features. The 1778 inventory of the Nieśwież castle enumerates the total of three of her effigies, but lacks any detailed information. It seems that two of them, half-figure portraits of different composition, were reproduced in graphic form. In 1758 the image was printed on a copper base by Hirsz Leybowicz, and in 1883 it was cut in a woodblock by Julian Schübeler for Józeł Łoski’s publication Jan Sobieski, jego rodzina, towarzysze broni i współczesne zabytki [Jan Sobieski, his family, comrades-in-arms, and contemporary monuments] (Warszawa 1883). Schübeler’s woodcut depicts Katarzyna holding an ermine coat with her left hand. This gesture is altogether missing from Leybowicz’s print, wherein the model’s two hands are lowered along the body. This might suggest that we are dealing with two separate paintings.
Julian Schübeler, based on an anonymous contemporary painting: Portrait of Katarzyna Radziwiłł née Sobieska, woodcut, publ. 1883.
