The son of Count Alfred Wojciech Potocki and Princess Józefina Maria Czartoryska.

His grandfather was the writer Jan Potocki, best known for his famous novel "The Manuscript Found in Saragossa".

He served in the Diplomatic Corps and was Minister of Agriculture of Austria from 30 December 1867 until 15 January 1870, but stepped down over his minority federalist views in the cabinet.

He served as Austria's prime minister from 1870 to 1871,[2] and was one of the only two non-Germans who held this office in Austria-Hungary.

He was unsuccessful in promoting federalism and failing to obtain the cooperation of the Czechs in the Reichsrat he stepped down on 6 February 1871, ushering in a brief interregnum of conservative rule under Count Karl Sigmund von Hohenwart (February 1871 – October 1871) which was equally ineffective in implementing federalism, so that power quickly reverted to liberalism again.