Seweryn Potocki of the Pilawa coat of arms (born 1762 in Kuryłówka, died September 16, 1829) was a Polish envoy and senator, later privy councilor, and member of the State Council of the Russian Empire, curator of the University of Kharkiv, Freemason, and a Knight of Malta since 1811.

[1] He was the son of Józef Potocki, Starost of Leżajsk, and Anna Teresa née Ossolińska, brother of Jan, a writer and traveler, and father of Leon, a diplomat, as well as four daughters, including Wanda, a social and charitable activist.

He was a member of the plenipotentiary commission in Lviv, appointed in 1790 for negotiations with Leopold II Habsburg.

[1] He moved to Russia, where he conducted fruitful educational activities, as the curator of the Kharkiv University.

In Odessa, he built a neoclassical palace between 1805 and 1810, which still exists today on Sofijskaya Street and has housed the Museum of Fine Arts since 1899.