Secrets of the Past
Czartoryski-Potocki Palace.
The seat of the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage.
Jerzy Miziołek
Hubert Kowalski
Secrets of the Past
Czartoryski-Potocki Palace
The Ministry of Culture and National Heritage
MKiDN 2014
Jerzy Miziołek and Hubert Kowalski
Secrets of the Past
Czartoryski-Potocki Palace.
The Ministry of Culture and National Heritage.
Ministry of Culture and National Heritage 2014
Authors: Jerzy Miziołek and Hubert Kowalski
Translated from Polish by Teresa Bałuk-Ulewiczowa
Reviewers: Professor Juliusz A. Chrościcki and Dr hab. Jakub Sito
Cover illustrations: contemporary photographs (2011) by Hubert Kowalski
Text on pp. 157–158 by the Department of International Relations, Ministry of Culture and National Heritage
© Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, 2014
In co-operation with:
Project Co-ordinator: Aleksandra Ozga
Proofreading by John Beauchamp
Indexing: Adam Wieczorek
Graphic design and DTP: Maciej Tarkowski
ISBN 978-83-62622-38-2
Printed by Wrocławska Drukarnia Naukowa PAN im. Stanisława Kulczyńskiego Sp. z o. o.
ul. Lelewela 4
53-505 Wrocław
Count Stanisław Kostka Potocki (1755–1821),
the first Polish art critic and art historian
Count Stanisław possessed a knowledge of the fine arts I have never encountered in any
other art lover. To him we owe some very interesting research in that field, and some important scholarly studies (the generally known translation of Winckelmann’s great volume
among them). Being in love with his studies, he found relaxation after his labours in supervising the work of artists and men of letters, to whom he generously gave his protection.
In whomever a budding talent or a youthful inspiration blossomed, they could always
count on his helpful advice and material support. Under the influence of his repeated
Italian journeys he developed that noble adoration of beauty which is Nature’s gift she so
rarely grants, and which can be likened to an additional sense. Often did I look at him in
wonderment, thinking of the enormous amount of knowledge one man could amass, never
forgetting one iota of it. He was an excellent Latinist: often did I hear him reciting whole
books of Virgil, which he knew by heart, translating them freely and easily as he spoke.
Memoirs of the Countess Potocka 1901, pp. 26–27.
6
Table of Contents
Introduction
9
1. The Palace’s history
12
Denhoff and Czartoryski times
A description and inventory of the Palace in 1735
A Residence fit for the Princes Czartoryski
The corps de garde
Rococo finesse
Casanova and the wine fountain
Izabela Lubomirska née Czartoryska and her times
Distinguished artists, splendid palatial interiors, and Pompeian motifs
The happy couple, Stanisław Kostka Potocki and his wife Aleksandra
Stanisław Kostka and Aleksandra depicted in words and pictures
The Polish Herculaneum, Warsaw’s Revival, and A Specification of Rooms
Stanisław Kostka’s study and library
The times of Stanisław and Aleksandra’s son and grandchildren
The Palace and the house at Number 17 in the times
of Stanisław Potocki (1845–1886)
The Palace in the hands of the Potocki of Galicia
The Potocki Palace in a diplomat’s recollections
The Czartoryski-Potocki Palace on film
13
19
23
33
41
43
45
52
56
60
63
66
67
76
78
96
97
2. Tableaux vivants: facts and anecdotes from
the lives of the Princes, Counts, and their guests
100
A duel that never was, a six-horse carriage, and a magic lantern
Napoleon, “magnetising enslavement,” and a Bacciarelli painting
Napoleon in the Potocki Palace: the most famous social event of 1807
The concert, the dancing, and the beautiful Maria Walewska
The Battle of Raszyn and the ball for the Archduke Ferdinand
101
106
110
113
119
7
Secrets of the Past
8
Aleksandra Potocka’s tableaux vivants
A trip to Bliss and Niemcewicz’s piglet
A historical reconstruction in honour of Niemcewicz
Music in the Palace and Maria Kalergis
120
124
124
127
3. The Palace hosts an art gallery
and an editorial office
130
Warsaw’s first art exhibitions
The Zachęta Society for the Encouragement of Fine Arts
Pictures that stirred hearts
The Zachęta Society takes over the initiative
Watercolours, beautiful prints, and professional printers
The finest Polish weekly paper
Conclusion
134
135
140
146
147
148
153
The Ministry of Culture and National Heritage in a nutshell…
157
Ministers of Culture
160
Inventory of the Czartoryski-Potocki Palace
Bibliography
List of illustrations
List of abbreviations
Index
165
180
190
199
203
Introduction
Introduction
Just as the traveller wandering along the excavated streets of Pompeii discovers the remains of the houses of Cicero, Sallust, and Diomedes, so too, as we stroll along the streets
of our own cities and towns, we cannot but discover the secrets of past times. None of the
churches in our land, none of the castles, none of its most ancient houses is without its legends, its history, without its language of past times, without its inscription, “Thus it once
was!” Having over half a century of life behind me, much have I seen, much have I experienced, much have I learned from my seniors; and if God has granted me any skills, I have
decided to apply them in the service of those who will live after me, preserving for them
what I have seen, what I have experienced, what I have heard from my elders.
The expression “Thus it once was!” which Leon Potocki put into his beautiful, if
slightly exalted little book in 1854, and reissued seven years later, acquires a special meaning with respect to this Palace, which has preserved its old proportions,
finesse, and noble architectural forms but has had its interiors and the works of art
therein almost completely ravaged and destroyed by the Second World War. Potocki,
a graduate of the University of Warsaw, published his book under the nom de plume
“Bonawentura z Kochanowa” and the title Święcone, czyli Pałac Potockich w Warszawie, thereby associating his account of the Potocki Palace with the traditional
Polish custom of święcone, the church blessing of the fare to be eaten at breakfast on
Easter Sunday (Fig. 1). The book is one of the sources, alongside other descriptions
and photographs, which have saved for us the spectacular atmosphere of the erstwhile
residence of the Czartoryski, the Lubomirski, and finally the Potocki families; in
which its proprietors offered hospitality to emperors, kings and princes, distinguished
writers and outstanding artists. Some of these guests, such as the renowned Napoleonic Marshal of France Joachim Murat, the well-known Polish painter Zygmunt
Vogel, or the writer Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz, resided in the mansion for longer.
The long list of celebrated personages contributing to the story of this house is made
up of its eminent proprietors, August Aleksander Czartoryski and Stanisław Kostka
Potocki, and Potocki’s guest, Napoleon Bonaparte himself, who was here in 1807.
Its history has also been built up by institutions, such as Gracjan Unger’s art gallery, which flourished here in the 1880s, the highly accomplished weekly magazine
Fig. 1. Leon Potocki, Święcone czyli Pałac Potockich w Warszawie, Poznań, 1854; BNW
9
Secrets off tthe
he P
Past
astt
as
POD
PO
OD OPIEKĄ M
MUZ
UZ
Fig. 2. The Czartoryski-Potocki Palace,
Warsaw, in 2011
10
10
Introduction
Tygodnik Ilustrowany, and currently the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage
of the Republic of Poland.
Published exactly 160 years ago, Potocki’s book is only apparently an account of Polish Easter customs, but in reality it served as a point of departure for a recapitulation
of the main events in the history of the Potocki Palace and thereby also the history of
Poland, a foretaste of the subjects to be painted by Jan Matejko, such as “The Battle
of Grunwald”, “The Prussian Homage”, “Báthory at Pskov”, or “The Constitution of
the Third of May, 1791”. In fact the first two of these canvasses would be exhibited
in Unger’s gallery in 1882, as if drawn in by the magnetic attraction of Potocki’s
book. The event was given extensive coverage in the press, and the paintings aroused
enthusiasm, well-nigh euphoria, as they recalled great moments from the history of
a nation deprived at the time of its statehood. The court of the Palace and Krakowskie
Przedmieście, the Varsovian thoroughfare leading up to it, were full of joy and admiration for the grandeur of Matejko’s art and genius, albeit there were also emotions
similar to those recorded in Potocki’s book:
How delighted we are to read about episodes from our past, descriptions of those parliamentary assemblies at which deputies stood up in defence of freedom; when Jan Zamoyski
dared tell the king to “reign but rule not”; when Żółkiewski captured the tsars of Russia
and made them prisoners-of-war; when the king and the people, the people and the king,
pledged their loyalty to the Third of May Constitution! How excited we are to read descriptions of the military campaigns of Tarnowski, Żółkiewski, Czarniecki, Rewera Potocki;
how curious to hear stories of those supreme tribunal judgements, those confederations,
those royal election rallies, those stately homes of the lords of Poland!
The Potocki Palace, which was put up on the site of the modest 17th-century Denhoff residence, is one of the finest embellishments of Warsaw’s Trakt Królewski (Royal
Route – Fig. 2). This is due to its noble proportions, its sophisticated decorations,
and above all its corps de garde, which together with Sigismund’s Column, the façades of St. Anne’s Church and the Visitandine Church, the gateway to the University of Warsaw, and the Tyszkiewicz-Potocki and Staszic Palaces, make Krakowskie
Przedmieście one of Europe’s most delightful and elegant streets. Actually, what we
admire most about the edifice now accommodating Poland’s Ministry of Culture and
National Heritage we owe to the Czartoryski family.
This account of the Czartoryski-Potocki Palace focuses not only on its erstwhile
owners, its architecture, sculptures, paintings, and interior decoration as recorded by
the vintage photographs, but also on many of its events – the balls, receptions, the
tableaux vivants and performances staged here, the art exhibitions, and the diplomatic
meetings, many of which were of crucial significance to the history of Warsaw and
indeed the whole of Poland. Its walls, rising almost directly opposite the Presidential
Palace (once home to the Radziwiłł family) go back to the late 18th century and the
times of Stanisław Kostka Potocki, the father of Poland’s art history and classical
archaeology; they hosted Napoleon; the writers Henryk Sienkiewicz and Bolesław
Prus, frequent callers on the editorial office of Tygodnik Ilustrowany; the young Chopin; and the pianist, patroness of the arts and femme fatale Maria Kalergis. In this
book we shall tell their stories referring to numerous documents, memoirs, and other
records: who better to revive the atmosphere, nature, and drama of those events than
their witnesses. We hope this book on the headquarters of the Ministry of Culture
and National Heritage will make a contribution to the study of the everyday life of
Warsaw’s aristocracy and Polish culture over the last three centuries.
11
1
Secrets of the Past
The Palace’s
History
Number 415 on the Krakowskie Przedmieście, the erstwhile residence of Count Józef
Potocki and previously of the Princes Sieniawski, Denhoff, and Lubomirski, opposite the
Governor’s (once Radziwiłł, now Presidential) Palace and recently restored to its original
splendour – is one of the finest, if not the finest edifice in terms of historic status and style,
on Warsaw’s most representational boulevard.
That’s what Aleksander Kraushar, a distinguished polyhistor and connoisseur of
Warsaw’s memorabilia, wrote in the early 20th century (Tygodnik Ilustrowany 23
(1904), p. 451). In 1896, when the Palace was about to be restored, one of Warsaw’s newspapers reported that all the shops would be removed from its corps de garde
(guardhouse), and had started to move out. Built in a barocco style[!], the structure
had been spoiled by the shops and would now be demolished, in a measure necessary to straighten out the course of the Krakowskie Przedmieście, and in its place
a wrought iron trellis, appropriate for the edifice, would be installed, giving a view of
the building’s extensive court and façade (Teki Walerego Przyborowskiego).
Fortunately the plan to “straighten out the course of the Krakowskie Przedmieście”
was not put into practice. The exquisite Rococo (not Baroque, as the notice on the
gate says) corps de garde, the Palace’s vanguard and immediately recognisable showpiece, survived the Second World War and the Warsaw Uprising of 1944 virtually
unscathed. An invisible power must have been keeping vigil over this fine and so
characteristic building, with its rounded corners and the well-nigh diaphanous sculptures along its attic. The charming Rococo with its fine pilasters, its subtly framed
windows and entrance, and its delicate ornamental motifs, are in excellent harmony
with the wrought iron gates, the Palace itself, and the large court enclosed within the
Palace’s wings, sometimes referred to as pavilions or annexes.
Less than half a century after this restoration, the Palace – along with virtually
the whole of Warsaw – lay in ruins, ravaged during the Second World War. It was
rebuilt in 1946–1950. The design for its reconstruction was devised by a team led by
Professor Jan Zachwatowicz of the Department of Polish Architecture at the Warsaw
University of Technology. In Moja Warszawa, his poignant recollections of the Warsaw he had known, the engineer and bridge-builder Stanisław Gieysztor left the following reminiscence on the Palace’s pre-war state and its post-war restoration:
Opposite, in the Potocki (formerly Czartoryski) Palace, the only thing that changed was
the fine pair of Louis XV gates, designed by Władysław Marconi and installed in the first
years of the present [20th] century. In my schooldays the gates fell into neglect, just like the
central building of the corps de garde, which housed Żelisławski’s jeweller’s shop. . . . The
ground-floor corner of the wing on the Czysta (now Ossolińskich) street side had always
accommodated Gebethner and Wolff ’s bookshop, a familiar place for me, as it practised
the good custom of selling books for payment in instalments. The other wing contained
Franaszek’s wallpaper shop, which supplied the whole of Warsaw with wallpaper. Today,
with the removal of both shops, the Palace has certainly gained much, though on the other
hand it is almost inconceivable that Gebethner’s has gone. The Palace’s recent restoration
was accomplished with a considerable amount of dedication, just as for all of Warsaw’s
historic houses. Its tall, tiled roof (in my days the tiles were taken down even from church
roofs) and elegantly shaped chimneys are in perfect harmony with the building’s façade.
Alas, the beautiful walls hide an emptiness which was once one of Warsaw’s finest interiors
in the Stanisław August style (Gieysztor 2010, pp. 663–664).
12
The Palace’s history
A very good idea of what the Palace and its interiors looked like in the interwar period may be had from the surviving photographs, on which we observe the
shop-windows and signs described by Stanisław Gieysztor. This image of the past
is supplemented by the posters advertising Franaszek’s and Gebethner’s, the latter
of which also sold grand pianos, and a piano is the central item on one of its posters. A beautiful poster for Franaszek’s company, designed by Tadeusz Gronowski,
displays an exquisite Rococo side-table similar in style to the corps de garde and the
main edifice, with a caption informing readers that the shop sells “Refined Paper
Wall Upholstery”. The expressions “sophisticated,” “elegant,” “refined,” and “sublime,” characterise the atmosphere of the Palace and its past, and today they come
to mind especially when we are facing the corps de garde, enter the court, into some
of the interiors, and observe the precinct from Plac Piłsudskiego. These walls, sculptures, and interiors are witnesses to a history that starts in the first half of the 17th
century under the Vaza dynasty, in the reign of Vladislaus IV (1632–1648).
There are various texts, inventory lists and two invaluable drawings, one by Peter
Schenk dated 1703 (Fig. 3), and another by Ricaud de Tirregaille (1762: Fig. 4)
which give us an idea of the residence in the times of the Denhoff and Czartoryski
proprietorships. The unquestionable priority in the description of the Denhoff residence must go to Adam Jarzębski, whose invaluable if not very sophisticated guidebook to the sights of Warsaw, entitled Gościniec, albo krótkie opisanie Warszawy
(1634), has the following record:
Denhoff and
Czartoryski
times
Fig. 3. Peter Schenk, View of the court of Marywil, copperplate engraving, 1703; MNW
13
Secrets of the Past
Fig. 4. Plan of the City of Warsaw, dedicated to His Majesty Augustus III, King of Poland, Elector of
Saxony, made by order of Count Bieliński, Lord Grand Marshal of Poland, by the engineer Lt.-Col. P.
Ricaud de Tirregaille in the service of His Majesty and the Republic of Poland, 1762; AGAD
The Palace’s history
Secrets of the Past
Fig. 5. Peter Schenk, The Denhoff residence,
detail of Fig. 3; MNW
And this most substantial court
A double structure doth disport:
Spacious is its dining-hall,
Hosting many guests withal.
Beyond the lobby the lord’s rooms stand,
As the servants let me understand.
I entered one, and then another, . . .
A round tiled stove, chimneyed and glazed,
In it a merry fire will always blaze.
In this room the master’s bed doth stand,
Splendid I’ d say, glorious and grand,
With fine tapestries upholstered,
With sundry silks and satins bolstered.
Then come ample chambers next
For the ladies and the guests.
Kitchens and pantry are not far away,
Where the daintiest dishes are made.
Through the windows look and out of doors
See how a pretty little garden grows;
Fresh water’s by two wells supplied,
However much the house requires.
By the front gate sentry-houses stand,
The tallest with its roofing crowned,
Rooms upstairs and downstairs are arrayed
Over a spacious porch and entrance-way.
A little building stands at its side,
Its walls stuccoed on the outside.
Across the court the stables stand,
In a long and double row they run . . .
(Jarzębski 1974, pp. 130–131)
The proprietor of “this most substantial court” and the adjoining “pretty little
garden” was Kacper Denhoff, Lord Voivode of Sieradz and Marshal of the Court
of Queen Cecylia Renata. On the Voivode’s death the property, which had been
restored after the Swedish War of 1650–55, passed down first to his son Aleksander,
who was a royal secretary and Abbot of Jędrzejów Cistercian Abbey, and subsequently to Ernest Denhoff, Voivode of Malbork. We are given an idea of the way
the Voivode’s residence might have looked in a drawing by the already-mentioned
Peter Schenk, royal artist to Augustus II, in which he presents a view of Marywil
(Fig. 5). This view, done in 1703, that is a decade after the Voivode’s death, shows
a storeyed building arranged along ten axes on a rectangular plan with a distinctive
central projection and a cornice separating the two floors. According to one hypothesis, some of the building’s features suggest that it may have been designed by
Józef Piola (?–1715), a Polish architect originally from the Italian-Swiss borderland
and a student of the renowned Tilman van Gameren, another architect who came
to Poland (from Holland) and settled, designing many famous buildings including Marywil (as depicted in Schenk’s drawing; today the Teatr Wielki stands on
the site).
16
The Palace’s history
The Denhoff residence passed down to Maria Zofia Denhoffowa née Sieniawska
still in the reign of Augustus II, who had tried to purchase it (but in vain) to extend
his own, adjacent property, the Pałac Saski (“Saxon Palace”). Maria Zofia was the wife
of Stanisław Ernest Denhoff and it is due to her that the Palace is associated with the
once illustrious House of Sieniawski. Stanisław Ernest Denhoff died without issue in
1728, leaving Maria Zofia a widow after just four years of marriage. We see Stanisław
and his young wife Maria Zofia depicted by an unknown artist in a group portrait
preserved in the Museum of Wilanów Palace (Fig. 6). In a truly Sarmatianist style,
the painting shows two married couples, the other pair being the Sieniawski, Maria
Zofia’s parents. We are fortunate to have another, quality portrait of Stanisław Ernest
Denhoff (Fig. 7). It is a large canvas kept in the Royal Łazienki Palace and shows
a handsome, grey-haired man with a lively, intelligent face.
Fig. 6. Unidentified painter, Portrait of Lord
Hetman Sieniawski and his wife, with their
daughter Maria Zofia and her first husband,
Stanisław Denhoff, oils on canvas, 1724–26;
Wilanów Palace Museum
17
Secrets of the Past
Fig. 7. Unidentified painter, Portrait of Stanisław
Ernest Denhoff, Lord Field Hetman of Lithuania, oils on canvas, ca. 1720; Royal Łazienki
Museum in Warsaw
Maria Zofia née Sieniawska was one of the richest women in the Poland of her times,
and after the death of her first husband had many suitors, including Karol Tarło and
August Aleksander Czartoryski (Fig. 8). Their rivalry ended in a duel, in which the
latter was victorious. According to some records Czartoryski’s chief adversary was not
Tarło, but one of the Pac family. On 11th July 1731 the young, fabulously rich, beautiful, and educated widow married August Aleksander (Konopczyński 1938, pp. 64–77;
Kuras 2010, pp. 108–109), and the former Denhoff property in the heart of Warsaw
became one of the residences of the ascendant Czartoryski family. It would remain in
their hands until 1799, but as of 1781 it was owned by Izabela, August Aleksander’s
daughter, who married Stanisław Lubomirski, a man much older than herself who
died in 1783. Once again the Palace was left to a young widow, extremely rich thanks
to the wealth left by her husband. However, unlike her mother Maria Zofia, Izabela
never remarried, and in the last year of the century the Palace was inherited by one of
her daughters, Aleksandra Lubomirska, happily married since 1776 to Stanisław Kostka Potocki, one of the most enlightened men of his times. Nonetheless, the excellent
18
The Palace’s history
Fig. 8. Unidentified painter, Portrait of August
Aleksander Czartoryski, oils on canvas, 1730s;
Wilanów Palace Museum. On what is probably the best of all the Prince’s known portraits we see a self-confident, proud, and intelligent man in his mid-thirties. His apparel, a
breastplate and ermine-lined cloak, displayed
against a homogeneous dark background,
endow him with an air of nobility, a perfect
match, it seems, for his ambition to obtain the
throne. The exquisitely painted face, the highlights on the breastplate, the delicately applied crimson verging on purple, and the unobtrusively presented cross of honour make
this painting an outstanding work of art.
reputation and personal virtues of Aleksandra’s learned spouse do not change the fact
that what had been a prince’s residence now turned into the home of merely a count.
Before we proceed to the description of the thorough conversion of the Czartoryski
residence that determined its present-day shape, it will be worthwhile making a few
remarks on an invaluable document which first earned the attention of and a commentary from Irena Malinowska, who has done noteworthy work on the Palace. The
document in question is a 1735 description of the property, compiled on the basis of
a certain Witkowski’s register, and its Polish title is Opisanie rzeczy w Pałacu Warszawskim przed Karmelity w dozorze P. Zawadzkiego, A. 1735 z regestru JM Pana Witkowskiego wypisane. Wykonotowanie zrewidowanych Rzeczy wszelkich w Pałacu przed
Karmelitami Jaśnie Oświeconych Xięstwa Ich Mości Dobrodzieystwa y w nim będących
w Warszawie in [novembris] br. Anno 1735. The information it contains suggests that
A description
and inventory
of the Palace
in 1735
19
Secrets of the Past
POD OPIEKĄ MUZ
20
I
The Palace’s history
Anonymous painter, portrait of August Aleksander Czartoryski;
oils on canvas; mid-18th century, Wilanów Palace Museum
A full-figure presentation of the Prince clad in a full suit of armour with his right hand
resting on a helmet, and draped with a red ermine-lined cloak, on a background of war
trophies in a landscape of huge trees against a blue sky partly covered by dark clouds
in sharp contrast to the Prince’s ponytail wig. The Prince is wearing the blue sash of the
Polish Order of the White Eagle, with its star decorating his cloak. Gravity and serenity emanates from his face, which is shown in a three-quarter view. Highlights on the
armour, the beautifully painted cloak, the subject’s noble pose, and the somewhat misty
landscape make the picture an interesting work of art.
Prince August Aleksander Czartoryski (1697–1782) received a meticulous education.
In 1715 he toured France, Italy, and Germany, finally settling in Malta with the Order
of St. John. In 1716 he took part in the defence of Corfu. After a while he transferred
and served in the Austrian fleet, under the command of Prince Eugene of Savoy. He was
promoted to the rank of colonel, and in 1718, following the Battle of Belgrade against
the Turks, received a sword of honour. He returned to Poland after 1720, but made frequent visits to Austria in the following years. It was his ambition to play a salient part in
the affairs of his native country, where state policy was falling into anarchy and its army
was disintegrating. In the first years after his return home his main concern was to gain
influence and look after his estates, though with varying success. On 1st June 1729 he
was commissioned to serve as the commander in the colonel’s rank of the First Infantry
Guards of the Kingdom of Poland; and on 14th June of the same year he was appointed
Major-General of the Forces of the Kingdom of Poland. In June 1730 he took part in the
military exercises of the Saxon and Polish armies at Mühlberg, inspected by King Augustus II.
On 22nd July 1731 the Order of the White Eagle was conferred on him. On 11th November 1731,
four months after his marriage to Maria Zofia née Sieniawska, he was appointed Voivode of
Ruthenia. During the interregnum of 1733 he supported the candidacy of Stanisław Leszczyński
to the throne, and spent some time in Gdańsk owing to this. On 29th June 1734 he submitted
to Augustus III, and was rewarded with the conferral of the Saxon Order of St. Hubert (Kuras
2010, pp. 16–19). With time the Prince became one of Augustus III’s most trusted ministers and
counsellors, but when rumours went round in 1745 of the latter’s abdication, he was considered
a candidate to the throne.
When relations with the King grew worse and worse, Prince Czartoryski started thinking of a compatriot monarch – his son Adam Kazimierz. Despite being out of favour with
the King, Czartoryski’s star shone brightest in 1762–3, as the historian Konopczyński
writes (1938, pp. 70–71); he was promised Russian backing in his attempt to secure the
crown for his son. But the interregnum of 1763–4 brought Czartoryski a bitter disappointment: although he had bought the favour of Kayserling the Russian envoy, he could not
persuade his son to stand for election and was forced to watch Poniatowski, the nephew he
did not care for at all, ascend the throne for his money. He wept bitterly over the outcome
of the election, and on the following day, in a fit of grief, this illustrious, serene old man
grabbed his son Adam by the chest and, pointing at the king-elect, muttered sotto voce,
“You fool, you did not want the crown when you could have had it; you’ll see how well it
will suit him. Now it’s too late.” Thereupon, for the entire coronation sejm, he was genuinely ill or feigned illness. After some time the Prince was reconciled to the new monarch
and lavished a lot of money on a celebration of his name-day on 8th May 1766. There is
not much exaggeration in the numerous, extremely laudatory opinions on the man who
created the power of the House of Czartoryski. As Konopczyński writes (1938, p. 74), only
the nephew who became king harboured rancorous feelings for him, unable to get over the
fact that his uncle and patron Czartoryski was worthier of the crown than he.
August
Aleksander
Czartoryski
21
Secrets of the Past
no conversions had been carried out on the interior arrangement since the beginning
of the reigns of the Wettin kings (1697). The proprietors’ main rooms were on the
ground floor; the only upstairs rooms described are the hall and the Prince’s study.
The Princess’ rooms were on the left-hand side of the vestibule, and the Prince’s on
the right. The lady of the house had four rooms: a bedroom, a study, a “second room,”
and an antechamber, along with two wardrobes and dressing rooms, all sumptuously
and meticulously appointed, the walls covered with green brocatelle, damask, and
velvet with gilt panels and gold braid. The curtains and upholstery for the furniture
were made of matching fabrics. Between the windows and the fireplaces there were
large mirrors, with chandeliers at their sides to light up the rooms. Decorative panels
hung above the paintings of still life – flowers, fruit, and hunters’ game. The register
lists a lot of furniture – tables, chairs, settees, desks – but one of the most noteworthy
is the Princess’ ornamented bedstead, white satin on the inside decorated with gold
and multi-coloured braid, green velvet on the outside festooned with braiding and
tassels, with a decorative board running round the top, and ornamental trelliswork at
the bottom of the bed. In addition china figurines – kittens, birds, and other trifles –
embellished the Princess’ bedroom. The master of the house had a large room which
served for dining, and two other rooms overlooking the garden. From the extant part
of the description we learn that in one of them there were cabinets holding a collection of books. The interiors were decorated with paintings mounted on supraportes
and vases on the mantels and along the walls. The Prince’s bedroom was probably
upstairs, but there is no mention of it in the description. The Palace was still awaiting
its major transformation, which would turn it into a residence truly fit for a prince.
What was the Prince’s new residence like when was it created, and who was the chief
architect responsible for the conversion? Numerous written sources have records on
its splendour. Some, in Teki Korotyńskie, are a bit confusing. One of the 19th-century
press items says that the little palace was designed in the 18th century by the architect
Fontana and separated off from the street with the corps de garde designed by Hiż
the architect. Another tells us that part of the Potocki Palace was erected by Adam
Mikołaj Sieniawski, Lord Castellan of Kraków and Grand Hetman of Poland. Originally it consisted only of large halls, probably intended to serve as barracks. It was
converted by the Hetman’s daughter Zofia, the last of the Sieniawski, wife of Prince
August Czartoryski, Lord Voivode of Ruthenia (Bohdziewicz 1964, pp. 257–259).
Today we know beyond all doubt that Adam Mikołaj Sieniawski had next to nothing to do with the Palace. We also know that his daughter Zofia (or strictly speaking Maria Zofia) played only a minor part (if any at all) in its conversion. All the
signs are that the conversion was accomplished chiefly thanks to August Aleksander
Czartoryski, Voivode of Ruthenia, though probably with his wife’s involvement and
support. Some of the work probably started already in the 1730s, soon after they were
married, but the conversion proper, which determined the Palace’s rank among the
other aristocratic residences of Warsaw, did not come until 1754–1766 (Sito 2010).
However, it is still difficult to identify its architect. Fontana (1710–1773), the designer
of the Collegium Nobilium on ulica Miodowa in Warsaw and the country mansion
at Radzyń Podlaski, might have been the chief architect of the Czartoryski Palace
(Kwiatkowski 1989, p. 107). Fontana is named as the Palace’s architect by Antoni
Magier in Estetyka miasta stołecznego Warszawy (Magier 1963, p. 116). Could this distinguished Polish-born architect with Italian roots have worked on the project with
Efraim Szreger (Ephraim Schröger; 1727–1783), known primarily for the design of
22
The Palace’s history
the façade of the Carmelite Church almost opposite the Palace, as some writers suggest? Szreger is sometimes mentioned in connection with the superb corps de garde,
which was completed in the reign of Stanisław August Poniatowski (1764–1795). No
doubt his name is considered due to the other commissions he did for Prince August
Aleksander Czartoryski, which we shall be discussing later.
Recently a new hypothesis has emerged on the grounds of an article in the Warsaw press, that the corps de garde was the work of a now virtually forgotten architect
known as Piotr Hiż (or Hiche), a Pole with French ancestry, who has already had
some study devoted to him (Sulerzyska 1970, pp. 377–378). The hypothesis was
originally put forward by Jakub Sito, who has published archival materials relating to the Palace preserved in two manuscripts (11308 and 11320) in the Czartoryski Library in Kraków. In doing so he concluded that the project started in the
1750s, not the 1760s, and he drew attention to an intriguing passage in Czartoryski’s ledger for 1754–1760 (Księga Kontowa Augusta Aleksandra Czartoryskiego
1754–1760; ms 11323, p. 420), where Hiche was referred to as “the Architect” (Sito
2010, p. 13). Can Hiche, who received his professional training in Warsaw and
subsequently in Dresden, and who in 1744–1756 designed Hieronim Wielopolski’s mansion on Nowy Świat (Putkowska 2005), be regarded as the maker of the
whole of the Czartoryski Palace? According to earlier opinions Hiche was merely
the on-site technical and administrative manager (Malinowska in Kwiatkowska
and Malinowska 1976, p. 43). We shall have to wait for more research for a definitive answer on Hiche’s contribution to the making of our masterpiece of Varsovian
architecture.
In 1762 the French master builder and engineer Pierre Ricaud de Tirregaille drew
up a plan of Warsaw, on commission from Franciszek Bieliński, Lord Grand Marshal of Poland and “patron” of the Marszałkowska, the street named after him. The
vignette of Ricaud de Tirregaille’s plan shows seventeen of the capital’s finest edifices,
and one of them is the Czartoryski Palace (Fig. 9). The engraver presented only the
A Residence
fit for
the Princes
Czartoryski
Fig. 9. Elevation of the main building of the
Czartoryski-Potocki Palace, 1762; detail from
the vignette of Ricaud de Tirregaille’s plan of
Warsaw; AGAD
23
Secrets of the Past
POD OPIEKĄ MUZ
façade of the Palace’s main building, which must have been completed by the time
the engraving was made. From the written sources we know that its wings were built
in the early 1760s, and its embellishing corps de garde a few years later.
In the conversion the main building of the old Denhoff structure was extended
by the addition of six axes, the last pair at either end making up biaxial projections
in the form of separately roofed alcoves. The new, elongated façade of fifteen axes is
accentuated by a central triaxial projection divided up by pilasters with Corinthian
capitals and topped with a tympanum decorated with a double cartouche crested with
a crown, and with a seated figure on either side. The pediments feature panoplies –
trophies of armour and helmets mounted on a post – matching the ones on the corps
de garde. On the ground floor there are semi-circular arcades over the three doorways; while the French windows on the upper floor are topped by segmental arches,
a favourite detail with Rococo architects. The two storeys are of the same height. The
end sections of the elevation are portioned off with a combination of lesenes and recessed panels. The terminal projections are bordered with pilasters, and the intervening spaces hold recessed panels decorated with delightful Rococo pendants derived
from the rocaille ornamental shells beloved of Rococo designers and applied not only
on façades and interior walls, but even on printed works, such as the title page of
24
The Palace’s history
Fig. 10. Design for the elevation of the Palace’s main building and portico, ca. 1840,
pen-and-ink drawing; BNW. A question arises: when was the Palace’s Classicising conversion, including the addition of its Doric
portico, done? Perhaps not until the 19th century?
Warsaw’s municipal register for 1750–1771. An examination of the Palace’s extant
structure shows beyond all doubt that around 1762 two alcoves were appended on the
south side of its main building. Today they are the only parts which have preserved
their authentic Rococo decoration, giving us an idea of the original ornamentation
on the façade.
Another of the Palace’s components which calls for a short description, are its wings,
not included in Ricaud de Tirregaille’s drawing. This elegant pair of edifices flanking
the court is closed off on the Krakowskie Przedmieście street-side with two-storey
pavilions on a square plan and topped with mansard roofs and dormer windows looking down onto the street. The elevations on the pavilions are divided into sections
with vertical rusticated panels, and their friezes are decorated with triglyphs, which
makes them accord in almost perfect harmony with the portico of Doric columns
on the central projection put on the main building in the final decades of the 18th
century, when Princess Izabela Lubomirska neé Czartoryska owned the property.
There are three sculptures in the tympanum of the central projection. An additional
four, arranged in two pairs, top the two flanking projections (Fig. 10). The terrace
of the portico is decorated with four sculpted vases. Alas, a full reconstruction of the
original concept for the decoration would probably be impossible to achieve, as over
25
Secrets
Secr
Se
cret
cr
e s of tthe
et
hee P
h
Past
astt
as
The Palace’s
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Pa
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la
ce’s’s history
ce
his
i tooryy
Secrets of the Past
POD OPIEKĄ MUZ
Fig. 11. View of the Czartoryski-Potocki Palace, ca. 1928; ISPAN
20
The Palace’s history
the years a series of changes was made, such as the replacement of the vases with two
groups of putti at play, and two other putti eating grapes. The sculptures extant until
the Second World War appear to have supplanted their predecessors in the late 19th
century. We can identify three of those on the central tympanum from pre-war photographs: Ceres, Ganymede (modelled on the Vatican Antinous), and a Louvre-type
Germanicus, sometimes referred to as Mercury (Fig. 11). The Doric portico, which
was completely destroyed during the Second World War, has been faithfully reconstructed, but unfortunately without the sculptures (Figs. 12–13).
Fig. 12. Ruins of the Czartoryski-Potocki Palace, façade of the main building, 1945; NID
Fig. 13. View of the Czartoryski-Potocki Palace in 2011
29
Secrets of the Past
Fig. 14. Design for the elevation of the Palace’s north wing, ca. 1840, pen-and-ink
drawing; BNW
Fig. 15. Elevation of the Palace’s north wing,
ca. 1915–18; ISPAN
30
The walls of the wings facing the court are accentuated by a set of triglyphic projections (Figs. 14–15) with attics crested by sculptured vases and panoplies (Figs.
16–17). The south wing has always been connected with the main building, while
a passage leading into a servants’ courtyard was left between the north wing and the
central building. In 1763 new pavilions were raised around the servants’ courtyard,
and a beautiful Neo-Renaissance house was put up on its street-side just before the
mid-19th century.
The Palace’s history
Fig. 16. Detail on the south wing of the
Czartoryski-Potocki Palace, 2011
Fig. 17. Vase at the top of the attic on the south
wing of the Czartoryski-Potocki Palace, 2011
31
Secrets of the Past
Fig. 18. View of the Palace’s corps de garde, 1930; ISPAN
The Palace’s history
The crowning glory of the conversion project was definitely the corps de garde, with
its flowing lines, its front embellished with double pilasters forming a frame around its
entrance, with a panoply motif and a recessed, four-column portico on its court side
(Figs. 18–23). This exquisite little building is further enhanced by the fine, fortunately
The corps
de garde
Fig. 19. View of the Palace’s corps de garde,
2011
Fig. 20. View of the Palace’s corps de garde,
2011
33
Secrets of the Past
The Palace’s history
Secrets of the Past
Fig. 21. View of the corps de garde from the Palace’s court, 1895; MNW
36
The Palace’s history
Fig. 22. View of the corps de garde from the Palace’s court, before 1939; BNW
Fig. 23. View of the corps de garde from the Palace’s court, 2011
37
Secrets of the Past
Fig. 24. Statue of Mars (or Bellona) on the
corps de garde, 1951; ISPAN
The Palace’s history
Fig. 25. Statue of Mars (or Bellona) on
the corps de garde, 2011
Fig. 26. Statues of putti on the
corps de garde, 2011
Fig. 27. Sculptural decoration
of the corps de garde, 2011
surviving sculptures along its attic, only slightly impaired by the damage done by time
and the War, but meticulously restored as soon as the latter ended (Fig. 24). A statue
of Mars commands the central position; it is Mars, and not Minerva, as is sometimes
claimed, though in a pose somewhat reminiscent of dancing, copied by the four putti
on either side of him (Figs. 25–28). In the Rococo perspective the god of war is not
very bellicose, moreover deprived of his arms by the passage of time still before the
outbreak of the War. The statue has remained armless to this very day. This five-figure
sculptural group fits snugly into the overall picture of the structure’s gossamer, capricious, and somewhat ragged rocaille poetics. As an ornament it is unquestionably the
dominant feature in the sculpted decorations on the attic, over its corners and with
respect to the solitary putti lodged on its court side and holding up gently indented
shields with plumes of rocaille and palm leaves. These beautiful, somewhat dreamyeyed putti could well serve as a symbol of all the Rococo in the Czartoryski residence.
A row of fastidiously sculpted trophies, armour and helmets crested with feather
plumes and set up, as in the art of ancient Rome, on pillars or tree-stumps, completes
the decoration. The ornamental assemblage alludes self-evidently to the building’s
original function, as a guardhouse (French corps de garde). And, after all, the master of
the Palace was the general of the royal infantry guards, as Ludwik Cieszkowski writes
in his now rather forgotten anecdotal memoirs of the reign of Stanisław August Poniatowski, adding that Czartoryski’s was the most numerous regiment in Poland, and
that its commanding officer maintained it in the very best condition right until his
death, lavishing money from his private resources on it (Cieszkowski 1867, pp. 58–59).
For nigh on two hundred years the architectural gem known as the corps de garde
has not had much in common with Mars, the pugnacious god of war, but has been
39
Secrets of the Past
associated rather with the domain of Apollo and his minions, the Muses. Recently it
has been the trysting-place especially for Clio, the Muse of history, attended by her
sisters Polyhymnia and Euterpe, the Muses of song and music respectively. In 2010,
the year of Chopin’s Bicentenary, his music was played, and an exhibition of artworks
inspired by it was put on display here. In 2011, on the President’s initiative, the public
could view the original document of Poland’s Third of May Constitution, exhibited
here on the 220th anniversary of the event. The cultural venue known as Galeria
Kordegarda has taken up a permanent place in the programme of artistic events held
in the Krakowskie Przedmieście.
220
0
The Palace’s history
When the corps de garde was being built and embellished with sculptures in the
mid-1760s, the main building of the Czartoryski Palace was appointed with new
interior decoration designed and effected by a truly international team of artists and
craftsmen. The roll-call of their names encompasses sculptors Samuel Contessa, Jan
(Johann) Redler, and Sebastian Zeisel; painters like Jan Bojanowicz, the locksmith
Augustyn Lob, the master bricklayer Johann Staude, the stonemason Michał Dollinger, and the upholsterer Kozerowicz. Contessa probably did the wood-carving, the
remaining sculptors worked on the outdoor items as well, while Zeisel is generally
regarded as the maker of the sculptures on the corps de garde. One of the most notable
Rococo
finesse
Fig. 28. Sculptural group decorating
the corps de garde, 2011
41
Secrets of the Past
interiors created at the time was the small apartment lodged on the south side of the
redeveloped main building and used by Princess Izabela, the Czartoryski daughter.
On 11th May 1781 Ernst Ahasverus von Lehndorff, Chamberlain to the King of
Prussia, paid a visit to the Czartoryski family in their Palace and left a record of his
impression of Izabela and her rooms, calling her a modish lady (Fig. 32), as evidenced
by the furnishings in the entire house. What caught his eye were the flower vases, the
dimmed candlelight, the bottles of perfume, and the chaises longues – all elegant
and sophisticated (Polska stanisławowska w oczach cudzoziemców 1963, Vol. 2, p. 28).
Looking at Ricaud de Tirregaille’s drawing, observing the façade of the Palace’s
main building, wings, and the corps de garde with its fine decoration, and paraphrasing some of Jan Białostocki’s reflections, we shall try to draw up a characteristic of the
Palace’s predominant style, which came from the world of Juste-Aurèle Meissonnier
(1695–1750) and his famous book of ornamental designs. Rococo is not the realm of
the pulchrum, outright beauty, but of the subtly pretty, the delicate and fragile bellum;
it carries a hint of the gracefulness which had been gaining in importance in the theory of art already since the 17th century. A human figure, a tree, or an ornament make
up a self-contained entity extracted from its background and sometimes enclosed in
a vignette. The rocaille is its superordinate form, the shape of its framework, almost
entirely dominating the imagination of its artists. Another, more particularly Rococo
criterion may be observed in the specific composition of its walls and the architectural
system proper to them. The Rococo wall is flat, almost completely bereft of architectural orders, often without cornices and horizontal mouldings, and its windows and
niches tend to have a segmental arch or a wavy line over them. It is modelled by the
delicate stratifications of natural or artificial stone, or vertical bands of rustication.
The rusticated panels on the walls of the corps de garde and the wings survive; but
those destroyed during the War on the main building have not been restored. The
Rococo tendency to break free from imposed architectural order was waived in the
corps de garde with its four-column portico and pilasters, the work of a different architect from the designer of the main building, as we remember.
Is Rococo a late version, or perhaps a specific variant of Baroque? Many researchers have tried to answer this question. It’s worthwhile referring to the opinion of
Nikolaus Pevsner from his famous Outline of European Architecture: “Rococo is not
a separate style, but part of Baroque, as Decorated is part of the Gothic style. The
difference of Baroque and Rococo is only one of sublimation: the later phase is light,
whereas the early phase was sombre; delicate, where the earlier was forceful; playful,
where the earlier was passionate. But it is just as mouvemente, as vivacious, as voluptuous as Baroque. One connects the term Rococo chiefly with France and the age of
Casanova on the one hand, Voltaire on the other” (Pevsner 1945, p. 145).
We beg to differ. Like Władysław Tomkiewicz we consider Rococo a separate style
in its own right. It is enough to compare the Krasiński Palace, which was the work of
Tilman van Gameren, with the Czartoryski residence to see the difference (Tomkiewicz 2005). Indeed, we have to look for the sources of Fontana’s inspiration in France,
in places like the Château de Chantilly and, to a certain extent, Germain Boffrand’s
Hôtel de Soubise in Paris. In Poland a comparable style may be observed in Fontana’s
masterpiece at Radzyń Podlaski, and secondly the unfortunately not very accurately
reconstructed Branicki Palace in Warsaw on ulica Miodowa, with its entrance leading out onto the Podwale. Another edifice in the Rococo style is the Visitandine
Church, not far from the Czartoryski-Potocki Palace: the interior of this exquisite and
42
The Palace’s history
well-preserved church, with the delicate ornamentation on the architecture, pews,
and picture frames, gives a fair idea of how attractive the Rococo can be.
Sophistication, finesse, sublimation – these terms and expressions have appeared recurrently in our remarks. Some of the Palace’s 18th-century owners, as well as some of
the designers of its interiors, must certainly have been familiar with Edmund Burke’s
Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful (1757).
The English term “the sublime” would soon be embarking on an even grander career in European art and literature (Sublime 2000). In Poland Kazimierz Brodziński,
a professor of the University of Warsaw and a close friend of Stanisław Kostka Potocki, wrote about it (Brodziński 1966, pp. 449–465).
Nikolaus Pevsner refers to Giacomo Casanova (1725–1798: Fig. 29). The famous
ladies’ man, who was also a good writer, visited Warsaw in 1765–1766 and called on
August Aleksander Czartoryski in his Palace, which had just acquired the appearance
we have described above. In his memoirs Casanova recorded the visit as follows: On
Casanova
and the wine
fountain
Fig. 29. Anton Raphael Mengs (?), Portrait of
Giacomo Casanova, oils on canvas, 1768;
private collection. The frame is an excellent
example of the Rococo style with an elegant
rocaille ornament.
43
Secrets of the Past
Fig. 30. Efraim Szreger, Design for the fountain put up in Warsaw for King Stanisław August’s name day in 1766, drawing; GR BUW
the next day at eleven I met that extraordinary man, the marvellous Lord Voivode of
Ruthenia. The illustrious gentleman was in his morning dress, standing in a group of
Polish nobles in their national costume and high boots. . . . The Prince spoke to each in
a friendly but stately manner. As soon as his son Adam mentioned my name his face lit
up and he received me in a most dignified and aff able way. He was not overbearing,
but neither did he admit confidentiality, which gave him the opportunity to closely observe the person whose acquaintance he wished to make. He went behind a screen and
had his servants dress him, whereupon he appeared in his regimental uniform, in the
French fashion, with a long blond wig and a long queue and large tresses on his cheekbones, attire from the reign of Augustus III. He bowed to all present and retired to his
rooms, where his wife was. She was convalescing after an illness which would have been
very grave had it not been for the adroitness of Dr. Reimann, a student of the great
Boerhaave. (Polska stanisławowska w oczach cudzoziemców 1963, p. 235). Casanova
accepted an invitation to dinner and found that there were three tables very sumptuously laid, each for thirty diners, and was told that such was the everyday practice. The splendour of the Voivode’s house eclipsed the glories of the royal court.
We should add that Casanova was also introduced to King Stanisław August, who
offered him hospitality and generous gifts.
To honour the new King on his feast-day (St. Stanislaus’ day, 8th May) in 1766 ,
the Prince Voivode had a fountain that poured out wine installed near the Palace,
in the forecourt in front of the Visitandine Church (Lorentz 1986, pp. 108–110). It
was designed by the already-mentioned Efraim Szreger (Fig. 30), and a record of it is
preserved in an etching kept in the Print Room of the University of Warsaw Library.
A brief glance at this illustration is enough to show the class of artworks commissioned by Prince August Aleksander. The structure was 13 metres high, with the
fountain set up on a large plinth and decorated with vases and an eagle with outspread wings, the emblem of Poland, set in a niche. The fountain appears to have been
44
The Palace’s history
in working order still in 1776, when two painters, Wawrzyniec Jasieński and Łukasz
Smuglewicz (father of Franciszek, more widely known and associated with the documentation for the paintings in the Domus Aurea in Rome) restored it to its original
glory (Pokora 1993, p. 22, Fig. 11; Sito 2010, pp. 19–20).
Thanks to the latest research we also know that the Prince Voivode ordered another
contraption for the festivities to celebrate the royal name-day. It was installed in the
court of the Radziwiłł (now Presidential) Palace and cost 16,521 Polish złoty – even
more than “Bacchus’ machine” in the forecourt of the Visitandine Church. Apparently its decorations included herm pillars, 800 gilt lanterns (sic!), vases set up on
plinths, and a royal crown (Sito 2010, p. 19). Thus, within two years of Stanisław
August’s election to the throne of Poland-Lithuania, Prince August Aleksander
Czartoryski had got over his disappointment on missing the opportunity of putting
his son Adam Kazimierz on the throne, enough to honour the royal feast-day in a
well-nigh spectacular manner.
Prince August Aleksander Czartoryski, commended by compatriots and foreigners
alike for his civic virtues and hospitality, ended his days in 1782, shortly before his
equally outstanding son-in-law, Stanisław Lubormirski (1721–1783: Fig. 31), today
remembered as a genuine patriot and author of an invaluable memoir on the first
years of the reign of Stanisław August Poniatowski (to 1768; see Lubomirski 1971).
Bereaved within the space of just over a year of her husband, by whom she had had
four daughters, and her father, as well as deprived of their support, Izabela was generously remunerated from their estates, which included not
only the Palace on the Krakowskie Przedmieście,
but also Łańcut Castle and Wilanów Palace
(Fig. 32). Her annual revenues exceeded
those of her erstwhile lover and wouldbe husband, King Stanisław August.
There was something disquieting
about this refined, educated, ad
at the same time whimsical
woman. Perhaps the best descriptions of her character
came from the writer Julian
Ursyn Niemcewicz, and
from her daughter-in-law
Anna Potocka née Tyszkiewicz (Wąsowiczowa
by her second marriage),
who wrote the following in her memoirs,
She was called the Princess Marshal [księżna
marszałkowa]. It would
have been hard to encounter another person with a
Izabela
Lubomirska née
Czartoryska
and her times
Fig. 31. Marcello Bacciarelli, Portrait of Prince
Stanisław Lubomirski, oils on canvas, ca. 1770;
Wilanów Palace Museum
Fig. 32. Alexander Roslin, Portrait of the Princess Marshal Izabela Lubomirska née Czartoryska, before 1781, oils on canvas; Wilanów
Palace Museum
45
Secrets of the Past
Fig. 33. The Doric portico on the CzartoryskiPotocki Palace, 2011
46
character combining such excellent virtues with such unusual vices. She loved neither
her children, and perhaps actually loathed them, nor her country; and out of boredom
constantly changed her place of residence. Alien to everything save for the old traditions
of the French Court, she had a much better knowledge of the age of Louis XIV than of
the events that shook her native land (Memoirs of the Countess Potocka 1901, p. 34).
After the Princess Marshal’s death in Vienna in 1816 Niemcewicz, then a resident
of the Czartoryski-Potocki Palace, recorded the following in his memoirs: On 25th
November news came from Vienna of the death of the Princess Marshal Lubomirska née
Czartoryska, daughter of Prince Czartoryski, Lord Voiviode of Ruthenia, who died in her
eighty-second year. This lady was known for her masculine character, great nobility, sharp
The Palace’s history
reason, rare wit, and pity for the unfortunate; and alongside all those virtues she also had
an inexplicable savagery for her country (Niemcewicz 1871, Vol. 2, p. 311).
For the Princess, Anna continued, Napoleon was a miserable man raised up by favourable circumstances to a status he could not maintain. She avoided talking about him,
and whenever she had to mention the despicable name she would call the Emperor “Little
Buonaparte.” Loyal to the Bourbons, she wore mourning for the Prince d’Enghien and
showered her beneficence on all the émigrés she managed to collect (Memoirs of the Countess Potocka 1901, p. 34). She could not have been pleased to learn in 1807 that one of
Napoleon’s marshals was residing in the Palace she had appointed so lavishly, and that
a reception had been given in it in honour of Napoleon himself.
Notwithstanding her “Bourbon loyalty”, the Princess Marshal, an art lover and
admirer of refined taste, was a proficient observer of the changes ensuing in the culture of the arts. She abandoned Rococo in favour of the fashionable Neo-Classicism.
A good example of this facility of hers is the portico in the Doric style she put up on
Fig. 34. The Golden Room, before 1939
[ca. 1924]; ISPAN
47
Secrets of the Past
POD OPIEKĄ MUZ
Fig. 35. Interior of the Arabesque/Pompeian
Room, 1938; MW
Fig. 36. Interior of the Arabesque/Pompeian
Room, ca. 1924; MNW
20
The Palace’s
Pala
Pala
Pa
lace
ace
c ’ss history
his
isto
isto
tory
ryy
Fig. 37. Interior of the Arabesque/Pompeian
Room, 1938; MW
the central projection of the Palace she had inherited from her father (Fig. 33). The
creator of this development was probably Szymon Bogumił Zug (1733–1807), whose
name appears on the invoices associated with the property as of 1784. Known also
under his German name, Simon Gottlieb Zug, this architect from Saxony who also
worked for the Princess Marshal at the suburban Natolin (then named Bażantarnia,
“the Pheasantry”), pioneered the Doric order in Warsaw (for the portico of the Lutheran Church, 1777). Neo-Classicism was the predominant style in the Palace interiors, for instance in the White Room and the Arabesque Room, the pride of its
interior decoration until the Second World War (Figs. 34–39). A good idea of them is
to be had from extant photographs, such as the ones showing the Golden Room and
the ornamentation of the door frame leading into it from the Arabesque Room. Over
the door there is an eagle with outspread wings, similar to the one on the façade of
the nearby Church of St. Anne (the mid-1780s), in a laurel wreath. The same motif,
modelled on the famous antique relief in the narthex of the Basilica dei Santi Apostoli
in Rome, may also be observed in the decoration of Łańcut Castle. Today, for an idea
of the finesse and artistic class of the Palace’s stuccowork and arabesque decorations
destroyed during the War, you have to see some of the interiors at Łańcut, created on
commission from the Princess Marshal at around this time. The maker of the Łańcut
arabesque decorations was Vincenzo Brenna of Rome, who came to Poland in 1783
with Stanisław Kostka Potocki, Princess Izabela’s son-in-law as of 1776.
49
Secrets
SSe
eccrret
reetts of
of tthe
hee P
h
Past
aasst
st
38. Interior of the Arabesque/Pompeian Room, 1895; MNW
The Palace’s history
Fig. 39. A Centauride and Bacchant; watercolour (copy made ca. 1785 of a detail from a painting
in the Villa of Cicero at Pompeii; after an engraving in Antichità di Ercolano, vol. 1, tab. XXVIII), GR BUW
51
Secrets of the Past
Distinguished
artists,
splendid
palatial
interiors,
and
Pompeian
motifs
The Palace’s account books for 1782–1788 contain the names of numerous artists
employed in it. Alongside Zug and Brenna they list the painters Żebrowski and Richter, the joiner Loch, stonemasons Schopfer and Pimer, and ébénistes Babst, Benke,
Fig. 40. Count Soter Krasicki, Plan of the Hon.
Princess Marshal Lubomirska’s garden,
1783–1794; GR BUW
Fig. 41. Charles Bechon, Portrait of Jan Chrystian Kamsetzer, miniature, 1789; MNW
and Jentsch. We also know that Brenna renovated the statues of Apollo and Venus
in the garden, which was modernised on the basis of Blondel’s and de Neufforge’s
pattern-books. A plan showing the layout of the garden and entitled Plan Ogrodu J.O.
X. Lubomirski Marszałkowej W. Koron. is kept in the Print Room of Warsaw University Library; it gives an idea of the garden’s beauty and size, admired for its large area
(it stretched up to ulica Wierzbowa) and for its fine trees which managed to survive,
despite changes, virtually until the mid-19th century.
52
Thee Palace’s
Th
Pal
Pa
ala
laccee’s’s history
lace
his
isto
isto
t ry
Fig. 42. Jan Chrystian Kamsetzer, Design for interior decoration, ca. 1785; GR BUW
But let’s return now to the interiors, the Princess Marshal’s greatest achievement in
the Palace. As of 1788 another interior designer from Saxony, Jan Chrystian Kamsetzer
(Johann Christian Kammsetzer, 1753–1795), is believed to have worked on them (Figs.
41–42), making the decoration of the vestibule, including its fine fireplace and mantelpiece (Figs. 43–44). Was he the designer of the decoration of the Arabesque Room,
or was it perhaps Brenna or Antonio Tombari? This was the room with the Pompeian
21
Fig. 43. Interior of the vestibule of the Czartoryski-Potocki Palace, with the portraits of King
Stanisław August and Stanisław Kostka Potocki,
ca. 1924; ISPAN
Secrets of the Past
Fig. 44. Marcello Bacciarelli, Portrait of Stanisław
August Poniatowski and the bust of Pius VI, oils
on canvas. A copy of this painting used to hang
in the vestibule of the Palace (see Fig. 43). The
Ciechanowiecki Foundation at the Royal Castle
of Warsaw
Fig. 45. Angelika Kauffmann, Henryk Lubomirski as Cupid, oils on canvas, 1786; Lviv, Lviv
National Art Gallery (Ukraine)
54
motifs extremely fashionable at the time, such as the renowned Centaurs and Centaurides excavated in the Villa of Cicero at Pompeii and disseminated throughout the
world thanks to books, and black-and-white and coloured prints (see Fig. 39). Some
coloured illustrations of them were in the possession of King Stanisław August (and are
now in the Print Room of Warsaw University Library); the famous multi-volume book
on the excavations in the towns around Vesuvius was in the holdings of the Warsaw
library of the Princess’ brother, Adam Kazimierz Czartoryski, who resided in the Blue
Palace (pałac Błękitny). Stanisław Kostka Potocki himself, who visited Pompeii several
times, might have influenced the selection of Pompeian motifs. In the mid-1780s he went
on another expedition to Naples, this time with his mother-in-law, who later had an exquisite Pompeian room arranged in her residence at Łańcut Castle. A Pompeian decoration similar to the Varsovian one was made at Rybienko near Wyszków (Miziołek 2010).
We started our account of the Czartoryski-Potocki Palace with a quotation from
Leon Potocki’s book, in which he mentions Pompeii and even the Villa of Cicero
itself. We shall now supplement it with another worthwhile reference, this time to
the memoirs of Leon Dembowski, a contemporary of Stanisław Kostka Potocki, who
made the following remark on the fashion for Pompeian motifs and the Empire style
elaborated after Napoleon’s coronation in 1804: The French language and French dancing had become ubiquitous, Dembowski observed. A vogue set in for lunches at five o’clock
and dejeuners à la fourchette, previously unknown in Poland. Even the French cuisine was
eclipsing Polish traditional fare, ousting the familiar bigos, barszcz, and kapuśniak. In
furnishings Grecian and Roman paraphernalia became even more widespread than ever.
Tables, chairs, desks, and chaise-longues just could not do without eagles, lion’s paws, and
the like; and tripod legs became indispensable for tables. Herculaneum and Pompeii supplied the patterns and models for everything (Dembowski 1898, Vol. 1, p. 357).
The Princess Marshal’s palace was embellished not only with grotesques and stuccowork, but also with numerous paintings, some of considerable artistic quality. In
1790 two foreigners, Fortia de Piles and Boisgelin de Kerdu, wrote about them, with
particular attention to the works of old, and some contemporary masters. They observed that the apartments were admirable, richly furnished with the most refined taste.
The little rooms were delightful with a substantial number of pictures. There were two
paintings by Vernet from his good period, and another one, but far inferior. There were
two comely landscapes by Lantara; two fine waterfalls by Fidanza; a portrait of the Princess Lubomirska’s son as a little Amor, a charming picture by Madame Lebrun which had
been exhibited in the Salon in 1789. Then there was a small Correggio and Annibale Carracci’s small Pietà in Poussin’s taste. Two fine Watteaus. A small portrait of Don John of
Austria by Holbein – a good work. Five portraits of Madame de Sévigné and her family.
A portrait of Queen Joanna attributed to Titian; the attribution was questionable, but
the picture was very good, with an excellently done robe of red velvet. A marble vase and
other sundry items. A copy of Mithridates’ bronze vase. Several marble busts and statues.
Some bronze busts. A few antiquities, as well as a handful of expensive items, delightful to behold. The small rooms were decorated with pictures by Boucher, whose style had
lately declined very considerably. And there were also some beautiful Japanese porcelain
vases (Polska stanisławowska w oczach cudzoziemców, Vol. 2, p. 692). We may add that
many of these paintings, some with different attributions, have come down to our
times; some were sent to Łańcut, others to Lwów, and especially to Wilanów, where
they can still be admired (Fig. 45). The works of art which were inscribed into the
Palace’s aura – to use Walter Benjamin’s famous concept (expressed in The Work of Art
The Palace’s history
in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction) included the painting of Henryk Lubomirski
as Cupid by the renowned artist Élizabeth Vigée Lebrun (Fig. 46), and a copy of The
Guardian Angel, slightly smaller than the original, by the early 17th-century Italian
artist Domenico Zampieri known as Domenichino (Fig. 47). Incidentally, the Warsaw replica has a special value, as it shows the full original composition, while the
prototype, currently housed in the Museo di Capodimonte in Naples, has lost the
top of the painting, a presentation of the Holy Trinity (L’ idea del bello 2000, p. 330).
And here is Anna Potocka’s recollection of the Palace’s interiors: Between my motherin-law’s floor and the ground floor, which accommodated a grand apartment I had vacated for Prince Murat, there was a small apartment on the mezzanine, which the Princess
Lubomirska had appointed . . . . This miniature apartment, furnished and adorned in
an extremely refined manner, apparently reproduced the style of what was known in that
distant age as les petites maisons. My mother-in-law (Aleksandra Potocka née Lubomirska) only used it when it was very cold, as thanks to a concealed staircase these small rooms
afforded a well heated, cosy passage from one apartment to the other. This charming little
nook was treated as belonging to the grand apartment, thus the key to it was entrusted
to Prince Murat’s servants when he came to stay at the Palace, and thereafter no-one else
looked after it (Memoirs of the Countess Potocka 1901, p. 81). Thus our account of the
Palace in the Princess Marshal’s times has moved on to the Napoleonic age and the
turn of the centuries, when its proprietors were that distinguished couple, Stanisław
Kostka and Aleksandra. In 1799 the property hitherto in the hands of the Czartoryski passed down to the Potocki, who owned it until the Second World War.
Fig. 46. Elisabeth-Louise Vigée Lebrun, Portrait of Henryk Lubomirski as the genius of
fame; oils on oak board, 1789; Berlin, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin
Fig. 47. Domenico Zampieri (Domenichino),
“The Guardian Angel”, workshop version,
slightly smaller than the original, oils on canvas, early 17th c.; Wilanów Palace Museum
55
Secrets of the Past
The happy
couple,
Stanisław
Kostka
Potocki
and his wife
Aleksandra
Fig. 48. Pompeo Batoni, Aleksandra Potocka
née Lubomirska (the wife of Stanisław Kostka)
as Melpomene, oils on canvas, 1780; Wilanów
Palace Museum
56
It often happens that notwithstanding their great merit, some individuals stand in
the shadow of their spouses or siblings. Sometimes a distinguished lady may overshadow her no less outstanding husband. That was the case with Adam Kazimierz
Czartoryski, the Princess Marshal’s brother, who is far less widely known than his
wife Izabela Czartoryska née Fleming. Aleksandra Potocka née Lubomirska was one
of the most eminent individuals associated with the Palace (Fig. 48), and we shall be
mentioning her quite often. This noble character is somewhat obscured by her renowned husband, Stanisław Kostka Potocki, who nonetheless appreciated the merits
of his consort. And he expressed his appreciation in the most elegant terms, as befitted a Classicist, in the introduction to his historic book, Winkelman polski, the first
history of art written in Polish, and published in 1815. His words might be Englished
in this way: Yours is this Work, for without You it would never have come into Existence.
Dedicating it to You, I would fain have it an Eternal Memorial of my gratitude worthy
The Palace’s history
Fig. 49. Jacques-Louis David, Portrait of
Stanisław Kostka Potocki on horseback, oils
on canvas, 1781; Wilanów Palace Museum
of You. But as my self-love does not delude me so much as to make me trust in the reality of my wish, out of the Goodness proper to Your Heart deign to receive the intention in
lieu of the outcome. I believe I have given more than sufficient justification of the Causes
which have brought me to dedicate this Work to You, Dear Wife; yet it behoves me not
to pass over in silence those which Your Love of the Arts and familiarity with them make
equally important with regard to this Work. For many years sharing with me a captivating propensity for the Arts, by Nature endowed of an exquisite Taste, You have acquired
a Sensibility which, thanks to Your Experience and, if I may say, Perpetual Abiding with
the Arts, and Sense of Beauty, is rare not only in Your own, but also in our sex. Therefore
for this reason I see no other Person worthier than You of the honouring in the dedication
of this Work on Art, for none other do I know whose Judgement on Art is more apposite
than Yours (Potocki 1815/1992, Vol. 1, pp. 3–4).
This singular hymn of love, composed at the origins of Polish art history, may have
been instigated not only by the writer’s authentic emotions, but also by the fact that
notwithstanding his education and brilliant wit, Count Potocki owed his wealth solely
to his wife. It was no doubt thanks to her financial resources that he was able so often
to sojourn in Italy, engaging in archaeological excavations, collecting works of art,
commissioning paintings from artists as eminent as Jacques-Louis David (Fig. 49)
and Pompeo Batoni (Fig. 50), undertaking to reconstruct on paper the famous villa
of Pliny the Younger near Rome and laying the foundations for the Musaeum Polonicum (Miziołek 2010a). In 1805 he and Aleksandra opened up Wilanów Palace
57
Secrets of the Past
II
The Palace’s history
Marcello Bacciarelli, Izabela Lubomirska, 1770s, oils on canvas,
Wilanów Palace Museum
Princess Izabela Lubomirska née Czartoryska (1736–1816), daughter of August
Aleksander Czartoryski and Maria Zofia née Sieniawska, was one of the most distinguished Polish ladies of the Rococo and Early Enlightenment periods. She was
called the Blue Marquise on account of the blue crinoline gowns she wore; she is
also presented in blue in this portrait. In her youth she was an affectionate friend of
her cousin Stanisław Poniatowski, but after his accession to the throne her friendship changed into dislike, and even hostility. In 1735 she was given in marriage to
Stanisław Lubomirski, Lord Grand Marshal of Poland, by whom she had four daughters, Izabela (Elżbieta), Aleksandra, Konstancja, and Julia; her palace at No. 15 on the
Krakowskie Przedmieście passed down to Aleksandra, her second daughter.
This portrait, which is kept in Wilanów Palace, is one of Bacciarelli’s best works
and, as many specialists have observed, is the quintessence of the Rococo, expressed
both in the subject’s attire as well as in the slightly diffuse background and above all
in its delicate pastel colour-scheme derived from the work of Antoine Watteau and his
imitators, and the world of the images of Madame Pompadour. However, the nearest
analogy to this presentation of the Blue Marquise comes from English rather than
French art, particularly the work of Thomas Gainsborough. An especially close counterpart is a Gainsborough in the Hermitage collection in St. Petersburg, which some
specialists have identified as a portrait of the Duchess of Beaufort. In both we see
a similar predilection for blue; a tall, powdered hairstyle; a carefully studied pose, and
a subtle charm with a hint of exaltation which in the Gainsborough has a touch more
of dreaminess about it. Commentators have noted that Princess Izabela is dressed in
accordance with the French fashion, although this type of apparel comes from England (Gutowski 2010, p. 110). Could Bacciarelli have known Gainsborough’s painting? It’s likely, especially if we consider the special fascination the Czartoryski family
had for England. Adam Kazimierz Czartoryski, the Princess Marshal’s brother, was
sent to England already in 1757. Both canvases were made at about the same time,
though Bacciarelli put an earlier date on his work, 1757, as if wanting to honour the
subject’s marriage to Stanisław Lubomirski, which had actually taken place a few
years earlier. This would fit in very well with a few of the details in the painting – the
pet dog as a symbol of fidelity, and the orange blossom which the Blue Marquise
holds in the fingers of her left hand, a symbol of love and the heart.
The Princess Marshal, as she used to be called, travelled a lot and finally settled
in Vienna, where she spent the rest of her life. In 1785 she had been involved in the
Dogrumowa Affair (a plot to assassinate King Stanisław August), and after losing her
case in court left Poland for a long time. Was she really as indifferent to Polish affairs
as she is often alleged to have been? She was certainly concerned for her estates and
residences, such as the Palace on the Krakowskie Przedmieście, Wilanów Palace, and
Łańcut Castle. She had Łańcut completely redecorated, installing a sculpture gallery
and a Pompeian Room. She purchased many works of art abroad, sometimes assisted
by her son-in-law Stanisław Kostka Potocki. Prior to destruction during the Second
World War the interiors of the edifice now housing the Ministry of Culture and
National Heritage offered an example of her sophisticated taste.
Izabela
Lubomirska
59
Secrets of the Past
Fig. 50. Pompeo Batoni, Apollo and two Muses, Euterpe and Urania, replica, oils on canvas,
after 1741; Wilanów Palace Museum
Stanisław
Kostka and
Aleksandra
depicted
in words and
pictures
60
to the public. No doubt he had her support, too, for his project to establish a museum
of the fine arts in Warsaw, much of which he managed to accomplish on the premises
of Warsaw University in 1808–1820. His high esteem for his wife’s knowledge of the
arts is reflected in the final part of the above-cited dedication, in which he related an
incident that occurred in Vienna, the city where their love started in 1775.
We feel that in a book on the history of the Palace where today the key decisions on
Poland’s art and many aspects of its culture are being made it will be right to quote this
final part of the dedication, or rather a sort of appendix to it: It befits not a husband to
flatter his wife, therefore let me cite just one example to show that I am no flatterer. One day
during a stay in Vienna we visited the Imperial Exhibition Hall for engraved gemstones. The
learned Heckel was showing us round, giving a full account, all the more enthusiastically
when he noticed that we were no strangers to this branch of the arts. After he had shown us
many other stones he handed my wife – if I remember rightly – an engraved carnelian, asking her to peruse it. Having examined it carefully, she passed it to me, saying in Polish that
it did not look ancient to her, but seemed to be the work of Pichler, a well-known German
who lived in Rome. She did not mention his name, so as not to betray even the slightest hint
of her misgivings. I cast an eye on it and nodded to indicate my concurrence. Heckel, who
had been watching us carefully, started to urge me to disclose my wife’s opinion on the stone;
finally I satisfied his curiosity. He was astonished and said that the lady was the most conversant expert he had ever seen. For a long time, he continued, the stone had been regarded by
the exhibition hall’s staff as antique, until they were cured of their error by Pichler himself,
who was passing through Vienna and recognised his handiwork. Heckel was so impressed by
the accuracy of my wife’s judgement that when he met me a few years later he still recalled
the incident and his surprise (Potocki 1815/1992, Vol. 1, p. 5).
We shall return to Aleksandra Potocka in the next chapter; now we shall turn to the
portraits of her and her husband, whose work is still not sufficiently widely known,
despite his enormous merit for his country, as well as the arts and sciences. Perhaps
the finest portrait of Aleksandra was done by Batoni in Rome in 1780, showing her
as Melpomene with a theatre mask on a chain round her neck (Fig. 48). It is part of a
diptych, the other half of which shows her sister Izabela Elżbieta as Polyhymnia, and is
now preserved in Wilanów Palace, although originally it must certainly have hung in
our Palace. These two of the Princess Marshal’s daughters were also painted by Carlo
Labruzzi during an excursion in the environs of Rome (Grand Tour 2006, pp. 100 and
112). While Izabela Elżbieta was definitely a beauty, Aleksandra was not exceptionally
good-looking, but instead she was much happier in life. Her aquiline nose, slightly protruding cheekbones, and small mouth endowed her with a certain nobility; moreover,
in her eyes we can discern a strong character and a certain kind of noble gravity. She
was definitely one of those women who are denied the charms of stunning beauty but
are able to create and sustain an excellent domestic atmosphere as mistress of the house
and a companion supporting their husband in his sundry activities and enterprises.
When Stanisław Kostka died, Aleksandra, as if in memory of his great love of Italy,
went on another tour of that country which they both loved so much. Grief-stricken
when the November Uprising of 1830 fell, she left for Kraków and died there soon afterwards, but had not failed to ask to be buried next to her beloved husband. We know
Stanisław Kostka from his numerous, oft-described portraits, the best of which were
The Palace’s history
Secrets of the Past
Fig. 51. Antoni Blank, Portrait of Stanisław
Kostka Potocki, oils on canvas, ca. 1815;
Wilanów Palace Museum
62
painted by Jacques-Louis David and Anton Graff. Both canvasses show him radiant
with the optimism, joy of life, finesse, and elegance characteristic of the Age of Reason
(Ryszkiewicz 1963). Incidentally, the portrait by David, presenting Stanislaw Kostka
mounted on a fine steed, was commended at the 1781 exhibition in the renowned Parisian Salon. Graff ’s portrait was made in 1785 in Karlsbad, where Count Potocki met
Johann Wolfgang Goethe (Majewska-Maszkowska, Jaroszewski 1968).
One of the most interesting – and at the same time rarely cited – characteristics
of the appearance and opinions of the learned Count was written by his eccentric
daughter-in-law, Anna Potocka née Tyszkiewicz (and Wąsowiczowa by her second
marriage), to whom we have already referred several times. In her memoirs written
just before the mid-19th century, she gave the following description: In that era, so
rich in men of profound minds and brave hearts, the count was one of the greatest. His
brother Ignacy and the count himself profoundly contributed to the making of the 3rd May
Constitution and both were victims of their devotion to the cause; in punishment for the
noble impulse of their hearts, which had them strive for the freedom and independence of
their native land, each was locked in the dungeons, one in Russia, the other in Austria, in
Spielberg. It is very rarely that one sees two brothers so richly gifted by Nature; in addition
to the pleasantest aspect possible, each had an elevated mind, an education to match, and
an astoundingly good memory; they constantly frequented the best salons, yet they knew
everything and had time for everything. Count Stanisław, moreover, possessed a knowledge
of the fine arts I have never encountered in any other art lover. To him we owe some very
interesting research in that field, and some important scholarly studies (the generally known
translation of Winckelmann’s great volume among them). Being in love with his studies,
he found relaxation after his labours in supervising the work of artists and men of letters,
to whom he generously gave his protection. In whomever a budding talent or a youthful inspiration blossomed, they could always count on his helpful advice and material
support. Under the influence of his repeated Italian journeys he developed that noble
adoration of beauty which is Nature’s gift she so rarely grants, and which can be
likened to an additional sense. Often did I look at him in wonderment, thinking
of the enormous amount of knowledge one man could amass, never forgetting one
iota of it. He was an excellent Latinist: often did I hear him reciting whole books
of Virgil, which he knew by heart, translating them freely and easily as he spoke.
And when among those fond memories of my youth there springs the image of
a splendid salon, I always see my father-in-law in it, with equal ease discussing the latest fashionable romance, governmental reforms, political affairs,
designs of public buildings, the composition of a painting or an old friend’s
personal matters. Invariably polite and amiable, he was always ready to listen
to everyone who desired his advice. – Memoirs of the Countess Potocka 1901,
pp. 26-27.
Visitors to the delightful grounds of the Museum at Wilanów Palace will
encounter a beautiful and at the same time magnificent memorial to the
pioneer of Polish archaeology and art history, installed on one of the drives.
It is a marble replica of the famous sarcophagus discovered in the Scipio
Mausoleum in Rome, now exhibited in the Vatican Museums. Founded by
Aleksandra Potocka, this monument once embellished Gucin (known also
as Gaj), the remains of which are located near Służew. Several decades ago, as
Gucin was becoming more and more dilapidated, the sarcophagus was moved
to Wilanów. The inscription engraved on it may be rendered as
The Palace’s history
TO STANISŁAW KOSTKA COUNT POTOCKI, CHAIRMAN OF THE
SENATE OF THE KINGDOM OF POLAND, IN THE PLACE HE FOUNDED AND DECORATED, AND WHERE IN HIS LONG AND GRAVE SUFFERING HE LIKED TO SEEK COMFORT AND RELIEF, HIS WIFE ALEXANDRA POTOCKA NÉE LUBOMIRSKA ERECTED THIS MONUMENT,
IN GRATITUDE FOR FORTY-FIVE YEARS OF SWEET AND HAPPY
MARRIED LIFE. GUCIN, ON THE FOURTEENTH OF SEPTEMBER 1821
Stanislaw Kostka and his wife Aleksandra, who was probably the Princess Marshal’s favourite daughter, were the ones who inherited the Palace in hard times for
Warsaw. Following the Third Partition of Poland in 1795 the city fell into the hands
of the Prussians and suffered very substantial impoverishment; it was degraded from
the status of capital city to that of a provincial town. Fryderyk Skarbek described its
condition in his memoirs, writing that he had never been to Herculaneum and Pompeii,
but he could imagine them on visiting Warsaw under Prussian rule and seeing the edifices
in which the nation’s life had once been concentrated, the houses which had been the domain of the upper strata of Polish society. Now those houses stood in gloomy silence amid
the noise of the streets. The entrance gates into their courts were either strewn with refuse or
cluttered up with ungainly street stalls. When one passed through a half-rotten wicket-gate
and entered into one of these courts one seemed to have crossed the threshold beyond which
there stretched a dead city, a city of the past and its recollections, the Polish Herculaneum
(Skarbek 1959, p. 101). We should add that right until the 1820s the access roads to
Herculaneum led through tunnels gouged out in the lava, hence Herculaneum appeared to be an “underground city.” Excavating Pompeii, which had been covered
with ash and pumice-stone, was much simpler, but evidently Skarbek was not aware
of this, since as he wrote, he had never been to the Vesuvian cities.
The situation in Warsaw changed dramatically on the arrival of the Napoleonic army
in late 1806. Stanisław Kostka’s daughter-in-law recorded the tremendous eruption of
joy, describing the festivities. Tables laden with fare were set up even in the streets and
squares. Many a toast was raised to the forthcoming independence, to the valiant army, to the
great Napoleon!... People embraced each other and fraternised, carousing, maybe a bit too
much, for there were a few incidents of soldierly licence, which led to a temporary attenuation in the warm enthusiasm of the welcome (Memoirs of the Countess Potocka 1901, p. 63).
Skarbek seconded her account, describing the extraordinary atmosphere of those times
in his memorable book on the history of the Duchy of Warsaw: In those days the chief
feature of the Nation’s life was its purely civic, noble spirit, free of all personal incentive, determined by the good of the country and offering it all the moral and material sacrifices that
only a good citizen may give his country. For this reason the history of the few years of the
Duchy’s existence presented an example of general civic commitment so rare in the history of
mankind, and manifested with a fullness of heart which may perhaps be matched only by
the relations between virtuous children and their parents (Skarbek, 1860, Vol. 1, p. VIII).
The inevitable inference to be drawn from Skarbek’s observation is that the Polish
people of the time were capable of singular sacrifice and collective effort for the common good – just as they had been many times before and would often be again in
the future. But the Polish people of those times, especially the young, also knew how
to express their emotions enjoying themselves at numerous social events and balls.
The Polish
Herculaneum,
Warsaw’s
Revival, and
A Specification
of Rooms
63
Secrets of the Past
Fig. 52. Antoni Brodowski, Portrait of Julian
Ursyn Niemcewicz, oils on canvas, 1820;
Wilanów Palace Museum
64
Skarbek, who happened to be the godfather of Fryderyk Chopin, observed the phenomenon and noted in his memoirs that the young people, who had been in their childhood at the time of Poland’s final dismemberment and therefore had not been cognizant
of the magnitude of the tragedy, were now entering into the world of public pleasure and
wanted their parents to arrange entertainments and the delights of social life for them. The
long repressed desire of good cheer revived, and the houses of Warsaw started to hold athomes for educated company. Some of the young girls and married ladies who appeared
at these social gatherings were acknowledged for their beauty, and courted and paid
tribute to by handsome young men (Skarbek 1959, p. 129).
But let us move on to yet another inventory, this time drawn up for the Palace under
the supervision of Dominik Cellary, administrator of the estates of Stanisław Potocki
and his wife.
“The inventory compiled in January 1800 for the Palace in Warsaw and given to
Mr. Inklewicz the steward of the said Palace for safe-keeping” was written in simple,
“technical” language, and contained information of the following kind: Brickwork
Palace comprising a ground floor and an upper storey, with mezzanines; under a tiled
roof. / Brickwork pavilion connected with the Palace. / Brickwork corps de garde with
mezzanines and a tiled roof, flanked by a pair of gates. / Second pavilion, not connected
with the Palace, with an upper storey, a tiled roof, and a subsidiary wing on the Krakowskie Przedmieście street-side; leading to an adjoining food storage building. / Brickwork wing with two upper floors and mezzanines, under a tiled roof, on the Krakowskie
Przedmieście street- side, and joined on to a long wing on the Trębacka street-side. / Long
brickwork wing with an upper floor and a tiled roof on the Trębacka side, joined on to the
The Palace’s history
wing on the Krakowskie Przedmieście side. / Brickwork wing with an upper floor and a
tiled roof, accommodating Mr. Komar’s lodgings; at the back with an adjoining smaller
wing holding the lodgings of Mrs. Wentzlowa. / Brickwork stable under a tiled roof, with
an annex at the back./ Brickwork cold store with a tiled roof. / Wood storage shed. / Wooden storage and firewood sheds (Kwiatkowska and Malinowska 1976, p. 62).
In the second part of the inventory we get “A Specification of Rooms, Premises, Stables, Coach-Houses, Heating-Stoves and Chimneys,” with information on the state of
the diverse rooms. We also learn that a few rooms were let to tenants. The Specification
lists the rooms on the ground floor, starting from the south, including the Yellow Room,
the Little Room known as the Capuchin, the Celadon Room at the end, the wire Birdhouse
above, the Small Library with two cabinets fitted with mirrors, the Erabesco Bedroom with
a marble fireplace and a mahogany door, the Yellow Cabinet, the gilded Room [meaning most
probably the Golden Room] with a marble fireplace and mahogany door; the Erabesco Reception Room (later referred to as the Arabesque Room), and finally the White Room with two
stuccowork heating stoves. The principal room on the north side was the Dining Hall fitted
with two Stuccowork Heating Stoves, and a copper-plated stone chimney; along with several
not so ornamented utility rooms. The former mezzanine apartment on the Czysta streetside comprised a small corridor with walls upholstered with bands of embroidered fabric,
the Little Erabesco Room with a wire fireplace fender, the Reception Room, with walls upholstered with white satin and Friezes; and finally three studies, one of which neighboured
on the renowned Bird House set in the Rock and fitted with Mirrors; the second, known
as the Dark Study, had a cabinet set in a frame; and the third had its walls decorated
with satin. A stone staircase with a handrail set on an iron trellis led upstairs (Kwiatkowska
and Malinowska 1976, p. 63).
The “Specification of Rooms” also tells us that the ground floor in the main body
of the Palace, and the mezzanines and upper storey facing the Czysta accommodated
the residential quarters of the Honourable Sobolewski, most probably Walenty or
Ignacy, both of whom were members of the government under the Duchy of Warsaw
(1807–1815) and later under the Congress Kingdom of Poland (1815–1832). Alongside all the minor entrance halls and vestibules in Sobolewski’s apartment, the more
noteworthy rooms included the painted Erabesco Bedroom which had Glass Panels on
the walls and two doors with four Panels of Mirrors, the vaulted Celadon Study, the
Recreation Room with a door fitted with mirrors, a Pale Green Room decorated with
Festoons, the Yellow Room with Ornamental Bands, the Celadon Wallpapered Room, the
Room with Green and White Bands, the Room with walls painted yellow, and the Small
Wardrobe with a glass door.
Later the Palace, or rather its wings, also provided accommodation for other residents, such as the poet and playwright Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz (Fig. 52) and, in
Congress Kingdom times, Nikolai Novosiltsov, the hated tsarist official who earned
a deprecatory mention in Mickiewicz’s Forefather’s Eve. Fortunately the latter did not stay
long in the Palace. Another notable personage resident in the south wing “adjoining the
main body of the Palace” already in 1800 was Zygmunt Vogel (1764–1826), erstwhile
court painter to King Stanisław August and later art master at the Liceum school and
professor of drawing in the Fine Arts Department at the University. At the Liceum he was
Chopin’s tutor for drawing, a skill the composer continued to cultivate well-nigh to the
end of his life. After some time Vogel moved to one of the wings of the Czapski-Krasiński
Palace, which was located directly opposite the main gate of the University. The Specification of Rooms also tells us that Mr. Zygmund Vogiel (sic) had a study and two rooms with a
65
Secrets of the Past
wardrobe set in a frame, and furnishings listed in a separate inventory (Sroczyńska 1969). The
north wing provided residential quarters for the Palace’s administrative staff, including the
already-mentioned Cellary. It also accommodated the kitchens.
Stanisław
Kostka’s
study and
library
Fig. 53. The Wilanów Library in the Palace of
the Republic of Poland: the Special Collections of the National Library. Reproduction by
courtesy of the National Library of Poland
66
Except for the coat of arms on the tympanum, nothing changed on the Palace’s
exterior when it passed into the hands of Stanisław Potocki and his wife. On the
other hand, the interiors of the former Czartoryski residence were renovated and acquired new furniture, and some of its rooms, such as the library, were redecorated in
the spirit of the times in the Empire style. These changes were done in 1800–1806,
but they did not involve any major transformations, as the Palace had already had
a Classicist conversion, brought in by its previous proprietress with a contribution
from her daughter and son-in-law. Sobolewski had probably moved out by this time,
and Count Stanisław Kostka turned the rooms he had vacated into premises for his
scholarly pursuits. In the rooms on the ground floor, now housing the offices of the
Minister of Culture and his deputy ministers, the learned Count drew up the Constitution of the Congress Kingdom of Poland.
In 1815 Niemcewicz recorded in his diary that the long forgotten Voivode Stanisław
Potocki was summoned, and in his house there were frequent meetings going on into the
late hours of the night on amendments to the constitution (Niemcewicz 1871, Vol. 2,
p. 259). Potocki must have written most of his book on the history of art in the
premises now used by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage. Another
of his scholarly achievements presumably created here was his multi-volume work
O wymowie i stylu (On Eloquence and Style). Fryderyk Chopin owned a copy, which
is now in the Czartoryski Library in Kraków (Miziołek and Kowalski 2010, p. 94).
The young composer must have known the Count, who often visited the Warsaw
Liceum and the University by his capacity as Minister of Public Education. In 1817–
1827 Chopin was a student in turn of both institutions, moreover he lived in accommodation on their premises. He almost certainly gave concerts in the Potocki Palace,
though probably after Stanisław Kostka’s sudden death in September 1821.
What do we know about the interiors in which the Count wrote his books and
papers, and drew up his projects for the University of Warsaw and Museum of Fine
Arts? Documents from the period and pre-1939 photographs prove helpful. The
apartment used by the master of the house consisted of an antechamber, a reception
room for entertaining company, a bedroom and, apparently, three studies. All of
these rooms were newly painted and fastidiously redecorated. The walls were wainscoted, and muslin curtains put up in the windows. The furniture – sofas, chairs, and
settees – were re-upholstered to match the colour scheme of the walls and curtains.
In the bedroom the old painted ceiling and fireplace made with imitation marble and
stuccowork were left, but Princess Lubomirska’s white bed was removed and replaced
with a bed brought in from Wilanów Palace, which was another of Stanisław and
Aleksandra’s properties. One of the rooms, which Potocki called his Grand Stuccowork Study and held a number of statues, had its walls lined with glass cabinets
and low cupboards holding files of drawings, which were later moved to Wilanów
and eventually in the 1930s, along with the entire Wilanów Library, to the National
Library, where they have happily come down to our times. The files of drawings contain Potocki’s invaluable reconstruction of the Villa of Pliny the Younger, and the
The Palace’s history
equally inestimable sketches presenting his original idea for a fine arts museum in
Warsaw (Miziołek 2007). Today only a handful of researchers are familiar with the
ambitious design which Potocki and his accomplished draughtsmen committed to
paper around 1780, when he was still a young man. With its five thousand books and
magnificent collection of drawings now in the Krasiński Palace, the Wilanów library
is unique in its class for Poland, giving us a fair idea of what the Count’s library was
like at Number 15 on the Krakowskie Przedmieście under the Duchy of Warsaw and
the first years of the Congress Kingdom (Rudnicka 1967, Fig. 53).
Alas, the revival of Warsaw Skarbek had written about was short-lived. The hopes
pinned on Napoleon soon faded, and in 1815 a Kingdom of Poland, generally known
as the Congress Kingdom, was established in place of the Napoleonic Duchy of Warsaw. Until his death in 1825 Alexander I, Tsar of Russia and “King of Poland”, acted
as the guarantor of that unilateral Polish-Russian “union”. On the succession of his
brother Nicholas I, who turned out to be a despot, the constitution Alexander had
granted the Congress Kingdom was constantly being infringed, which eventually triggered the outbreak of the November Uprising of 1830. While Alexander I, who had
been a fairly frequent visitor at the Potocki Palace, used to say that Warsaw should be
made as beautiful as a jewel and indeed did a lot to turn it into un bijou (see Niemcewicz 1871, Vol. 2,p. 307), Tsar Nicholas did not trouble to hide his indifference and
treated Warsaw like a provincial town. Natalia Kicka made a record in her memoirs
of an incident in May 1830, when the Tsar told one of the ambassadors that officially
he only received diplomatic missions in St. Petersburg. He added words of great consequence: that although he bore the title of King of Poland, the Kingdom of Poland was
(for him) equal in status to the principalities of the nomadic tribes of Asia whose armorial
bearings were spread out on the wings of the Double-Headed Eagle (Kicka 1972, p. 176).
A few months later the Uprising broke out, followed by a couple of victories and
eventually defeat. On 7th September 1831 Russian troops under Field-Marshal Ivan
Paskevich took Warsaw and on the following day the act of capitulation was signed
(although the last of the Polish forces did not surrender until 23rd September). The
city was submitted to the most severe repressive measures. Paskevich was appointed
Prince of Warsaw and Governor of the Kingdom of Poland. He moved into the Governor’s (now the Presidential) Palace, opposite the Czartoryski-Potocki Palace. Ravaged by the war, the tiny Kingdom of Poland was made to pay a tribute amounting
to twenty million roubles (equivalent to approximately a hundred and twenty-four
million Polish złoty in the contemporary currency).
As we have already said, after the sudden death of Count Stanisław Kostka in 1821 his
wife Aleksandra left for a fairly long stay in Italy, the country she and her husband had
treated almost as a second homeland. In 1831, after the fall of the November Uprising,
she left Warsaw for Kraków, where, grief-stricken like many other patriotic women who
may be called the Mothers of Poland, she died shortly (see Łętowski 1952, p. 144). The
Palace was inherited by the only son of Stanisław and Aleksandra, Aleksander Potocki
(1778–1845), who does not seem to have cared very much for it. His two unhappy marriages, first to Anna née Tyszkiewicz, to whose memoirs we have often been referring,
and secondly to Izabella Mostowska, who was thirty years younger than he, could well
have exerted an influence on his attitude to his parents’ residence. Aleksander, to whom
The times of
Stanisław and
Aleksandra’s
son and
grandchildren
“The city [Warsaw] is of great extent, but with
its decayed grandeur and the horrible memories it calls up at every turn, it makes a mournful impression. In the last century, next to
Paris, it was the most brilliant city in Europe;
now it is a Russian provincial town. It then had
the character of prodigal splendour; now it
is a forlorn, neglected place, which declines
more and more every day, not the least thing
being done by the authorities for its appearance and improvement. It cuts one to the
heart to see the wretchedly paved streets, or
the terrible old sandstone figures in the Saxon
garden, on coming from a luxurious city like
Vienna, or one which has blossomed out with
such rapidity as Berlin”
George Brandes, Poland. A Study of the Land,
People and Literature, London 1903, p. 11
67
Secrets of the Past
POD OPIEKĄ MUZ
Fig. 54. Aleksander Kokular, Portrait of Aleksander Potocki, son of Stanisław Kostka, oils
on canvas, ca. 1830; Wilanów Palace Museum
20
The Palace’s history
Fig. 55. Johann Ender, Portrait of Natalia Sanguszkowa née Potocka, daughter of Aleksander Potocki, oils on canvas, 1829; Wilanów
Palace Museum
we owe a variety of undertakings in the sphere of patronage as well as the organisation
of his father’s collection of books and drawings, was blemished by a certain character
defect and a spiritual restlessness, perhaps due to the political situation (Bąbiak 2010,
pp. 544–552; Fig. 54). He had first held the office of chamberlain to Napoleon, and
thereafter, as of 1824, of senator and castellan of the Congress Kingdom. He was not
involved in the November Uprising, serving neither in the combat nor in the deliberations of the insurrectionist parliament, and in 1831 was struck off the list of senators
for this default. It was probably due to this “neutrality”, but also to his genuine love of
horses, that he was appointed court equerry to Tsar Nicholas I.
In his youth Aleksander Potocki, the beloved only son of distinguished art lovers,
used to travel to Italy with his parents, and later continued the custom on his own, recording a series of noteworthy observations on the architecture, sculptures, and paintings he saw. He certainly deserves the attention of art historians and museologists. His
daughter Natalia (1810–1830) by his first wife, Anna née Tyszkiewicz, was one of the
most beautiful Polish ladies of her time and was married to Prince Roman Sanguszko.
Andrzej Edward Koźmian, son of the more widely known writer Kajetan, wrote of
her that she had the features of an ancient Greek sculpture; her complexion was as smooth
and as white as marble, but her mouth and the expression on her face betrayed a somewhat
disdainful pride which depleted the charm with which her youth and beauty should have
endowed her. Anyone who saw her could imagine he was beholding a dethroned queen,
who regarded everyone as rebellious subjects (Koźmian 1867, Vol. 1, p. 361). Today, this
all too prematurely deceased belle has a monument at Natolin and a marble memorial
69
Secrets of the Past
plaque in Queen Sophia’s Chapel at Wawel Cathedral. Along with Maria Walewska
and Zofia Czartoryska née Zamoyska, Natalia Sanguszkowa née Potocka is one of the
retinue of beautiful ladies who lived in or visited the Czartoryski-Potocki Palace worth
recalling when we visit Number 15 on the Krakowskie Przedmieście.
We shall now return to Aleksander Potocki’s second marriage, which Koźmian also
mentions in his memoirs in a passage presenting something like a catalogue of the
most beautiful Polish ladies of his times. According to Koźmian, of all the young
Fig. 56. Design for the arrangement of Aleksander Potocki’s study, ca. 1820, pencil drawing; BNW
70
married women Izabella Mostowska was the youngest, and probably also the fairest, when
at sixteen she married the nearly quinquagenarian Aleksander Potocki. She was a rosecoloured dawn rising from the Ocean. The freshness and brilliance of her beauty were unparalleled. This marriage, so inappropriate due to the age difference, was contracted to the
great displeasure of Mrs. Potocka and Niemcewicz, the contentment of the bride’s mother,
and the indifference of her father (Koźmian 1867, Vol. 1, p. 309). A son, Stanisław,
was born of the union, and he was the one, not his much older half-brother August,
born to Aleksander by his first wife, who in 1845 at the age of seventeen inherited the
Palace, which already in his father’s times was transforming from an aristocratic residence into a property to let for a sizeable revenue. Aleksander had kept the first-floor
apartment in the main building for himself (Fig. 56), and let the remaining premises.
This practice continued almost to the end of the century, also when a new Potocki
line took over the property in 1886.
Balls and exhibitions were held in virtually the whole of the Palace, giving the people of Warsaw a chance to see the world and the progress made in it as presented in the
The Palace’s history
modern forms of visualisation. An announcement published in Kurier Warszawski in
September 1839 enthused that the Varsovian public could now travel around the world
without leaving their chairs, moreover faster than by train or in a balloon. Anyone who
doubted the truth of this news should see Mrs. Henning’s panorama in the newly opened
exhibition halls in the Potocki Palace on the Krakowskie Przedmieście. . . . Spectators
could gaze for a long time at the view of the Dardanelles, the shimmering water and the
boats that seemed to glide over it, with unfathomed expanses of the ocean in the distance,
as if fleeing from the embrace of the wide-open arms of the mountains coming down to the
shore – it had all been assiduously done. You could spend several hours most enjoyably in
these exhibition rooms. On 3rd February 1835 the same newspaper informed its readers
that 250 contented guests had been entertained most agreeably at a ball organised by a
group of friends at No. 415 (the Potocki Palace).
There were shops in the wing facing ulica Czysta (now Ossolińskich). In 1857 Gebethner and Wolff ’s bookshop was installed in the pavilion on the corner of the Czysta and
Krakowskie Przedmieście, and stayed there until the Second World War (Figs. 57–59).
Fig. 57. The Corpus Christi procession on the
Krakowskie Przedmieście and Czysta street
corner, 30th May 1861
71
Secrets of the Past
The Palace’s history
SSecrets
Se
ccrretts of
of tthe
he P
Past
astt
as
Fig. 58. Gebethner and Wolff’s bookshop on
the Krakowskie Przedmieście, May 1933; NAC
74
POD
PO
OD OP
O
OPIEKĄ
IEKĄ
IE
KĄ M
MUZ
UZ
UZ
A quarter of a century later the Palace apparently experienced its “utter downfall”:
its court was let to Gracjan Unger, who in 1881 put up a large pavilion designed
by Leandro Marconi and designated for art exhibitions. It was here that Varsovians
could see Jan Matejko’s large paintings, such as “The Battle of Grunwald” and “The
Prussian Homage”. In fact the “downfall” brought about an extraordinary cultural
upsurge: for nearly 15 years crowds of art lovers, and occasionally of sensation seekers,
flocked to “Unger’s shed”, as it was labelled maliciously. A sensation was caused by
the exhibition of a picture entitled “Nana”, showing the heroine of Zola’s novel in her
birthday suit (see Baliński 1987, p. 155).
In 1857 the Palace lost one of its finest ornaments, the spacious and magnificent
garden that stretched right to ulica Wierzbowa. A large part of the garden had been
sold in 1827, but thirty years later it nearly disappeared altogether. Only a small part
was left, approximately its present size. The individual who appears to have been
most aggravated by the loss of the garden was Karl Robert Nesselrode, chief of the
Russian police force in Warsaw, who had been one of the Palace’s residents for many
years. All that even such an apparently powerful official could do was to complain
The Palace’s history
and write petitions which turned out to be of no use. He railed profusely in verbal
outpourings recorded by Stanisław Szenic in the biography of Maria Kalergis, at his
landlord, Count Potocki, who without notifying any of his tenants had sold the beautiful garden located at the back of the property and containing the most magnificent trees
in the whole of Warsaw. According to Nesselrode it had been one of the city’s finest
precincts, when suddenly workmen were sent in to cut down the trees and spoiled the
lovely sight to which he had become accustomed, as the windows of his apartment
gave a view onto that splendid garden. We have mentioned Nesselrode also because he
was the father of the famous Maria Kalergis, one of Chopin’s students and a friend of
many Poles. Maria Kalergis lived in the Palace on several occasions and gave concerts
in it, especially playing Chopin. We shall return to her later, as her story illustrates the
tortuous Polish-Russian relations which have left their mark on the Palace and may
still be sensed within its confines.
Fig. 59. German bookshop in Warsaw under
wartime occupation, July 1941; NAC
75
Secrets of the Past
The Palace
and the
house
at Number 17
in the times
of Stanisław
Potocki
(1845–1886)
Fig. 60. P. Tyrowicz, Portrait of Stanisław
Potocki in the Polish national costume, oils on
canvas, 1848; Wilanów Palace Museum
76
Stanisław Kostka Potocki’s grandson, another Stanisław, did not distinguish himself with any notable achievements, perhaps apart from raising the house at Number 17 on the Krakowskie Przedmieście (Figs. 60–61). Although he resided on and
off in the Palace, he treated it largely as a source of revenue from the letting out
of its premises. Like his father, he had an unhappy marriage. In the mid-1850s he
wedded Maria Sapieha and divorced her in 1866. Thereafter he paid frequent visits to Paris, where according to contemporary reports he lived a rather rakish life,
while the Palace was left to deteriorate more and more. Like his great forebear, he
was interested in art (Bąbiak 2010, p. 554). In 1855 during his travels abroad he
purchased a picture by a 17th-century Dutch landscape painter named Ruisdael for
his collection in the Palace. Today it is hard to tell whether the painter in question
was Salomon or Jacob van Ruisdael. A good idea of the latter’s work is to be had
from a canvas entitled “Landscape with a waterfall”, which is now in Wilanów Palace (Wilanów Collection 2005, pp. 60–61). Another intriguing event is associated
with this Stanisław. In 1869 the Prince of Wales, Queen Victoria’s eldest son, later
King Edward VII, made a secret visit to Warsaw. So far we know very few facts
concerning the future monarch’s stay in the Palace.
Let’s return to the story of No. 17 on the Krakowskie Przedmieście. There is an
interesting document from that period relating to this house, describing a new
technology used in its construction: The new part of the Potocki Palace is being built
with the modern application of cast iron. Each of its arcades is to be supported on four
slender columns made of cast iron with windows in between them. The house is to have
three storeys and large windows with delicate decorations suited to the lightweight base.
Mr. Lanci thereby wants to avoid the error now most frequently committed by the
English and French, of putting heavy loads in the style of Greek or Roman architecture
on the seemingly flimsy (but in reality strong) support off ered by thin iron columns, or
by topping such supports with Gothic architecture, no longer a good match for today’s
industrial age, which pays more attention to comfort and convenience, cost eff ectiveness,
and utility, rather than to pomp and useless splendour (Kwiatkowska and Malinowska
1976, pp. 109–110).
These were the words of August Potocki, who in 1846 was supporting his halfbrother in his most ambitious investment in connection with the Palace, or rather
with the adjoining property. The plan involved the redevelopment of the old building situated between the north wing of the Palace and Mr. Kirkow’s house. The
property at No. 17 on the Krakowskie Przedmieście is one of the best achievements
of Francesco Maria Lanci (1799–1875). It took the form of an irregular quadrangle
with two upper floors, two tracts, and nine axes. Lanci employed structural details
which were novel at the time. On the ground floor he had pairs of slender cast iron
columns topped with stone caps supporting the storey above. On the upper floors
he had narrow lesenes between the windows of the first floor, and Tuscan pilasters
and cornices on the second floor, along with ornamentation consisting of plant motifs, portraits set in tondi, meandering friezes, intersecting lines, and flat caissons.
In the central part of the façade there is a balcony with a delicately shaped iron trellis. The harmonious and subtle divisions in the house’s architecture are reminiscent
of Italian Renaissance buildings, and the tondi enclosing portraits call to mind
the tondi on Lorenzo Ghiberti’s famous second door to the Baptistery of Florence
Cathedral, or on the façade of another Renaissance edifice, the Ospedale Maggiore
of Milan, designed by Antonio Averlino (Filarete).
Thee Palace’s
Th
Paallaace
P
ce’s’s history
his
i to
torryy
tor
Kurier Warszawski published very precise reports on the progress made in the
construction and its completion. In the summer of 1847 it wrote an article on the
building as compared to other edifices designed by Lanci: As may be inferred from
the initial outline, in his new building he will be combining elegance with the simplicity
of style the model of which we have observed in Count Stanisław Potocki’s edifice which
is now being finished on the Krakowskie Przedmieście. . . . The exemplary care with
which they are being done deserves the attention of the experts. In October of the same
year the newspaper announced that the scaff olding had been taken down from Count
Stanislaw Potocki’s newly built house. The graceful and well-proportioned structure
had a gorgeous eff ect, embellishing one of Warsaw’s finest streets.
Stanisław Gieysztor, whom we have already quoted, described Lanci’s building
after its reconstruction after the War, writing that the ground floor of the house
next door, another Potocki property, had accommodated Starkman’s, a tailor’s shop . . .;
while Gebethner’s piano warehouse had occupied an entire storey and had its sign,
a huge golden piano, mounted on the balcony, not doing much for the house’s aesthetics. This building has now been reconstructed for the Ministry of Culture and Art, with
a façade more in keeping with the Late Baroque style than the one designed by Lanci in
the first half of the 19th century (Gieysztor 2010, p. 664). However, we beg to differ
from Gieysztor regarding his opinion on the style of the house reconstructed by
a team led by Zdzisław Stępiński, who in fact kept many of the original forms and
details of Lanci’s design, including the beautiful window frames with rosettes and
a meander motif, with the addition of a few details derived from Classicism, such
as a series of elegantly shaped palmettes.
Fig. 61. No. 17 on the Krakowskie Przedmieście
in 2011
Land gripped by the yoke – choked under /
brute force and grievance, distrained like a
poor angel with wings sundered, like a woman deprived of her shame, / and the people’s
genius has gone silent, muted, / robbed of its
voice in the night of enslavement. / O Warsaw, so you, too, have been pressured, you
and your proud Polish scions, put to slumber
by a swarm sent from Russia / of army yokels,
oafs, and ruffians?
(Alexander Blok, Vozmezdie, III)
77
Secrets of the Past
The Palace
in the hands
of the Potocki
of Galicia
Fig. 62. View of the Czartoryski-Potocki Palace ca. 1900; ISPAN
78
In 1886 Count Józef Potocki of Antoniny, the grandson of Natalia Sanguszkowa
née Potocka and great-great-grandson of Stanisław Kostka Potocki, acquired the Palace. He bought it from its previous owner for the sum of 310 thousand roubles, but
did not embark on a thorough renovation until a decade later. Unger’s pavilion was
demolished and the court was cleared up (Fig. 62); a set of Neo-Baroque grilles was
mounted on either side of the corps de garde (Figs. 63–66). The restoration was conducted by brothers Leandro and Władysław Marconi. By 1900 the Palace looked as
good as new, as described by Aleksander Kraushar in the text quoted at the begin-
ning of this chapter. One of the Warsaw newspapers reported on the restoration of
the princely residence to its former splendour as follows: Thanks to the embellishments
which are being done on it Count Józef Potocki’s Palace on the Krakowskie Przedmieście
is acquiring more and more of an appearance to match its grand title. Following the
clearing up and gravelling of its huge court a set of entrance gates have been installed, an
The Palace’s history
undeniable adornment for the Palace. Made entirely of cast and welded iron, the gates are
exquisitely shaped and make up a highly aesthetic entity. The Pilawa device, the arms of
the Potocki family, crested with a crown and the motto “Scutum opponebat scutis” have
been mounted at the top. In the middle of the main gate there is a pair of gilt bronze
monograms. On either side of the main gate there is a minor entrance gate for pedestrians.
The total cost of the gates amounts to 4,000 roubles. These decorative gates, designed by
the builder Leandro Marconi, were made locally in S. Zieleziński’s factory of ornamental
works (Teki Przyborowskiego).
21
Fig. 63. View of the Krakowskie Przedmieście
– Czysta junction, before 1886; ISPAN
Fig. 64. View of the entrance gate to the
Czartoryski-Potocki Palace, 1938; MW
Secrets of the Past
Fig. 65. View of the entrance gate to the
Czartoryski-Potocki Palace, period between
the World Wars; ISPAN
The Palace’s history
And what were the Palace’s interiors like? Their history was well-known, thanks to
commemorative works such as Leon Potocki’s book. Alongside the Rococo furniture,
they were appointed with deep-seating, leather-upholstered club chairs; and electric
lamps alongside the Empire chandeliers. On record in fairly numerous photographs,
Fig. 66. Detail on the Palace gate, with the
Pilawa arms, 2011
81
Secrets of the Past
POD OPIEKĄ MUZ
Fig. 67. The Boudoir/Green Drawing Room,
ca. 1924; ISPAN
Fig. 68. The Small Drawing Room,
these interiors may seem to us a little too overloaded, but as Maria Kwiatkowska
has observed, they are an expression of the taste proper for their times, a period of
ca. 1924; ISPAN
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Fig. 69. The Boudoir/Green Drawing Room,
prosperity (Figs. 67–70). On the photographs we see many outstanding works of art,
now in the National Museum in Warsaw, and among them portraits of the kings of
ca. 1924; ISPAN
Fig. 70. The Small Drawing Room,
ca. 1924; ISPAN
21
21
Secrets of the Past
Fig. 71. Interior of the Library, ca. 1924; ISPAN
84
POD OPIEKĄ MUZ
Poland, Stephen Báthory, Henri de Valois, Vladislaus IV, Augustus III, and Stanisław
August (Figs. 71–74). Unfortunately many of the paintings, much of furniture and
china and other valuable items that once decorated the Palace were destroyed or lost
irretrievably during the Second World War.
The Palace’s history
Fig. 72. Bartholomeus Milwitz, Portrait of Vladislaus IV in his coronation robes, after 1636, oils
on canvas; MNW
85
Secrets of the Past
Fig. 73. Interior of the Drawing Room/Golden
Room/Dining Hall, 1938; MW
Fig. 74. Marcello Bacciarelli, Portrait of Stanisław
August Poniatowski in his coronation robes, oils
on canvas, 1764; Muzeum Lubelskie, Lublin
86
An idea of the opulence of the Palace’s interiors following Józef Potocki’s redecoration project is given by Kraushar’s article in Tygodnik Ilustrowany. The Warsaw polymath wrote that a life-size portrait of Napoleon by Gérard adorned the dining hall, in
which in 1807 Napoleon had danced with Countess Walewska. It had been presented as
a gift to Talleyrand, the grandfather of Countess Helena Potocka, wife of Count Józef,
and was purchased by the Palace’s current proprietor from the château at Velenciennes
[sic]. In the library there was a portrait of Stephen Báthory painted on a metal plate in
1585, of Vladislaus IV by Dolabella, Stanisław August by Bacciarelli, Jerzy Potocki by
Kraff t, and Alfred Potocki by Matejko. In the Empire Room there was a bust of Aleksander Potocki. The Reception Hall was decorated with a portrait of Bishop Sołtyk, the
famous Sèvres dinner set decorated with pictures of the mistresses of Louis XV, a portrait
of Hetman Sieniawski, a picture of the interior of Wilanów Palace by Gryglewski, an
The Palace’s history
21
Secrets of the Past
POD OPIEKĄ MUZ
ornamental fan by Krzesz, and a marble group by Simonetti. In the White Room in the
Louis XV style with wall tapestries with tableaux by Wouverman there was a collection
of Saxe Royale china decorated with the apotheosis of Augustus III. On the overdoors of
the boudoir there were pictures imitating Boucher, and in the study there were canvasses
by Rozen, Rybkowski, Fałat, Juliusz Kossak, and a few by Orłowski (Kraushar 1904,
p. 452; Figs. 75–77).
Fig. 75. The ground-floor study in the Czartoryski-Potocki Palace, ca. 1924; ISPAN
Fig. 76. Marcello Bacciarelli, Portrait of Kajetan Sołtyk, oils on canvas, 1768, Wawel Royal Castle. A replica of this painting used to be
part of the decoration of the Palace’s White
Room
Fig. 77. Interior of the White Room in the
Czartoryski-Potocki Palace, with a marble
sculptural group of a Satyr and a Bacchante,
before 1939; ISPAN
220
0
Thee Palace’s
Th
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Fig. 78. Interior of the Library in the Czartoryski-Potocki Palace, ca. 1924; ISPAN
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Once again the interiors of the Potocki Palace were among the finest, most sumptuously decorated with artworks by old and contemporary masters in the whole of Warsaw. Its carefully selected portraits of the kings of Poland and the most distinguished
members of the family, and in particular of Jan Potocki (1761–1815) show that the
The Palace’s history
memory of the family’s history and famous personalities was vivid and cherished as
a mark of ancestral pride. The portrait of the famous traveller and scholar, author of
The Manuscript Found in Saragossa (1805) and husband of Julia Lubomirska, one of
the daughters of Princess Marshal Lubomirska, was hung in the palace’s library, as
Fig. 79. Portrait of Jan Potocki,
photograph, ca. 1924; MNW
91
Secrets of the Past
Fig. 80. Jan Chrzciciel Lampi (Giovanni Battista Lampi) the Elder (?),
Portrait of Jan Potocki, copy, oils on canvas; Wilanów Palace Museum
92
The Palace’s history
shown on one of the extant photographs (Fig. 78–79). It was an early 19th-century
copy of the original by Giovanni Battista Lampi or Alexander G. Warneck, which is
now in the Wilanów Palace collection (Fig. 80). This copy, which originally hung in
the library of Józef Potocki’s residence at Antoniny, was made by Teodor Axentowicz.
It survived the Second World War and is now in a private collection.
The portrait of Jan Potocki depicts a deeply pensive man with a certain restlessness
about the eyes. On his lap there is an unrolled scroll inscribed with hieroglyphics. The
background presents an Egyptian landscape, with which the sitter was familiar. Two
palm trees, some pyramids and a strange figure reminiscent of a sphinx are its dominant features. On his chest the learned Count has the famous Polish Order of the
White Eagle and the Russian Order of St. Vladimir; these distinctions illustrate the
tortuous paths of the history of Poland and one of her sons, who, despite his numerous achievements in scholarship and literature, in 1815 no longer saw a sense in life
and committed suicide in a spectacular way (Rosset and Triaire 2006). Józef Potocki
knew how significant a place his relative held in the annals of scholarship and quite
rightly put up his portrait in the library.
After the death of Józef Potocki in 1922 the Palace became the property of his son,
another Józef. In those years of revival for the Polish State the Palace was the venue
for many meetings which proved decisive for the future of Warsaw and, to a certain
extent, also of Poland. Redecorated just before 1900, the Czartoryski-Potocki Palace
and the house at No. 17 gratified the eyes of visitors and Varsovians alike with their
fine Rococo and sophisticated Neo-Renaissance style – until the summer of 1944.
On 7th August 1944, during the Warsaw Uprising, the Nazi Germans set the Palace
on fire. Luckily they did not use dynamite, as they had done with the Royal Castle,
but the effectiveness of the atrocity was increased by a large quantity of petrol poured
on the Palace (Fig. 81–85).
“Is it not for this reason that Warsaw is so dismal, that the Polish capital is ruled by an arrogant band of Russian military philistines? That
a thieving dignitary is building Russian Orthodox churches on sites where only a Catholic
church would delight the eyes of the citizens?
That anything the governor says is but a dingy,
impenetrable fog, while behind his back the
infuriated Pole is cocking a snoot at him?”
(Alexander Błok)
Fig. 81. Ruins of the Czartoryski-Potocki Palace in the aftermath of wartime devastation,
1945; MW
93
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Fig. 82. Ruins of the south wing of the Palace
from ulica Czysta in the aftermath of wartime
devastation, 1945; MW
Fig. 83. Interior of the Drawing Room/Arabesque Room in the aftermath of wartime
devastation; 1945
94
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The Palace’s history
Fig. 84. Entrance way to the Czartoryski-Potocki Palace in the aftermath of wartime devastation, 1945; MW
Fig. 85. Interior of the Czartoryski-Potocki
Palace in the aftermath of wartime devastation, 1945; MW
95
Secrets of the Past
The Potocki
Palace in a
diplomat’s
recollections
96
Did Hitler’s henchmen know that during the First World War Polish-German
constructive negotiations had been conducted in the Palace? In 1915 German forces
had pushed the Russians out of Warsaw and tried to reach a modus vivendi with
the Poles, whom they even allowed to reinstate the University of Warsaw and the
University of Technology, with Polish as the language of instruction. The atmosphere of these talks, in which German kings and princes took part, is described in
the extensive and fascinating memoirs of Bogdan Hutten-Czapski, a Pole in the
service of the Prussians. He was born a Pole and died in Poland, – as one of the historians writes about him – he received a cosmopolitan education, but from his early
years he thought of himself as a citizen of Prussia, and very often his loyalty to Prussia
and Germany was the decisive factor determining his conduct. He wrote and published
his memoirs bilingually, in Polish and German (Dunin-Wąsowicz 1971, p. 113). The
following information will throw light on Hutten-Czapski’s account and way of
thinking: If I were to carry out the task entrusted to me in Warsaw, I had to be able to
engage in social life on a grand scale, so as to arrange meetings between the Germans and
the Poles. For this I needed elegant premises. My choice was Count Józef Potocki’s Palace,
in which Murat had stayed a century earlier. Hundreds of people could congregate in
its magnificent rooms. But there was another particular reason determining my choice.
Count Józef Potocki was an old friend of mine. He had been born an Austrian subject and
held the office of chamberlain to the Emperor of Austria. Long before the War broke out
he had to become a Russian subject in order to inherit his mother’s estate in Volhynia. He
was even appointed to an office at the Tsar’s court. At the beginning of the War Nicholas
II took Potocki with him to his headquarters in Lwów. There Józef ’s elder brother Roman,
a Knight of the Austrian Order of the Golden Fleece, had a spacious mansion, in which
the Tsar decided to stay. Thanks to their hospitality, the Tsar exempted Łańcut Castle
and Count Roman’s vast estates in Galicia from all manner of Russian billeting for the
duration of the War. The Austrian authorities were not at all pleased with Count Józef,
and a certain high-ranking Austrian personage in Warsaw asked the governor of Warsaw
to turn the Potocki Palace into an officers’ mess. To save my friend’s residence and at the
same time to acquire the elegant premises I needed, I got General Gereke to issue an order
under which the entire ground floor of the Palace could not be let and was to be left at the
governor’s disposal. I obtained modest lodgings in the Palace for myself (Hutten-Czapski
1936, pp. 274–275). Hutten-Czapski’s choice of residence was determined by the
Palace’s location and his friendship with its proprietor, but to a certain extent also
by its rich history, as evidenced in the reference to Napoleon’s famous Marshal, and
no doubt recollections of the Czartoryski and Lubomirski as well. In an atmosphere
conjured up by memories of the lords and princes of Poland-Lithuania and of Murat, Marshal and Prince in the Napoleonic age, and later King of Naples, negotiations were conducted with kings and princes on the establishment, or rather the
restoration, of a Polish state, albeit on Prussian and Austrian terms.
Hutten-Czapski continued his story: in the course of 1916 we managed to persuade
a series of Princes of the German Reich, including three Kings, of Bavaria, Saxony, and
Würrtemberg, to visit the Polish capital. We wanted them to see for themselves what had
been done in Warsaw, and what the objective was, and to convince them of the need to set
up a Polish state, so that they could influence the instructions issued to their representatives in the Council of the Union. The Governor-General welcomed each of the monarchs
[Frederick Augustus III of Saxony, Ludwig III of Bavaria, and Wilhelm II of Württemberg], at the station in an elaborate ceremony, after which he escorted them with
The Palace’s history
a guard of honour, usually from the respective land, to the Potocki Palace, where I would
meet them upon their arrival. . . . Usually Beseler held a grand reception in the Royal
Castle, while I did the same in the Potocki Palace. The fact that all three kings and many
other princes stayed in the Potocki Palace with me vastly contributed to strengthening my
status in Warsaw, not only socially but also politically, both in the German as well as in
the Polish milieu (Hutten-Czapski 1936, Vol. 2, pp. 373–374).
While Hutten-Czapski was busy in Warsaw, Józef Piłsudski was fighting for the
restoration of Poland’s independence, putting his bets on Austria, at the time a loyal
ally of Prussia. Piłsudski set up his famous Legions in Kraków and marched off with
them to battle. In July 1917, when the Polish Legions were denied the guarantee
of a Polish state being established in line with their aspirations despite the great sacrifice of lives they had contributed, they refused to take the oath of loyalty to Germany
and Austria. Piłsudski was imprisoned in the fortress of Magdeburg. But in November 1918 when Germany and Austria were defeated he was released and returned to
Warsaw. Poland reappeared on the map of Europe.
The artists of the Polish State restored after over a century of non-existence often
used to address patriotic subjects. Already in the 1880s the people of Warsaw flocked
to admire “The Battle of Grunwald”, which had been painted to fortify Polish hearts
and was being displayed in the Potocki property. Now the time had come to reflect on Polish-Russian themes, and in 1932 the centenary of the November Upris-
Fig. 86. Military review in the Palace court; scene from the film The Princess of Łowicz, 1932; NAC
21
The
Czartoryski-Potocki
Palace
on film
Secrets of the Past
Fig. 87. Military parade in the Palace court; scene from the film The Princess of Łowicz, 1932; NAC
ing was marked in a most interesting way. A film entitled “Księżna Łowicka” (The
Princess of Łowicz) was made (Figs. 86–88). Some of the scenes were shot in the
Czartoryski-Potocki Palace, which was thereby beautifully portrayed on film. The
script, by Witold Brumer, was based on a novel by Wacław Gąsiorowski (see Zahorska 1932). The film was directed by Janusz Warnecki and Mieczysław Krawicz, and
told the story of Joanna Grudzińska, a Polish lady who married the Russian Grand
Duke Constantine, the Tsar’s Viceroy in Warsaw. It lightly drew upon historical facts,
like the novel, but it did present the material realities of the period faithfully. As in
the novel, its main plot was a fictional romance between the heroine and Walerian
Łukasiński, founder of a well-known Polish freemasons’ lodge. The military scenes
were shot in the court of the Potocki Palace, with cadets from the Military College at
Ostrów Mazowiecka playing walk-on parts. The main characters were played by the
beautiful Jadwiga Smosarska as the Princess of Łowicz, Stefan Jaracz as Grand Prince
Constantine, and Józef Węgrzyn as Łukasiński. It was not a cinematic masterpiece,
but when it was shown in France and the USA Smosarska received an offer from Hollywood to play in a couple of films. Despite the personal backing of Pola Negri, in the
end Smosarska decided not to go to the USA and continued to pursue a brilliant film
career in Poland (see Hendrykowska 2007).
For local historians of Warsaw and enthusiasts of the Czartoryski-Potocki Palace
the film is an invaluable documentary. There are several long sequences showing
military parades and reviews, held in the Palace court, which may be admired in its
98
The Palace’s history
Fig. 88. Military parade in the Palace court; scene from the film The Princess of Łowicz, 1932; NAC
original form, prior to the wartime devastation. You can see
the beautiful sculptural decorations on the tympanum of
the main building, wings, and corps de garde. We know
from written records that the real Princess of Łowicz
and her mad husband Constantine visited the Palace
on several occasions, while military parades and reviews were held almost every day nearby, on Plac
Saski (now Plac Piłsudskiego). Krawicz and Warnecki’s film captures the atmosphere and times of
the Congress Kingdom in a fascinating way, and
the delicate Smosarska, with her slender figure
and big, beautiful and dreamy eyes, is in perfect
harmony with the elegance of the Palace and its
refined decoration (Fig. 89).
Fig. 89. Jadwiga Smosarska as Joanna Grudzińska (the Princess of Łowicz)
and Józef Węgrzyn as Walerian Łukasiński in a scene from the film
The Princess of Łowicz, 1932; NAC
99
2
Secrets of the Past
Tableaux
vivants:
facts and
anecdotes
from the
lives of the
princes,
counts, and
their guests
Fig. 90. Unidentified painter, Maria Zofia
Czartoryska née Sieniawska, oils on canvas,
1st half of 18th c.; Wilanów Palace Museum
100
In the previous chapter, in our discussion of the history of the architecture and interior decoration of some of the rooms in the property which is now the headquarters of Poland’s Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, we presented the main
characters in our dramatis personæ, the most distinguished personalities among the
Palace’s proprietors and tenants. But it was only a partial review of the various archival
records, memoirs, portraits, and press reports. Now is the time to relate the anecdotes,
the stories of the memorable balls, musical events, and present the tableaux vivants
so fashionable in that age, which will help us understand the spirit prevailing in the
Palace and the works of art associated with it. In our own times, with their abundance
of reconstructions of historic events, it is well to remember that reconstructive performances and displays of this kind were already being presented in the 18th and 19th
centuries. One of the most interesting events of the type was held in the CzartoryskiPotocki Palace in 1828 and, like the ball attended by Napoleon and Maria Walewska,
was recorded in Leon Potocki’s book. It recalled the times of Poland’s past grandeur
Tableaux vivants
and was performed with panache and attention to detail; therefore it certainly merits a
mention in the context of the national heritage and recollections of great personalities
in Poland’s history and outstanding contributors to her culture.
But first we shall start with the story of a challenge to a duel which opened up the
opportunity for the Czartoryski to vastly increase their assets and build up their status
as the renowned, extremely influential and well-nigh legendary Familia. Its doings in
the political sphere at the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries have earned it a variety of
diverse assessments, the best example of which is the opinion of Ludwik Jabłonowski,
one of the best Polish 19th-century diarists (Jabłonowski 1963, pp. 74–75). Nonetheless, as patrons, collectors and connoisseurs of the arts, sponsors of education, and
proprietors of the Palace on the Krakowskie Przedmieście in Warsaw, they have certainly entered their names in golden letters in the annals of Polish culture.
In his memoirs Ludwik Cieszkowski, whom we have already met in this book,
writes about an incident that happened around 1730 involving a beautiful young
woman by the name of Maria Zofia (Fig. 90): Having returned home from abroad, August [Czartoryski], a Knight of Malta, met a wealthy widow, the last heiress of the House
of Sieniawski, a family of considerable rank in Poland, who had been married to Denhoff,
also the last in his line. He left her a very substantial estate although without issue, making
her the richest widow in Poland. The lady had many suitors, of whom the two attending
her most keenly were August, Prince Czartoryski, and Pac, a wealthy lord from Lithuania.
When they both arrived in Warsaw for the lady’s name-day, Pac, wanting to humiliate the
Prince, discovered on the sly from his manservant in what colours and fashion the Prince
would be dressed on the day of the celebration. He waited until the Prince arrived at the
lady’s residence, whereupon he turned up with his servants liveried in the same colours.
The Prince could not but take this as an insult and was sore offended. Straight away leaving the company, he changed into his Maltese uniform and challenged Pac to a duel. Pac,
who had had the audacity to aff ront the Prince, did not shew sufficient boldness to take up
the challenge when summoned to a duel with honour at stake. It was an age when bravado
was taken for valour and courage, and when Denhoffowa heard of Pac’s cowardice and
the Prince’s daring in his readiness to fight for her, she held the latter in greater respect,
disclosing her affection for him, and disdain of the former. Fearful of the challenge and its
likely outcome, Pac sent the Prince a letter with his apology and declaring the withdrawal
of his suit for the hand of Denhoffowa. He left Warsaw in disgrace. Thereby the widow’s
troth was won, and prior to the day appointed for the wedding the Prince sent a petition
to Rome, asking to be released from his vow of celibacy. Having been granted his request,
he then wrote to the Grand Master of the Knights of Malta relinquishing all his duties and
honours in the Order and wedded the wealthy heiress of a vast fortune. Her estates were
in a disorderly condition with sundry debts and liabilities, but the Prince set to such keen
husbandry and business that soon he cleared up the debts on his wife’s properties, putting
them in good order and by excellent management throughout his long life increased his
assets, accruing large sums of capital (Cieszkowski 1867, pp. 31–47).
But what do we know about Prince August Czartoryski’s wife, Princess Maria Zofia? She had a long life, almost as long as his life; she died in 1771. Two children were
born of the marriage: a son Adam Kazimierz, General of Podolia and Head of the
Szkoła Rycerska military college; and a daughter Izabela, someone we already know
A duel that
never was,
a six-horse
carriage,
and a magic
lantern
101
Secrets of the Past
Fig. 91. Unidentified painter,
Portrait of Adam Kazimierz Czartoryski,
pastels, 2nd half of 18th c.;
Wilanów Palace Museum
quite well, who married Stanisław Lubomirski in 1753. Princess Maria Zofia loved
luxury and had an opulent six-horse carriage to take her to the nearby Carmelite
Church. These short escapades to the other side of the street must have caused a bit
of a sensation. But she was also good at managing the family properties when her
husband was away abroad for medical treatment in 1736–1737; she also joined forces
with other eminent ladies of the times, such as Barbara Sanguszkowa. Their friendship
is recorded in a set of letters not only on the latest fashions but also on interesting books
(Kuras 2010, pp. 108–109). We shall return once more to Maria Zofia’s husband.
His influence on political affairs is best described in a satirical cartoon of 1750, now
in the collections of the Jagiellonian Library, also involving a carriage (Kuras 2010,
pp. 22–23). It shows King Augustus III and his minister Brühl in a handsome vehicle
drawn by eight horses; with Prince August Aleksander Czartoryski as the coachman;
Wacław Rzewuski, Voivode of Podolia, as the post-boy; and Stanisław Poniatowski,
Voivode of Mazovia, as the equerry. One other character in this little sketch, Józef Potocki, Castellan of Kraków, asks the question, “Your Majesty, where are you going?”
to which the King answers, “I don’t know, wherever these Gentlemen will take us.” As
we have already said in the description of the Prince’s portrait, his plans to secure the
throne for his son Adam Kazimierz following the death of Augustus III came to nothing, despite all the effort and money put into the undertaking (Konopczyński 1938,
pp. 70–71). Would Adam Kazimierz have made a better monarch than Stanisław
102
Tableaux vivants
August? Could he have prevented the partitioning of Poland-Lithuania? These questions must remain unanswered, even though we do know that Prince Adam Kazimierz was an excellent commander and head of the military college (Fig. 91). On the
other hand, we can answer another question: how did foreigners see the founder of
the Familia and proprietor of the Czartoryski Palace?
This is the impression he made on the traveller Bernardin de Saint-Pierre, who left
the following record of him in 1764: He is the worthiest of all the foreigners I have ever
met. He is distinguished by an exceptional taste in the arts and profound and comprehensive knowledge (Polska stanisławowska w oczach cudzoziemców 1963, Vol. 1, p. 207). In
1778 the Swiss astronomer and mathematician Johann Bernoulli noted down with
pride that the Prince Voivode of Ruthenia had invited him to dinner, writing that
those who complained the most at the general moral decline which had crept into Poland
alongside refinement called this octogenarian the last of the Poles, in the same way that
in Rome Brutus was known as the last of the Romans. All would readily swear he had no
debts whatsoever, even though he kept a fine court and an open house. In a word, there
was universal agreement on his righteousness, his love of good order, his charitable works,
and his other excellent virtues. Neither did one need to enjoy his company for long to be
convinced he was the worthiest and bravest of men, inspiring absolutely everyone with his
enthusiasm. Moreover, the Prince was distinguished for his extensive and profound knowledge of literature as well as of the natural sciences, as Bernouilli discovered for himself
(Polska stanisławowska w oczach cudzoziemców 1963, Vol. 1, p. 382).
The Prince’s extant portraits show an exceptionally noble character, with an attentive expression in his eyes and a face indicative of great intelligence. Another individual who commended him and his family was Ernst Ahasverus von Lehndorff,
chamberlain at the court of Prussia, who also wrote the following about Adam Kazimierz’s daughter Izabela: Afterwards I went upstairs and paid a call on the daughter
of the Prince Voivode of Ruthenia, Mrs Lubomirska, known as the Princess Marshal. She
complained of nervous pain, though malicious tongues intimated it was a different kind of
ailment. I had met her before in Paris; she seems to represent the highest echelons of social
refinement. At any rate all of Warsaw’s social life is remarkable for its exquisite sophistication. During the sick Princess Lubomirska’s meal she received a visit from her relatives,
members of the Potocki, Lubomirski, and Czartoryski families, that is the chief aristocrats.
When I went downstairs again we sat down to dinner at the Prince Voivode’s table. . . .
After dinner we again went to see the Prince Voivode, who can conduct a conversation very
gracefully despite his age. I feel as if I had been viewing pictures in a magic lantern (Polska
stanisławowska w oczach cudzoziemców 1963, Vol. 2, pp. 26–27).
Even if there is a hint of exaggeration in the Prussian chamberlain’s words, there
seems to be no doubt that in the latter half of the 18th century the Czartoryski Palace
was a nursery of grand culture, replete with social refinement and lordly plenitude.
Notwithstanding all the disasters that befell Poland-Lithuania, the same atmosphere
persisted in the Palace in the first quarter of the 19th century, when its proprietors
were Stanisław Kostka Potocki and his wife Aleksandra née Lubomirska.
Let us now look into some more memoirs from the period and the remarks of the historian Władysław Konopczyński on the last years of August Aleksander’s life. His last
political move was an attempt to thwart the First Partition and save Poland by putting
the country under Austrian protection. This was to be achieved by offering the Polish
throne to the Archduke Maximilian in 1774. Turning away from the hopes that had
been pinned on Russia, the Prince sought the help of Austria, a country with which he
103
Secrets of the Past
III
Tableaux vivants
Anton Graff, Portrait of Stanisław Kostka Potocki, 1785, oils on canvas,
Wilanów Palace Museum
This portrait was painted in Karlsbad (Karlovy Vary), in the 18th century a famous
health resort which Stanisław Kostka Potocki passed through on his way for one
of his numerous Italian travels. Here he met celebrities like Johann W. Goethe and
Johann G. Herder (see Ranocchi 2008). Princess Izabela Lubomirska attended by
Henryk Lubomirski, Stanisław Zabiełło, and Grzegorz Piramowicz was waiting for
Potocki at Karlsbad. Jan Potocki and Prince Adam Kazimierz Czartoryski were also
staying in the resort at the time. In a letter of 11th July to his wife Stanisław Kostka
wrote that he was pleased with Graff ’s work: mon portrait fait par Graff, qui est vraiment beau. The face is full of joy, showing the high artistic quality of Graff ’s work.
Done in liberal brushstrokes with a diversified texture and a rich range of colours, the
portrait may be ranked as one of Graff ’s best works. Originally it hung in the Potocki
Palace in Warsaw (there is a record of it there in 1798), and since 1821 it has been in
Wilanów Palace.
Stanisław Kostka Potocki was educated first in the Collegium Nobilium in Warsaw,
and subsequently in the Accademia Reale in Turin (1772–1774). He made a deeply
committed contribution to the Four-Year Sejm (1788–1792), especially to the drafting of the Third of May Constitution. He was the author of numerous books, including O wymowie i stylu (On Eloquence and Style, 1815), and a history of art entitled
Winkelman polski (1815). Around 1780 he designed a project for a museum of the fine
arts in Warsaw; and in 1778 drafted a reconstruction of the famous Villa of Pliny the
Younger on the outskirts of Rome. In 1805 he established a museum open to the public in his residence at Wilanów. He dedicated the last years of his life to science and
education, holding several offices of state under the Duchy of Warsaw, in the Government Commission, the Directorate for Education, the Council of State, and the
Council of Ministers (the cabinet). Under the Congress Kingdom he was appointed
Minister of Religious Denominations and Public Education, a post he held from
1815 to 1820. In 1813 he was in a dramatic situation; following the Battle of Leipzig
he was arrested and detained in prison for a long time. He returned to Wilanów in
July 1814, and in May of the following year was appointed head of the Department
of Education. Stanisław Kostka Potocki was one of the pioneers of the University of
Warsaw, which was organised in 1808–1818 and officially founded in 1816. In December 1820 he lost his office as Minister of Religious Denominations and Public
Enlightenment. The pretext for his dismissal by Tsar Alexander was his book Podróż
do Ciemnogrodu, a critique of the conservative views prevalent in pre-partitional Poland. He died in September 1821.
In his last years as minister Potocki was not popular with the upper echelons of
Warsaw society. As Barbara Grochulska writes, he fell into a trap set by Tsar Alexander I, whose views and policy were just as liberal as Potocki’s. However, he managed
to escape the trap before it finally snapped shut on him, and saved his reputation,
deliberately or unconsciously bringing about his dismissal at the last moment before
being obliged to repudiate his true beliefs and admit to his opponents that he had
been wrong. The decision cost him his career, but soon it turned out to have earned
him a permanent place in the memory of his compatriots. The young people who
abandoned him in 1819 two years later manifested their affection for “their Minister”,
turning his funeral into a patriotic ceremony (Grochulska 1987, p. 148).
Stanisław
Kostka
Potocki
105
Secrets of the Past
had been associated in his youth. As Konopczyński writes, he left his political legacy, that
is the Familia’s programme and party, to Stanisław Lubomirski and Ignacy Potocki; and
his material estate to Prince Adam (60 million złoty) and Princess Elżbieta [Izabela] (over
25 million złoty). Like his brother, he grew weaker and weaker as he approached death, but
fully preserved his wits and peace of mind to the very end. On the day of his death he lost
his sight, nonetheless he had himself brought into the drawing room at the usual hour, and
when he recognised the papal nuncio on hearing his voice, he apologised jocundly that he
would not be able to play their usual game of tryset [a Polish card game] that night. On hearing from his doctor that this was the end, he made his confession and asked all of the members of the household into his room, and as the nuncio was reading the words of the prayer
for him, “Now, Lord, into Thy hands I commend my spirit,” he gave him a gentle handshake
and died. Crowds of Varsovians attended his funeral in the crypt of the Church of the Holy
Cross, for indeed he was worthy of such a farewell (Konopczyński 1938, pp. 72–73).
Napoleon,
“magnetising
enslavement,”
and a
Bacciarelli
painting
Fig. 92. Interior of the Library in the
Czartoryski-Potocki Palace, 1938; MW
The numerous actions undertaken by the Czartoryski Family, and the profound
commitment of Ignacy and Stanisław Kostka Potocki and many other patriots to
the healing of the state did not save it from collapse. Surrogates of revival came with
the establishment first of the Duchy of Warsaw (1807–1815), and subsequently of the
Congress Kingdom of Poland. Although Napoleon had disappointed many Polish
people by setting up just a rather small Duchy of Warsaw, nonetheless it was thanks
to that tiny state that the Congress Kingdom could be created (Grochulska 1970).
The Polish Enlightenment could mature and bear fruit; the University of Warsaw
was founded, and within its confines the Department of Fine Arts; the capital city
became one of the metropolises of Central Europe. Kazimierz Brodziński and Fryderyk Chopin opened up the gates for Romanticism, while Stanisław Kostka Potocki
laid the foundations for Polish art history and classical archaeology (Pomian 2006).
Another phenomenon belonging to the legacy of this period is something that might
be labelled “magnetising enslavement”, and has a place in the story of our Palace.
Tableaux vivants
Fig. 93. Marcello Bacciarelli, Napoleon grants
the Duchy of Warsaw its Constitution, 1811,
oils on canvas; MNW
The already cited Ludwik Jabłonowski, born in Warsaw in 1810, described his fascination with Napoleon in the following way: When the Great One was on his way for
Moscow, I must have been a few months short of my second birthday, nonetheless I distinctly remember being held in the arms of a simple woman in an entrance-way to a house,
looking at the Emperor at the head of his officers. . . . Perhaps he cast a random glance at
me, and with it took my spirit into a magnetising enslavement which has endured and will
last until my dying day (Jabłonowski 1963, p. 33). The overwhelming majority of that
generation persisted in that magnetising enslavement. The name was used by two of
Poland’s great Romantic poets – Adam Napoleon Mickiewicz (according to legend
this was the name he took on his confirmation) and Napoleon Zygmunt Krasiński.
The latter was an admirer of Napoleon to the end of his life. Jabłonowski himself
was baptised Napoleon Ludwik Józef – the last name maybe in honour of Prince
Józef Poniatowski. Furthermore, for nearly a decade Warsaw’s ulica Miodowa bore
the name of the Emperor of France. As we have already said in the previous chapter,
when Count Józef Potocki was redecorating the Palace in the late 19th century, he did
not fail to put up a copy of François Gérard’s famous coronation portrait of Napoleon
(1805) in the library (Fig. 92). At about the same time another canvas featuring Napoleon, in the company of Stanisław Kostka Potocki and some of the Palace’s tenants
and people who later attended the famous ball in 1807, was being painted in Warsaw.
But before we go on to a more detailed account of that ball referring to some extensive
passages from Leon Potocki’s book, let’s take a closer look at this salient work of art.
Painted in 1809–1811, the canvas presents “Napoleon granting the Duchy of Warsaw
its Constitution in 1807” and was the work of Marcello Bacciarelli (Fig. 93). The scene is
set in an interior of the palace at Dresden, where Frederick Augustus, King of Saxony and
grandson of Augustus III, King of Poland, was appointed ruler of the Duchy of Warsaw.
Actually Frederick Augustus, whom the Third of May Constitution of 1791 had desig-
107
Secrets of the Past
IV
Tableaux vivants
François Gérard, Napoleon I in his coronation robes, 1805, oil on canvas,
Paris, The Louvre
On 2nd December 1804, in a ceremony held with pomp and circumstance in Notre
Dame Cathedral in Paris, in the presence of numerous representatives of the diplomatic
corps, the Pope and his dignitaries as well as representatives of the people of France,
Napoleon crowned himself with the imperial crown and took the oath. Many commemorative paintings were made for the coronation, including a huge canvas by JacquesLouis David, and portraits by Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres and François Gérard.
Gérard’s picture was chosen as the Emperor’s official portrait, and it became extremely
popular. The Napoleonic Foreign Ministry disseminated its reproductions in the form of
paintings, embroidered items, and prints, distributing them to diplomatic posts, aristocrats, and celebrities. Unlike the seated figure in Ingres’ painting, here we have Napoleon
standing next to a sumptuous throne. Napoleon’s idealised face is in perfect harmony
with the golden laurel crown on his head and the crimson and ermine-lined imperial
cloak – a symbol of imperial majesty. With a chain made of links in the shape of imperial eagles and the Grand Cross of the Légion d’Honneur on his chest, Napoleon rests
against a long-handled sceptre topped with the Napoleonic eagle entwined in the letter
N. On a dark blue cushion resting on a stool there is an orb crested with a cross, the symbol of royal authority and power, and a sceptre in the shape of a hand, the symbol of justice. This was the type of sceptre the kings of France had used since the 13th century. In
Ingres’ painting Napoleon is holding both sceptres. The success of Gérard’s painting was
determined by its superb arrangement of the attributes of power and its colour scheme of
subtle blue, gold, white, and crimson. Napoleon’s throne is a modernised version of the
throne of Louis XIV, and together with the hand-shaped sceptre of justice it depicts the
Emperor as the guardian of tradition. The magnificent coronation robes were made by
Charles Percier, the designer of the fashionable Empire pattern-books.
Many quality copies were made of the portrait in Gérard’s studio, including replicas
done by the painter himself. Some came to be owned by Polish aristocrats. There was
a full-size replica in the dining hall of the Potocki Palace, where the ball in honour of
Napoleon was held on 22nd January 1807. The inscription engraved on its frame, Donné
par Sa Majesté l’Empereur Au PUce de Bénevent, tells us that it was originally owned by
Talleyrand, and might have come into the Potocki collection from the auction of 1899.
Unfortunately we do not know what happened to this first-rate copy; during the Second World War it was rolled up and presumably survived the fire in the Palace during
the Warsaw Uprising of 1944 (Romanowska-Zadrożna and Zadrożny 2000). A rather
inferior copy, with a forged Gérard signature, is in the collection of the Polish Army
Museum in Warsaw. Another copy used to be in the collection of the Krasiński Estatein-Tail (Polaczek 2005, pp. 179–181).
The legend of Napoleon is still alive in Poland today, reappearing in intense waves
or soft ripples. At its roots stand the Romantic poets Adam Mickiewicz and Zygmunt
Krasiński – both used the great conqueror’s name. It is enough to read a passage from
Mickiewicz’s Pan Tadeusz and glance at the poet’s statue standing in the Krakowskie
Przedmieście not far from the Potocki Palace, for thoughts of Napoleon to come to mind
at once. Ludwik Jabłonowski, who was born in Warsaw in 1810, wrote in his memoirs
of the legend’s high horizon and colourful rainbow . . . Perhaps [the Great Napoleon] cast
a random glance at me, and with it took my spirit into a magnetising enslavement which has
endured and will last until my dying day (Jabłonowski 1963, p. 33).
Napoleon
Bonaparte
109
Secrets of the Past
nated to succeed Stanisław August, is not shown in the painting, instead Napoleon is surrounded with an entourage of distinguished Polish dignitaries – Stanisław Małachowski,
Jan P. Łuszczewski, Ludwik Gutakowski, Piotr Bieliński, Ksawery Działyński, Walenty
Sobolewski, Stanisław Kostka Potocki, and Józef Wybicki – standing next to Charles
Maurice Talleyrand and Hugues Bernard Maret. In the background we see Annibale
Carracci’s famous canvas, “The Genius of Victory”. The winged genius presented on it
was to be a harbinger of an auspicious future for the small state. In fact no such event ever
occurred, and the picture’s meaning is purely symbolic. The Duchy’s Constitution, which
Napoleon signed in Dresden on 22nd July 1807, was presented to the Poles on the following day, not by Napoleon himself but by Maret, who had attended the ball in the Potocki
Palace exactly six months earlier (Chyczewska 1973, pp. 114–115).
Napoleon in
the Potocki
Palace: the
most famous
social event
of 1807
110
Let’s now look into Leon Potocki’s book and occasionally, into other memoirs, such
as those of Anna Potocka née Tyszkiewicz. This is how Leon Potocki introduces us to
the Duchy of Warsaw: 1806 came, bringing Europe great political changes, and Warsaw
assumed a new form, too. Napoleon the Emperor of France declared war on Prussia, and
before six weeks were out his victorious troops were entering Berlin. The King of Prussia fled
to Königsberg, and the Prussians left Warsaw. On the evening of 27th November 1806 the
vanguard of the French army entered the city, and on the next day at about three o’clock in
the afternoon the Emperor’s viceroy Joachim Murat, Grand Duke of Berg and Cleves, arrived on horseback with a fine and large retinue, and was escorted into the city by Prince Józef
Poniatowski. . . . Murat was put up in the house of the Raczyński family on ulica Długa, but
on the same day moved to the Palace. With the arrival of Napoleon expected imminently,
arrangements were made in the Castle, a triumphal arch was put up near Sigismund’s Column, and illuminations were prepared. The people were looking forward with curiosity to
the arrival of the Emperor and awaiting him impatiently; finally on the night of the 18th to
19th December he rode into Warsaw on horseback, attended only by two adjutants and the
Mameluk Rustan. He stopped in front of the guardhouse and took a drink of water before the
gate of the Castle was opened, whereupon he rode into the old residence of our kings.
In 1806 Anna née Tyszkiewicz was a resident of the Czartoryski-Potocki Palace,
in which Murat was to stay. This is how she described the circumstances which led
to the famous Marshal’s residence at Number 415 (now Number 15), Krakowskie
Przedmieście: On the next day Prince Murat, at that time the Grand Duke of Berg, rode
into the city on a horse. The inhabitants saw a flurry of plumes, embroidered uniforms,
gold and silver galloon etc. He had lodgings ready in the Raczyński mansion, but as he did
not like a smoky chimney there he moved to our Palace as a result of that very amusing
incident (Memoirs of the Countess Potocka 1901, p. 63).
Let’s now return to the story in Leon Potocki’s book, which has several paragraphs
on the atmosphere of expectation for the ball. He writes about the military reviews
Napoleon conducted every day on the Krakowskie Przedmieście or in the Saxon Garden; about the Sunday Mass he attended in the Castle chapel; and about his audiences. Anna Potocka née Tyszkiewicz and Mrs. Kicka, the Lord Equerry’s wife, were
among those lucky enough to attend an audience. Leon Potocki also refers to the
memoirs of Fryderyk Skarbek and relates his account of the musical soirées attended
by the Emperor, at which Italian singers performed. Music flourished in Warsaw at
the time. Despite the city’s militarisation there were dances and other entertainments.
Tableaux vivants
Fig. 94. François Gérard, Joachim Murat,
1801, oils on canvas, Château de Versailles
Secrets of the Past
Fig. 95. Leon Potocki, Święcone czyli
Pałac Potockich w Warszawie, Poznań
1861, BNW. Title page of the second edition of Leon Potocki’s book on the Potocki Palace (Poznań, 1861). The small
volume by Bonawentura of Kochanów
(Potocki’s pen-name) must have enjoyed considerable popularity to go into
a second, more decorative edition.
112
Finally the day came for the ball in the Potocki Palace. It was not given by Stanisław
Potocki and his wife, whose official residence at the time was presumably Wilanów, but
by Murat. We should remember that in fact he was designated to be king of Poland in
the event of the creation of a real Polish state. As Leon Potocki related, on 22nd January 1807 the apartments of the Potocki Palace were glittering with light; Murat the Prince
of Berg was giving a magnificent ball for the Emperor Napoleon. From nine o’clock in the
evening on there was a continuous clatter of carriages arriving in the Palace’s court. The spacious halls started to fill up with Warsaw’s foremost belles, an innumerable host of foreign
princes, marshals of France, military men, administrative officers, and citizens. The ladies’
elaborate and refined gowns, those rich and diversified uniforms laden with gold and silver,
that abundance of medals and distinctions – it was all an extraordinary and charming
sight. Among the large company of guests you could observe the King of Bavaria; the Grand
Duke of Baden; the Emperor’s brother-in-law, Prince Borghese-Guastalla; the Prince Hohenzollern; the Minister of Saxony; the Prince of Salm, Minister of the Confederation of
the Rhine; the Duke de Dalberg, Ambassador of Baden; Baron de Bray, Ambassador of Bavaria; the Ambassadors of Spain and Nassau-Usingen; the Counts de St. Julien; the FieldMarshal and General St. Vincent of the Austrian army; and the Austrian Colonel Neuperg. You could spot the Marshals of France, Masséna and Davoust, in the midst of French
generals; Talleyrand, Prince de Bénévent, Minister of Foreign Affairs; the Italian Minister
Marescalchi; Maret, Minister Secretary of State; and then the former dignitaries of Poland,
Stanisław Małachowski, Grand Referendary of the Kingdom of Poland and Marshal of the
Four-Year Parliament [1788-1792]; Stanisław and Aleksander Potocki; Stanisław Sołtyk;
Tomasz Ostrowski; and Ludwik Gutakowski; Józef Radzimiński, Voivode of Gniezno;
Ossoliński, Starost of Drohiczyn; Walenty Sobolewski, Starost of Warsaw; while Wybicki;
Górzeński the Castellan and Górzeński the General; Łubieński and Łuszczewski; and
Prince Józef Poniatowski could be seen among the Polish generals and officers (Fig. 95).
During the ball the Potocki Palace was like the omphalos, the symbolic navel of
the world, the most important place on earth. Never before, perhaps, nor afterwards,
would so many celebrities be gathered here. But its culmination was yet to come – finally the anxiously awaited chief guest appeared in the Palace’s cour d’ honneur. This
is how Leon Potocki describes the scene: Then the clatter of carriages was heard rolling
into the court, the patter of horses’ hooves, the screech of the arms of the guards as they
stepped out, and the cry of the people, “vive l’Empereur!” Murat’s adjutant informed him
that the Emperor was coming, and Murat ran out to meet him. After a while the doors
to the ballroom were opened and General Gouvion, Governor of Warsaw, at the head of
the party, cried, “l’Empereur!” All the ladies rose from their chairs, turning their eyes towards the entrance door. A deep silence ensued, all seemed to be breathless, curiosity and
expectation seemed to have paralysed life. The chamberlains, Aleksander Prince Sapieha,
Michał Prince Radziwiłł, and Aleksander Prince Potocki, and Broniec, came at the head
of the retinue. Then came Duroc, Grand Marshal of the Imperial Palace; and then the
Emperor. A few paces behind him came Prince Murat, Grand Duke of Berg, the master
of the house; after him came Berthier, Minister of War; General Le Marois, the Emperor’s
aide de camp; and the rest of the retinue.
Leon Potocki met the challenge of building up the drama; he managed to create an atmosphere of loftiness, euphoria, and even the exaltation proper to those times, in which
people really believed that Poland’s future would change for the better and that she
would be able to enter and prosper in an entity that was not fully defined yet – something
between an all-European empire, and an as yet incompletely contrived 19th-century Eu-
Tableaux vivants
ropean union (it is well to remember that Napoleon had brought in a single currency
called the eura). The next passage in Potocki’s book is redolent with the tremendous adulation of Napoleon we have already mentioned. The Emperor was the pioneer of modern
political propaganda and visual communication, as we know, and he had an expert hand
for exerting an influence on his army and building up his image in the eyes of the aristocracy. Although probably his best-known portraits are the ones which show him in his
coronation robes (one, as we have said, hangs in the Palace), for everyday wear, and even
at gala balls, his garments were more than modest, in dramatic contrast to the apparel
of his marshals and ministers. This point did not escape the notice of Leon Potocki and
a number of other eye-witnesses of whose recollections he made use (see Fig. 93).
Potocki continued his story: Napoleon took a few steps, stopped for a while and bowed
to the ladies, whereupon he hastily approached the Prince of Bavaria and the Prince heir
to the throne of Baden, and politely greeted both of them. He was dressed in the uniform of
the Chasseurs à Cheval de la Garde Impériale, with a dark green coat and red collar with
green lapels and red piping around the edges, white knee-breeches, white silk stockings,
and gold buckles on his shoes. He wore gold epaulettes with a bullion fringe and the star of
the Légion d’ honneur, the red ribbon of which hung down from his right shoulder to his
left side. At his side he had an épée with a golden hilt overlaid with mother-of-pearl and
a silver lanyard. In his hand he had the small three-cornered hat to which the crowns of
Europe bowed. What a strange contrast that simple and modest apparel on the most powerful man in the world made with the sumptuous uniforms of the company around him
– Murat’s theatrically fantastic uniform, the gold embroidery on the French marshals and
generals, those multi-coloured hussars’ dolman coats, the diverse colours on the uniforms of
the sundry French regiments, the white coats and scarlet breeches of the Austrian officers!
Finally the time came to greet the Poles, Prince Józef, who was not at all well known
in Warsaw at the time (he only became widely known and famous after the Battle
of Raszyn in 1809), the mistress of the Palace, and the other ladies. Potocki went on
to describe the Polish ladies: the older ones were dressed in velvet or silk gowns with a
long train; the others had robes made of different fabrics and trains, each with a turban
or plumes for a headdress. The younger ones were in light dresses of muslin, crepe, or tulle,
with a very high bodice and attached to it a pink, blue, green, or beige tunic skirt, all of
them with a low neckline, too low in fact; their hair styled à la Grecque and decorated
with flowers or a diadem of precious stones. Napoleon came up to the ladies and talked for
a while with Mrs. Potocka, the wife of Stanisław; and with her daughter-in law, the wife
of Aleksander [Anna née Tyszkiewicz]; with the wife of Mr. Referendary Tyszkiewicz,
Prince Józef ’s sister; and with Mrs. Sobolewska, wife of Mr. Starost Sobolewski.
Prince Murat informed the Emperor (as Potocki’s account continues) that they were
waiting for him with the concert. Napoleon was the first to enter the other hall, followed
by the ladies, and then the rest of the company. The women seated themselves on the chairs
that had been put out. The Emperor took a seat in the front row between Mrs. Walewska,
the wife of Anastazy Walewski; and Mrs. Potocka, the wife of Stanisław. The Prince of
Baden sat next to Mrs. Walewska, and the Prince of Bavaria was next to Mrs. Potocka.
The concert opened with the overture to Mozart’s Magic Flute, after which Mrs. Puëva
and her husband, together or in turn, sang airs from recent operas by Cimarosa and Paër.
During the concert the Emperor conversed with the beautiful Walewska, who was able to
The concert,
the dancing,
and the
beautiful Maria
Walewska
113
Secrets of the Past
V
Tableaux vivants
François Gérard, Maria Walewska, ca. 1810, oils on canvas, Paris,
Musée de l’Armée
Madame, I had eyes only for you, I had admiration only for you, I have desire only for you.
. . . May your swift response assuage my impatient fire. That is what Napoleon wrote to
Maria Walewska in a letter of 18th January 1807, the day after he saw her at a ball in the
Tepper house on ulica Miodowa in Warsaw. Soon another ball came, this time in the
Czartoryski-Potocki Palace. This is how one of Napoleon’s greatest loves, if not the greatest love of his life started, leaving testimonials in the form of portraits of Maria, whose
beauty all praised, even the spiteful but very intelligent Anetka Potocka née Tyszkiewicz.
In the entry for 24th June 1810 in her memoirs Anetka recorded a conversation she had
with her Parisian admirer, who asked her if she would care to have his company to see the
portrait of Madame Walewska in Gérard’s studio, as everyone who had seen it said it was the
finest work to have been made in his studio (Memoirs of the Countess Potocka 1901, p. 162).
Is this painting from the Ornano family collection and now in the Musée de l’Armée
a masterpiece, as is often said? Does it give a true picture of Maria’s captivating beauty?
What’s most important for us is that this is how she might have looked on that memorable night in the Czartoryski-Potocki Palace during the carnival of 1807, which was also
a festival of Poland’s partial revival.
In what we think is the latest opinion on this canvas we read that of the very many
pictures by Gérard, some of them not so good owing to the excessive number of commissions this artist had, the portrait of Walewska, now in the Musée de l’Armée, stands
out for its psychological depth, its serene atmosphere, and the superb quality of the subtly
draped fabrics of the gown and shawl. Walewska, who is presented en face and as a full
figure, looks as if she were just taking a rest during a walk, leaning against the cornice of
a marble wall, and separated from the wall with her elegantly folded cashmere shawl. Her
petite figure is presented against the background of Neo-Classical architectural details
leading out onto a park with a lake (Sylvie Le Ray-Burimi in Uroda portretu 2009, p. 216).
Maria Walewska née Łączyńska (1786–1817) became Napoleon’s official mistress soon
after those social events, though not without hesitation. The Emperor brought her to stay
with him for three weeks at his headquarters in Schloss Finckenstein in East Prussia. In
1809 she lived with him at Schönbrunn in Vienna, and here she conceived. On 4th May
1810 after her return to Walewice she gave birth to a son, Aleksander Florian Józef. So
thanks to Maria Napoleon learned that the cause of there being no progeny from his
marriage with Josephine could not be attributed to him. Soon after this discovery he
married the daughter of the Austrian Emperor Franz II, Marie Louise, who bore him
an heir in March 1811. But Napoleon’s love for Maria endured; he provided her with
discreet assistance, granting her a mansion in Paris, in which she lived in 1810. Their son
was made a count and given financial security. When Napoleon was exiled to St. Helena
Maria married Count Philippe-Antoine d’Ornano, by whom she had her third son (her
first-born had been by old Walewski). Soon, however, she fell seriously ill with kidney
stones and died on 11th December 1817. After some time her mortal remains returned to
Poland and were laid to rest in her birthplace at Kiernozia (Sutherland 1979). Aleksander
(Alexandre), Maria’s son by Napoleon, was the spitting image of his father, but he used
the surname Colonna-Walewski. He took part in the November Uprising and on its fall
emigrated to France. During the reign of Louis Philippe he worked in the French diplomatic service, and was Ambassador to Great Britain in the reign of Napoleon III (1851),
then Foreign Minister of the French Empire (to 1860), and finally Minister of Culture.
Maria
Walewska
115
Secrets of the Past
Fig. 96. Unidentified painter, Portrait of Anna
(“Anetka”) Tyszkiewicz née Potocka, ca. 1800;
MNW
make a lasting impression on him with her delightful charms, the virtues of her spirit making him attached to her. She consoled him in many a difficult moment, visiting him in his
exile on the Island of Elba, while Marie Louise forgot that misfortune does not dissolve the
bonds entered on before God and was oblivious of her matrimonial duties.
The selection of music performed that night is intriguing. Somewhat surprisingly,
while Mozart was acknowledged, there were no pieces by Haydn, instead the choice
fell on Domenico Cimarosa. The reasons for such a choice become clear when we
116
Tableaux vivants
recall that he enjoyed a high level of popularity for the entire first half of the 19th
century. An example of the ecstatic reception of Cimarosa, sometimes even preferred
to Mozart, may be found in the diary of Eugène Delacroix (Delacroix 1951, pp. 94,
116–117, 192). The recollections of Anna née Tyszkiewicz provide further details to
clarify the choice of repertoire: The Emperor had a full orchestra, led by the renowned
Paër, in his retinue. There was always Italian music in the programme. Napoleon must
have loved it, as he listened attentively and showed his connoisseurship in his applause;
the harmony of the music seemed to bear an enormous effect on his spiritual powers. We
observed evidence of this one day during a reception (Memoirs of the Countess Potocka
1901, p. 84).
A beautiful woman, Maria Walewska, appears in the context of the fine music-making, and receives something of a commendation for standing by the Emperor even in
hard times. Leon Potocki’s book is overtly retrospective in character; in his account of
the evening he makes interesting forays into the future, a future which at the time the
book went to press was already a thing of the past. We shall juxtapose Leon’s account
with the observations of Anna, our second eye-witness: Time, which bestows the right
colours on every event . . . finally brought Mrs. Walewska into the limelight of the interesting
personalities of the period. . . . Delightfully beautiful, she embodied the type of beauty depicted in the paintings of Greuze. Her eyes, mouth, and teeth were charming. Her smile was
so fresh, the look in her eyes so gentle, and her face such a completely captivating entity that
the defects which did not allow her features to be called classic went unnoticed. Only Greuze
managed to depict this kind of beauty (Memoirs of the Countess Potocka 1901, p. 80).
In her superbly composed memoirs Anna Potocka née Tyszkiewicz, Stanisław Kostka’s daughter-in-law, affectionately called Anetka (see Fig. 96) does not merely write
about the atmosphere of those days, the circumstances of Napoleon’s infatuation, and
Walewska’s beauty; she also invokes facts to justify the requiting of the Emperor’s
love. But Anetka would not have been true to herself if she had not thrown in the
gossip circulating in Warsaw. Maria Walewska had been given in marriage at the age
of sixteen to an old man of eighty who had no social life and never appeared in company;
therefore her status in the world was like that of a young widow. Her youth in combination with the promising situation gave rise to many a tale, and if Napoleon was the last of
her lovers, the word that went round was that he wasn’t the first (Memoirs of the Countess
Potocka 1901, p. 80-81). We know that the beautiful Maria was married in late 1804
to Chamberlain Anastazy Walewski of Walewice, to whom she bore a son, Antoni
Bazyli Rudolf, in June of the following year, on their return from a honeymoon in
Italy. Many contemporaries wondered whether the ancient Chamberlain could have
fathered the child. Nonetheless he recognised the boy as his, and in later times the
general opinion was that the lad resembled him (Sutherland 1979).
Let’s return to the story in Leon Potocki’s memoir, in which the reference to the
beautiful Walewska is a sort of introduction to an account of the main dialogues of
the night, not only about dancing, but also the political situation of Poland. When
the concert was over, he writes, they returned to the ballroom, where there was splendid
military music. The ball did not start with the traditional Polish dance [the polonaise],
which the Poles had managed to forget already, while the French had not yet learned it.
Our quick-witted Polish women had already learned the French dances in just a few
weeks since the arrival of the Gallic newcomers in Warsaw. The musicians started up the
contredanse. Napoleon partnered Mrs. Walewska, opposite him was Berthier with the fair
Bronikowska who had just arrived in Warsaw from Paris; the Prince of Bavaria danced
117
Secrets of the Past
Fig. 97. Kazimierz Wojniakowski after an original idea by Wojciech Bogusławski; aquatint
by Jan Ligber; “Napoleon as the Rising Sun”:
standard displayed in the Teatr Narodowy on
18th January 1807 on the occasion of Napoleon’s attendance at a performance of Ludwik Osiński’s play Andromeda. The aquatint
is kept in the Muzeum Teatralne collection
in Warsaw. There is a distinct connection between the Emperor’s apotheosis on these artefacts and the warm, well-nigh affectionate
attitude to him in Leon Potocki’s book. After
nearly half a century Napoleon was still an
important person for Poles and affectionately
remembered by them. The Theatre Museum,
Warsaw
118
with Miss Ewa Kicka, and Murat with Mrs. Cichocka. “Madam, do you know why I
always put Berthie opposite me in a dance? I do so impishly, he dances like a bear, thereby
I appear to be slightly better.” When the contredanse had finished and other dances ensued
Napoleon went up to a group of men in which there were several Poles, and asked, “Tell
me, gentlemen, what were the origins of your polonaise?” “The polonaise goes back to the
times of Henri de Valois, King of Poland,” Stanisław Potocki replied. “When he was returning to France he stopped in Venice, and a new dance called the polonaise was devised
for him, so that he could make his acquaintance with the whole company as they went past
in pairs. Thereafter the dance was brought to Poland.” “An Italian dance,” said Napoleon,
“introduced in Poland by a French king should return to France. Duroc! Henceforth every
ball in Paris shall begin with the polonaise!”
We have not managed to find out where this information on the Venetian and
French origin of the polonaise came from. It is widely accepted that originally the
polonaise was a folk dance done in the manner of a walk to the music and dated back
to the late 16th or early 17th century; only later was it adopted in the courts of the
nobility. At the court of the kings of Poland the polonaise was part of the court ceremonial; it was danced as the beginning of a ball and constituted a sort of parade of
the gentlefolk and nobility for the king to watch. At any rate the memory of Henri de
Valois was kept alive in the Palace; his portrait, which has survived to our times and
is now in the National Museum in Warsaw, was on display (see Fig. 71).
After this brief aside on the polonaise we shall return to Potocki’s relation: At
the very back of the room there was a chair prepared for the Emperor in the manner of
a throne, but he did not sit in it. That day Napoleon was in an excellent mood; with his
arms behind his back, he paced along a long line of men. With some he conversed politely,
to others he smiled, he pulled his generals by the ears or gave them a pat on the back, to
each he recalled something pleasant, a victory, a brave deed, a laudable achievement.
When he reached Prince Józef Poniatowski he asked how much time he needed to have
the whole of his division ready for battle. “Six weeks,” the Prince replied. “Good,” said the
Emperor, “the spring campaign will not have started by that time yet. My army has taken
a large number of cannons from the Prussians, I’ ll give them to the Poles.” Having noticed
Józef Szumlański, Prince Poniatowski’s old adjutant and a veteran volunteer from the
Egyptian campaign, he waved to him, and when the latter had come up he said, “How
are you, my friend, wasn’t it a fine day when we fought a battle near the pyramids?” “Yes,
Sir, and even finer for the pyramids. Up to that time they had been the tokens of the pride
of despotic monarchs, henceforth they will be able to tell future ages that they witnessed the
victories of the great Napoleon!” Napoleon smiled and moved on, and when he came to
Stanisław Małachowski, Marshal of the Four-Year Sejm, and a group of ministers of the
interim government, he said to them, “Gentlemen, your discords were the cause of the fall
of a nation so memorable in history, let the disasters of the past serve as an example and
foster unity among you. Let the principal lords take up the lead, and let the gentry, clergy,
and townsfolk join them enthusiastically. As soon as I see about 40,000 armed men ready
for battle I’ ll declare an independent Poland in Warsaw, and when I do no-one will manage to assail it. Gentlemen,” he added, “show yourselves worthy of your forefathers, who
dictated terms to the court of Brandenburg, put tsars on the throne of Muscovy, liberated
Vienna and delivered the whole of Christendom from having to pay tribute to the Turk,
and then you shall be Polish… It is in the interest of Europe and France for there to be
a Poland; Poland’s existence depends on you alone, for I’ ll repeat to you what I said in
Berlin, I shall see whether the Poles deserve to be a nation.”
Tableaux vivants
These words, that there should be a Poland, and that he would see if the Poles deserve to be a nation – the most important words in the whole of Leon Potocki’s
book – were really uttered by the Emperor, but part of what we have cited was said
in Poznań, to Józef Wybicki, who also attended the ball in Warsaw (Kipa 1959). It
is quite likely that Napoleon actually said the words on Poland’s glorious past, he
was well-versed in history (Skarbek 1860, Vol. 1, pp. 82–83). However, Napoleon’s
conversations with the Poles in the Czartoryski-Potocki Palace as recorded in Leon
Potocki’s book were drawn up certainly in outcome of Potocki’s research in the archives, although of course in part from the world of poetic licence. But let’s get back
to his story. Napoleon asked Ludwik Gutakowski what the government was working
on. “First of all it is catering for the needs of the army,” Gutakowski replied. “Good,” the
Emperor exclaimed, “Thank you, that’s what I’m most interested in.” Then he turned to
Ossoliński, who presided over the supreme court, and asked what legislation was used in
the courts. Ossoliński told him that the courts used Polish law, and Frederick II’s [Prussian] laws were resorted to only in the event of want of appropriate Polish regulations.
Then Napoleon asked what language was used in the courts, and when told it was Polish,
he exclaimed, “So you are Polish!” Whereupon he quickly turned away from the menfolk
and hurried back to the dancers (Fig. 97).
Soon after the revelling and the dancing came the heavy fighting, in which Prince
Józef rose to the rank of national hero (Fig. 98). The fate of the Duchy of Warsaw
was uncertain, but its more and more powerful forces did their duty well (Skarbek
1860, Vol. 2, pp. 3–64; Grochulska 1966, pp. 137–142). On 15th April 1809 the 32
thousand-strong Austrian corps commanded by the Archduke Ferdinand d’Este, of
the Tuscan line of the Habsburgs, crossed the border of the Duchy of Warsaw. On
19th April the memorable Battle of Raszyn was fought, in which the enemy forces
sustained heavy losses. However, after many hours of fighting the Polish units,
with only half the numbers of the Austrians, had to retreat. The Archduke Ferdinand entered Warsaw and stayed nearly to the end of May; however, Prince Poniatowski’s military exploits were bringing bigger and bigger successes. On 15th July
he took Kraków, and for a time he even controlled Lwów. In these circumstances
yet another ball, one in its kind, was held in the Potocki Palace. Leon Potocki left
a description of it, just as he had the ball of January 1807, this time in his well-nigh
forgotten memoirs of “reminiscences of his youth”
During his short stay in Warsaw the Archduke Ferdinand reviewed the troops every
day, and at least once a week held a military parade on the Saxon square . . . The Austrian officers had no traffic with the citizens; every Polish house was closed to them, yet
every night you could see all the people of the city out on the banks of our native river,
all eyes were turned in the direction where our troops were collecting new laurels! The
young Archduke, who was used to the merry life of Vienna, was bored in Warsaw. He
wanted to take a look at those Polish ladies about whose charms he had heard so much
from Count Neuberg, his chief-of-staff, but he did not know how to set about the matter. Finally having called on Mrs. Potocka, the Voivode’s wife, he asked her to arrange
an evening for him to meet the Polish ladies. His request was fulfilled, the rooms of the
Palace were lit up, but it was a garden with no flowers, there was not a single Polish
lady there (Potocki 1876, p. 237).
Fig. 98. Josef Grassi, Portrait of Prince Józef
Poniatowski, oils on canvas, ca. 1810; ZKW.
Photo by A. Ring and B. Tropiło. The Prince
has high-ranking military distinctions on
his uniform: the Virtuti Militari, which King
Stanisław August founded after the Battle of
Zieleńce, and the Order of the White Eagle.
On hearing of the King’s accession to the proRussian Confederation of Targowica, Prince
Józef returned the Orders of the White Eagle
and of St. Stanislaus.
The Battle of
Raszyn and
the ball for
the Archduke
Ferdinand
119
Secrets of the Past
Aleksandra
Potocka’s
tableaux
vivants
Fig. 99. Louis Marteau, Portrait of Izabela
Czartoryska, pastels, ca. 1760; Wilanów Palace Museum
120
Neither marching armies and preparations for the confrontation with Russia, nor
the huge expenses on the army attenuated the aristocracy’s demand for social life and
entertainment. Many of the houses in the city put on concerts or theatrical performances, or applied the assiduity befitting grand archaeological discoveries to stage les
tableaux vivants, “live pictures” – re-enactments of famous paintings or of the ancient
frescoes discovered at Pompeii and other Vesuvian towns. The vogue for such tableaux was long-lived and widely disseminated. We know that such events were held
in the apartment of the Chopin family in one of the buildings of the University of
Warsaw (Miziołek, Kowalski 2010, pp. 172–173). A similar cultural event was held
in 1808 on the present-day premises of the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage. Before we go on to describe it we shall say something about the history of these
“live pictures”, which had something of the pantomime and the theatre show about
them (Touchette 2000).
In his Italian Journey (1787) Johann W. Goethe describes Emma Hamilton’s famous “attitudes” or pantomimes: Sir William Hamilton, who is still living here as English ambassador, has now, after many years of devotion to the arts and the study of nature,
found the acme of these delights in the person of an English girl of twenty with a beautiful
face and a perfect figure. He has had a Greek costume made for her which becomes her
extremely. Dressed in this, she lets down her hair and, with a few shawls, gives so much
variety to her poses, gestures, expressions, etc., that the spectator can hardly believe his eyes.
He sees what thousands of artists would have liked to express realized before him in movements and surprising transformations – standing, kneeling, sitting, reclining, serious, sad,
playful, ecstatic, contrite, alluring, threatening, anxious, one pose follows another without
a break. (Goethe 1982, p. 208).
Emma’s attitudes were immortalised in the drawings of Friedrich Rehberg, which
later served as the basis for Tommaso Piroli’s etchings. These in turn were reproduced
for King Stanisław August by Ferdynand Pinck (1761–1797: Miziołek 2010, fig. 112
A–M). Aleksandra Potocka could have been familiar with Pinck’s copies, or with the
originals by Piroli, which presented compositions and attitudes from the Pompeian
and vase painting. A set of 13 of Pinck’s drawings is in the Print Room of the Library
of Warsaw University (Zbiór Król. T. 174). Another artistic form similar to tableaux
vivants were charades, performances of little scenes entailing words which spectators
had to guess (Komza 1995). The origins of tableaux vivants of the kind performed in
the Potocki Palace in 1808 have faded into oblivion (Holmström 1967). However, by
the turn of the centuries they had become widespread. A place especially noted for
them was the stately home of the Czartoryski family at Puławy, where they were put
on by the lady of the house, Izabela Czartoryska née Fleming, wife of Adam Kazimierz Czartoryski (Fig. 99).
Leon Dembowski’s sister left a record in her fascinating memoirs of the 1808
performance in the Potocki Palace, and her account later made its way into Dembowski’s book: Yesterday at Mrs. Potocka’s nous avons arrangé des tableaux. Laura
[Potocka] and I arranged all the props and did made the arrangements and preparations and bossed everyone around, and it was all a big success. We had a gallery of six
living tableaux. First there was une femme de Rubens, performed by Mrs. Potocka,
the wife of Antoni (later Branicka). Next there was a reclining Bacchante holding
a bunch of grapes and spied on by a little Satyr peeping from behind some flowers; she
was played by Mrs. Potocka, the wife of Aleksander, with Ludwik Kicki as the Satyr.
The third picture was Domenichini’s Sybil, played by Mrs. Sobolewska. Unfortunately
Tableaux vivants
Fig. 100. Jan Rustem, Group portrait of Maria Mirska, Barbara Szumska, and Adam Napoleon Mirski, ca. 1808, oils on canvas; MNW
she was dressed inappropriately, with a mix of too many colours, which made her costume gaudy. Next Mr. Antoni Potocki portrayed a Van Dyck and he looked marvellous. Then there was une discussion de Carace, presented by Ewusia (Miss Kicka) and Mr.
Michał Grabowski, and it was the finest performance. The room was arranged with each
tableau separated off by live statues: Lorcia en danseuse d’Herculanum, Mrs. Gabryela
Zabiełłowa née Gutakowska en Psyché, myself en Vestale, and Miss Teresa Kicka répresentait une femme faisant danser le Cupidon. The rest of the room was decorated with antique
vases, candelabras, and diverse artistic knick-knacks. The event was put on for the Frenchmen. Ils paraissaient enchantés, and were probably being polite when they said that even
in Paris there was nothing as beautiful as our performance. After the tableaux dinner was
served and the company, which had been put in a good mood, enjoyed the rest of the evening
dressing up in a variety of costumes (Dembowski 1898, Vol. 1, pp. 341–342).
Thus the Potocki Palace was recurrently seeing moments of great glory; it was
a truly international place not only on account of the subject of those tableaux
vivants, but also because these entertainments were given in honour of the French.
We know of these tableaux vivants from other sources as well, for instance from
Antoni Brodowski’s watercolour intended as the never implemented design for
a decoration of the gala rooms in the Teatr Wielki (Miziołek 2010, pp. 57–58), and
a painting made by Jan Rustem around 1808, now in the National Museum in
Warsaw (Figs. 100–101).
Fig. 101. Dancer
with cymbals,
watercolours. Copy
made around 1785 of
a detail from a painting
in the Villa of Cicero at Pompeii, after a drawing in Antichità
di Ercolano (vol. 1, tab. XXI); GR
BUW. The Pompeian dancers in
this publication were undoubtedly an inspiration for painters
and palace performances alike.
121
Secrets of the Past
With Armenian roots and associated with Wilno and its university, Jan Rustem
received his art education in Warsaw, tutored by Piotr Norblin (Jean-Pierre Norblin
de La Gourdaine) and subsequently by Marcello Bacciarelli in what was known as
the Painting Establishment at the Royal Castle (Malarnia na Zamku Królewskim). He
could well have examined the watercolours in the King’s collection depicting many
of the fine paintings from Pompeii. These were the works, along with tableaux vivants
like Lorcia en danseuse d’Herculanum, in which Lorcia (presumably Laura Potocka)
appeared as a dancer from Herculaneum, which inspired him to paint the portrait of
Maria Mirska, Barbara Szumska, and Adam Napoleon Mirski. In this painting the
central figure is Maria Mirska, presented as a dancer with cymbals in her hands. Her
pose may on the one hand be seen as a forerunner of the dancer in Brodowski’s design, and on the other as a visual embodiment of the dancer described in Dembowski’s memoirs. As we have seen and as Dembowski’s reminiscences tell us, tableaux
vivants were popular in Warsaw at the time, and Rustem was often asked to stage
them. In an age when practically everyone was interested in the excavations carried
out in the Vesuvian towns, the reception of the art of Antiquity was being promoted
not only directly by ancient works of art, but also by performances of this kind, which
were inspired by ancient artworks. The performances given in the Potocki Palace
were in perfect harmony with the Neo-Pompeian decoration of the superb Arabesque
Room (see Figs. 35–38).
Our relation of the Palace’s story would be incomplete without at least one account
of the minor theatrical performances given in it. First we shall present a roll-call of
the visitors who were its frequent guests after the death of Count Stanisław Kostka.
Natalia Kicka wrote that she and her aunt Teresa often used to call on the senior Mrs.
Potocka, née Lubomirska, the widow of Stanisław, the Minister of Education. The Dowager Countess lived in the palace on the Krakowskie Przedmieście, opposite the former
Radziwiłł Palace, where the statue of Marshal Paskevich now stood. She kept an open
house, with balls and dinners, and was visited every day for tea by old Kownacki, the
author of a now rare book on history whom the paupers of Warsaw nicknamed Robinson
Crusoe; Józef, the old Count Sierakowski; poor Brzozia, who suffered from dropsy; Mrs.
Laura Tarnowska née Potocka; the playwright Niemcewicz; Natalia Potocka, who had
married Prince Roman Sanguszko; old Metzell the designer of Zofiówka House; and others (Kicka 1972, pp. 181–182). Almost all of these people may be seen on a drawing
probably made around 1810, to which we shall return in due course. Now for Kicka’s
brief reminiscence of a theatrical event at the Palace: After the ball the ladies wanted
a comedy played. Mrs. Potocka’s huge apartment could easily serve as a small playhouse.
Rehearsals in it were even more fun than the gala evenings attended by the Grand Duke
Constantine. Prince Adam’s wife, newly returned from Paris, appeared in one of these, a
short farce by Niemcewicz. She played Pani Madam (“Mrs. Madam”), with a kitten under one arm and a puppy under the other. She was being hired for the post of a governess
by a steward played by Sagatyński, who held an enormous whip in his hand. He also held
a long register of provisions for the pantry: pepper, spices, coffee etc., and last on the list was
an item in which his master and mistress required him to hire a governess for their children
(Kicka 1972, pp. 183–184).
A fascinating iconographic record has survived from the times when comedies and
tableaux vivants were performed in the Potocki Palace. Moreover, it provides a testimonial to a flourishing social life in the Polish style (Fig. 102). It presents a humorous and rather venturesome drawing by Laura Potocka, presumably the Lorcia
122
Tableaux vivants
who had dressed up as a lady of Herculaneum (Artystki polskie 1991, p. 288). This
cartoon, which is preserved in the National Museum in Warsaw, has commentary
and a key to the people depicted in it. Starting from the left we see a group playing
cards – General Sułkowski, whose face is somewhat reminiscent of Napoleon, one
of the Potocki ladies, and Atanazy Raczyński. Next to them are the standing figures
of Michał Grabowski and Colonel Rożniecki, a close collaborator with the Russian
functionary Novosiltsov under the Congress Kingdom. In the middle of the picture
we have Walenty Gutakowski and Ludwik Kicki, who had played the role of Cupid
in the tableau vivant we have already described. The most attention-drawing figure is
Artur Potocki, dressed in a Polish kontusz coat and reclining on a sofa due to fatigue
from eating and drinking, as the overhead inscription informs us. On the right, almost at the edge of the picture, we see four figures: a thin man with his hands hidden
in his sleeves. This is Stanisław Kostka Potocki, the master of the house. Next to him
are Teresa Kicka and two other ladies, Sułkowska and Tarnowska.
Fig. 102. Laura Potocka, “Un Coup d’Oeil dans
l’Avenir!” Cartoon showing the social life of
the Potocki Palace under the Duchy of Warsaw, 1809, pen-and-ink and pencil drawing;
MNW
123
Secrets of the Past
A trip
to Bliss and
Niemcewicz’s
piglet
A historical
reconstruction
in honour of
Niemcewicz
124
Still in the humorous vein, we shall look into the memoirs of Andrzej Edward Koźmian,
who relates an amusing anecdote about the playwright Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz, one of
the Palace’s most distinguished residents. Under the Congress Kingdom he had an apartment in one of the wings of the Potocki Palace, while in the same period he purchased a rural
property near Natolin called Rozkosz (“Bliss”), which he nicknamed Ursynów, and stayed there
during the summer, though often visiting the city. One day Mrs. Potocka said she would like
to have dinner with him at his house in the country. He was not too pleased by this, as he was
not prepared to receive visitors, especially as having come up to Warsaw, he had intended to
spend the whole day in town. However, he did not dare deny her hospitality, but only asked to
be allowed a place in her carriage, since he had no vehicle of his own. Mrs. Potocka was a lady
of distinction, very attentive to propriety, vigilantly alert to even the minutest details of polite
manners, lest her dignity be infringed in any way. She was like one of those erstwhile French
duchesses or marchionesses, une grande dame of Bourbon times. A carriage drawn by four spotted horses which she normally used pulled up, and two footmen opened the door, helping their
mistress in. Niemcewicz took a seat next to her. Barely had they left the Palace’s court when Her
Ladyship felt something moving under her feet. The further they went, the more it moved; when
she moved her foot something squeaked. As she was poor-sighted, she put on her lorgnette to take
a look at what it was that was moving and making a noise under her feet. The squeaking was
becoming louder and more intense. “What is it, Mr. Niemcewicz,” she inquired. “Oh, nothing,”
Ursyn replied, trying to change the conversation to other topics. But the concealed little creature
was jerking about more and more vehemently and its squeaks were getting louder and louder.
“But what is it? I want to know!” the lady said with all the gravity proper to her. “Nothing,”
Ursyn replied, “Just a piglet in a sack. You asked yourself into dinner without giving me prior
notice. I didn’t have anything to serve for dinner, so I went to the market and bought a suckling
pig, which I have to take back to my modest cuisine. “Ah, c’est un peu trop fort!” the horrified
Lady Voivode exclaimed. But she was obliged to forgive her old friend the prank and for all her
gravity, distinction, and fine ladylike manners suffer a suckling pig in a sack ride with her in
her four-horse carriage from Warsaw to Bliss (Koźmian 1867, pp. 274–275).
It was not the only incident in the history of the Palace in which a pig played a part.
During the November Uprising of 1830–31, a time of hardship for Warsaw and its people, rearing animals became well-nigh a necessity owing to the food shortage. In March
1831 an advertisement was put into the classified columns of the Warsaw newspapers,
saying that a sow had disappeared from No. 415 in the Krakowskie Przedmieście. It was
lean, having just littered, and had one dug pulled out. A reward would be given to anyone
who returned the pig to the above address. Unfortunately we have not managed to find out
which of the Palace’s tenants was the owner of this pig, but we do know that at this time
other residents kept pigs big and small, as well as cows fattened for meat (Kwiatkowska
and Malinowska 1976, pp. 84–85).
Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz (1757–1841) is a celebrity in the history of Polish culture,
so we shall recapitulate some of the main facts relating to his life. He was educated
in Warsaw’s military college known as the Szkoła Rycerska or Korpus Kadetów. He
was adjutant to Adam Kazimierz Czartoryski, and during the Uprising of 1794 to
Kościuszko himself, its commander-in-chief. He was a deputy representing Livonia
to the Great Sejm (1788–1792), took a very active part in Stronnictwo Patriotyczne,
a patriotic political association, and contributed to the drafting of the Third of May
Tableaux vivants
Constitution (1791). After the victory of its adversaries, the pro-Russian Confederation of Targowica, he went into exile. He was taken prisoner after the Battle of Maciejowice during the 1794 Uprising and imprisoned in the Peter and Paul Fortress in
St. Petersburg. In 1796 Tsar Paul I reprieved him, and he accompanied Kościuszko
to the United States, where he settled and married an American, Susan Livingston
Kean. He had a good knowledge of France, England, and Italy, which he visited at
least twice. In 1802–1804 he returned home for good, or so he thought (Rusinowa
1999). As of 1822 he settled down in his suburban property at Ursynów and engaged in literary pursuits. He held the office of secretary to the Senate of the Duchy
of Warsaw, and also under the Congress Kingdom. As of 1802 he was a member
of the learned society known as Towarzystwo Przyjaciół Nauk, and its president as of
1826. He wrote Śpiewy historyczne, a rhymed history of Poland set to music (1816: Fig.
103). He took an active part in the November Uprising, and after its fall emigrated to
France, where he died and was buried. His biographer Adam Jerzy Czartoryski wrote
of his deep sensitivity to the fate of his country: everything that Niemcewicz aspired
to and did was tinged with sadness, resignation, and a desire to separate himself off from
the world (Uroda portretu 2009, p. 230). Juliusz Słowacki seconded this opinion, in a
reference to Niemcewicz in the opening scene (Przygotowanie) to his play “Kordian”:
The old man like a skylark,
Hardened in rock of reminiscence,
Half-solid, gone to putrescence,
Poet – knight – dotard – nothing …
But in Warsaw, prior to the November Uprising, Niemcewicz had been happy, respected, and usually in a cheerful mood. He often stayed in his rooms in one of the
wings of the Potocki Palace, where in 1828 a special celebration was held for his name
day, as Koźmian writes:
Mrs. Potocka, wife of Stanisław, had a special surprise for him on his patron saint’s
feast-day in 1828. It was just after the publication of his romance “Jan z Tenczyna”, in
which he gave a fascinating description of a banquet at the court of Sigismund Augustus,
attended by the most eminent personalities of the age. Niemcewicz had received an invitation to luncheon from Mrs. Potocka and arrived at the appointed time, but when he found
that no-one was there except for the hostess he was disappointed and angry, complaining
that people were so disrespectful with regard to his person even on his name-day. Suddenly the door to the dining room flung open, and the mistress of the house led him in, to
find the room full of everyone dressed in the costumes of the characters he had described in
the scene of the feast in his novel. There was King Sigismund Augustus and the beautiful
Barbara, played by the even more beautiful Natalia Potocka decked in her mother’s diamonds. There was Queen Bona, played by Mrs. Rozalia Rzewuska; and Queen Izabella,
played by Mrs. Wąsowiczowa. Then up got the poet Mikołaj Rej of Nagłowice (played by
Ogiński) and with his sonorous voice recited a poem he had composed himself, of which
the real Rej would probably have had no need to feel ashamed, wishing Niemcewicz many
happy returns of the day and assuring him of the whole company’s love and deep respect.
Old Ursyn was so pleased he wept for joy, and for the first time in his life forgave the company for keeping him waiting for luncheon (Koźmian 1867 Vol. 1, p. 278).
In view of Niemcewicz’s deeds of merit for Warsaw and Polish culture, we shall
relate the elaborate account of this event in the memoirs of Fryderyk Skarbek: The
Fig. 103. Title page of Julian Ursyn Niemczewicz’s poetic history of Poland set to music
(1816), BNW
125
Secrets of the Past
Fig. 104. Maria Kalergis, photograph;
The Theatre Museum, Warsaw
126
national spirit was bolstered and kept up in Warsaw society most particularly by Niemcewicz, whose malicious wit punished all who dared depart from the path of civic duty;
he railed at those who were overtly pro-Russian, and wielded moral authority, well-nigh
like a despot, over the whole of society. Accustomed to continuous tributes, he commanded
general respect and submissiveness that went so far that whatever he censured was censured
by all, and whomever he branded with a word of disparagement would be condemned or
fall victim to ridicule. Niemcewicz’s influence made a considerable contribution to fostering enmity between the Poles and the Russians, and of the latter he was full of reproach
especially for Novosiltsov and his flatterers and factionists, for whom he coined individual
nicknames . . . Each year Niemcewicz’s name-day was celebrated with special pomp in
turn in one of the city’s great houses in which he was loved and hosted with familiar admiration. Mrs. Potocka, the Voivode’s wife, gave a magnificent luncheon in his honour.
Several chroniclers have made records of it already, nonetheless I think it right to mention
it but briefly. It was a faithful imitation of the dinner given by King Sigismund Augustus
as described by Niemcewicz in his book “Jan z Tęczyna”. . . .
When the guest of honour arrived at the Lady Voivode’s for an ordinary luncheon, not
expecting anything unusual, suddenly the doors of the main hall were flung open and in
came several ladies in historic Polish costumes, followed by the Dowager Queen Bona with
Barbara Radziwiłłówna on her right and Queen Izabella with her son on her left. Then the
door at the opposite end of the room opened, and King Sigismund Augustus entered preceded
by a large retinue of courtiers led by the marshal of the royal court, who cried out aloud, “His
Majesty the King!” At these words a trumpet fanfare was sounded, and a roll of drums, the
king went up to Bona and bowed to her, whereupon the chamberlain announced that luncheon was served. Two courtiers came up to the king, one with a golden bowl, the other with
an embroidered towel, and when the king had washed his hands and had his rings, which
he had taken off, returned by the courtiers, he offered his arm to his mother and escorted her
into the dining hall, in which two tables had been laid. At one of them sat the royal family
and Niemcewicz the guest of honour, and at the other the persons in the retinue. . . . When
everyone had taken their seat a conversation started, literally based on the novel. Only the
following passage was added at the end: The King said to Rej of Nagłowice, who was played
by Ludwik Osiński, “My Lord of Nagłowice, you should call your Apollo to come hither and
say something fitting, especially as today is the feast-day of one of your illustrious colleagues.”
Addressed in this manner, Rej responded that Apollo was in the habit of visiting him in the
company of Bacchus, and asked the King for permission to raise a toast to the Queen. Then he
turned to Jan Kochanowski with the following words, “Good sir, pray put aside your laments
today, and instead sing merry songs.” To which Kochanowski made answer, “I am too old for
that, but among us there is one who will do so with rhymes more elegant than mine, so that
our history will be sung to music, and perhaps he will even mention us in his works. So let
us drink to his health. Long live the one who will pass down our story to future generations!”
Upon these words the King and all the company raised their ancient cups to drink the toast,
and Osiński recited his beautiful poem, specially written for the occasion. Niemcewicz who
had been silent up to that point, but deeply moved, wept profusely, expressed his gratitude in
words full of emotion, and raised a toast to Osiński. . . . The entire banquet was maintained
in the ancient native Polish style; the tables were set with historic silverware brought in from
Wilanów Palace; only traditional Polish dishes were served; and the retainers were dressed in
Polish kontusz coats or in the Tartar manner; in a word, the entire celebration was marked
by a singular richness and grandeur, and after the luncheon many guests invited for the evening arrived to admire the splendour (Skarbek 2009, pp. 208–210).
Tableaux vivants
Another outstanding but today virtually forgotten personality entered his name in
the annals of the Potocki Palace in the times of the Duchy of Warsaw and the Congress
Kingdom – Count Józef Sierakowski (1765–1831), counsellor of state and member of
the Government Commission for Religious Denominations and Public Education.
He gained renown as an art lover, and collector of rare books and historic memorabilia. He was the author of O mitologii Słowian (On the Mythology of the Slavs), and
the publisher of the first volume of Adam Naruszewicz’s history of the Polish Nation.
Sierakowski made a significant contribution to the founding of the University of Warsaw, especially its Fine Arts Department. He died in his apartment on the first floor
of one of the Palace’s wings, and his valuable collections were put up for auction in
February and March 1832. They included oil paintings, china, pottery, and glassware;
a brand new double carriage and another, hardly used vehicle, a sleigh, and horse harnesses. Andrzej Edward Koźmian devoted a considerable amount of attention to him
in his memoirs, writing that water was the element of Nature which Sierakowski considered completely useless, and which he never used. He imported his attire from London and
Paris, but it was always stained and soiled with snuff taken from other people’s snuff-boxes,
as he never had one of his own on him. His Polish servants were well contented with their
master’s disposition, which suited their idleness; his rooms were never swept, and his finest
paintings and artworks, sculptures by Benvenuto Cellini, jewellery boxes once belonging to
Catherine de’ Medici, or cartoons by the foremost masters were covered with a thick layer of
dust accumulated over many years. His face and hands were cloaked with a mantle of dust
and dirt just as old, never washed or wiped off; one year when he was off to the seaside for
a swim someone parodied the lines from Shakespeare’s “Macbeth” with reference to him:
“Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this filth / Clean from my hand?”
Sierakowski occupied rooms in the same wing of the Potocki Palace in which Niemcewicz lived. The latter held Sierakowski in respect, but made fun of his “fondness”
for dirt. One day Sierakowski’s servant told him that there was a young washerwoman sent by Mr. Niemcewicz who wanted to see him. Sierakowski, who liked looking
at attractive young women, even if they were washerwomen, let her come in. “Mr.
Niemcewicz sent me,” she said as she came in, “to take you to be laundered.” Good old
Sierakowski laughed at his neighbour’s prank, but would not let himself be washed and
stayed as dirty as before (Koźmian 1867, p. 289; Kicka 1972, p. 184).
When Sierakowski died in 1831, hard times came for Warsaw and Poland, with the
fall of the November Uprising and the severe reprisals that followed. Soon the Palace
would suffer, too, turning from a princely residence into a tenement building. The following remark was recorded in one of the memoirs of the Uprising: Many less affluent
families came up to Warsaw for the winter, but after 1831 time and death closed all the
doors. . . . Prince Adam Czartoryski took his wife and children into exile in Paris and England; he stood up for his country and was laid to rest in Paris. In 1831 Mrs. Potocka, widow
of Stanisław, moved from Warsaw to Kraków, where she died; and Warsaw was left in widow’s weeds, leading the life of the bereaved, weeping and grief-stricken (Kicka 1972, p. 194).
Warsaw again turned into a provincial town, but after some time its cultural life revived and flourished, though not as intensively as before. This was true of the Czartoryski-Potocki Palace as well. One of the important ingredients of its cultural affairs
was music, promoted by Maria Kalergis (1822–1874), one of Chopin’s pupils and the
Fig. 105. Eliza Radziwiłłówna, Portrait of Fryderyk Chopin at the piano, drawing, 1826;
NIFC
In his letter to Tytus Woyciechowski of 30
March 1830 Chopin writes about his meeting
with Max Oborski, which took the place in the
Potocki Palace on the occasion of a theatrical
performance.
Music
in the Palace
and Maria
Kalergis
127
Secrets of the Past
Fig. 106. Cyprian Kamil Norwid, Portrait of
Maria Kalergis with roses in her hair, pen-and-ink drawing, ca. 1848; BNW, Warsaw
muse of the poet Cyprian Kamil Norwid (Figs. 104–105). Maria was the daughter
of Tekla Nałęcz-Górska and the infamous Count Karl Nesselrode, a German in the
service of the Russians. She was born and died in Warsaw, but spent her childhood
in St. Petersburg and a few years of her youth in Paris. She travelled a lot, especially
in Italy, but was often in Warsaw, lodging in the Czartoryski-Potocki Palace. She
was married off at 17 to Jan (Johann, John) Kalergis, a Greek millionaire, but they
separated shortly after the wedding; however, they did not divorce. She was beautiful, intelligent, witty, and musical, with blue eyes and glorious golden hair. Norwid,
who met her in France in 1844 and a year later in Rome and Naples, made several
128
Tableaux vivants
portraits of her (Melbechowska-Luty 2001). In one of them, a pen-and-ink drawing
of her profile, she is shown with roses in her hair, radiant with sensuousness, elegance,
and a pensive look verging on sadness (Figs. 106–107). When was this portrait made
of la donna cigno (as Maria was called)? Probably around 1850, when Norwid, who
was deeply in love with her, realised he had no chance of requitement.
We now pass on to a description of the music-making and singing in the Palace in
the years when la donna cigno was an occasional resident. In a relation of one of its
musical soirées we read that its guests included the Princess of Warsaw [the wife of
Paskevich] and her daughter, and well over a hundred people. In March 1842 Kurier
Warszawski reported that it was not the first time that the Countess’ apartment was hosting a magnificent entertainment. . . . The mistress of the house and her daughters did the
honours, with the courteous hospitality for which the family of these ladies had been renowned for many years. The programme of the singing consisted of arias from famous operas: “Norma”, “Lucia di Lammermoor”, “La sonnambula”, and “I puritani”, and their
performance brought the listeners genuine pleasure. Vincenzo Bellini received an excellent
interpretation worthy of his august concepts from the amateur ladies who performed. They
were accompanied on the piano by Mr. Nach, and professionals, Messrs Tejchmann and
Ricciardi, also sang (Kwiatkowska and Malinowska 1976, p. 91).
In one of its issues for March 1859 the same newspaper informed its readers of the
previous night’s musical event in the rooms of the Honourable Maria Kalergis, daughter
of Count Nesselrode. It was the first time such an event had been held in the rooms of a lady
well-known for her hospitality, and gathered a large number of excellent guests of both sexes for a performance by talented professional and amateur artists. The former included two
first-rate virtuosos recently arrived in Warsaw, the pianist Mr. Ludwik Kortmann, and
the violinist Mr. Kellner. These brilliant artists were received with great contentment by
the audience, for both had an undeniable musical talent, thanks to which their music was
in a very high class of quality. . . . It was a genuine pleasure for the audience to hear their
illustrious hostess give a solo performance of works by the foremost composers. Not much
later Kalergis held a musical matinée, tickets for which were available in her apartment
in Count Stanisław Potocki’s Palace on the Krakowskie Przedmieście, as the press wrote.
The matinée took place on 10th April 1859, with the performance of music by Bach, Donizetti, Schumann, Wagner, and Sajnello [Santarelli? Salieri? Savinelli?], and the national
maestros, Chopin and Moniuszko. The hostess herself played the works of Chopin.
Kalergis, who lived in the Palace on and off from the 1840s to the early 1870s, must
have faced a formidable dilemma in reconciling the treatment of her father, who was the
general of the Russian gendarmes, in the manner due to close relatives, with her ability to
find a modus vivendi with the Poles. Apparently she managed this admirably. According
to her granddaughter, some time in 1846–1848 one of Maria’s friends got her up in the
middle of the night, tapping on her window – she lived on the Palace’s ground floor at
the time – and asked her to hide some documents potentially troublesome for a group of
Polish conspirators. Madame Kalergis took the papers and dumped them into an open
hat-box on the table, and then went back to bed. In the morning her father woke her and
angrily declared that the authorities claimed that she was keeping important documents
given to her by “rebels”, and therefore she would be searched. Gendarmes appeared and
stood in the doorway, preventing her from leaving the room, which they searched thoroughly. But it did not occur to any of them to look into the hat-box which was standing
wide open on the table with the wanted documents in it. When the danger had passed
Madame Kalergis returned the papers to the plotters (see Szenic 1963).
Fig. 107. Maria Kalergis, photograph;
The Theatre Museum, Warsaw
129
3
Splendour of the Past
The Palace
hosts an art
gallery and
an editorial
office
Certain places – villas and palaces – seem to be under the special auspices of the
Muses. The cult of the arts flourishes in them, artistic patronage thrives and concerts
abound in them, sometimes written works on the arts and letters are created in them.
The Czartoryski-Potocki Palace is certainly one of those places. All the more so, for
when in the mid-19th century, after a period of glory, it turned into a tenement house
the guardianesses of the fine arts did not forsake it but again came to its rescue with
assistance which seemed rather unsophisticated but turned out to be highly effective.
The Palace was transformed into an art gallery. Not within its walls, but on its spacious court, where in 1881 the well-known publisher, printer, and entrepreneur Gracjan Unger (1853–1911: Fig. 108) installed a peculiar building. Not that its structure,
designed by Leandro Marconi, was ugly; however, its shape was not at all in concord
with the Palace, and that is why it was often referred to as “the shed” (Fig. 109).
Unger’s pavilion did not survive for long, only 15 years, but in that time it witnessed
many a splendid and memorable artistic event, which did much to neutralise and
conceal its “incompatibility” with the Palace’s elegance.
Ignacy Baliński noted down in his memoirs that he was not sure in which hall Henryk Siemiradzki’s “Christian Torches” had been displayed, but it was in Unger’s shed that
Warsaw had first seen Matejko’s “Battle of Grunwald”. The impression “Grunwald” had
made on contemporary society was dramatic, and must have been unforgettable for those
who saw the painting. Polish painting had now taken up a place alongside the Nation’s
great Romantic poetry and the music of Chopin and Moniuszko – at the peak of the artistic task regarded at the time as its chief and sacred duty: to show the world the vitality,
separate identity, and greatness of the Polish Nation. . . . All who saw “Grunwald” came
away with a long-lasting image before their eyes of the charging Witold, trampling the ancient enemy (Baliński 1987, p. 155). The growing antagonism between Germany and
Russia opened up an opportunity for a reminder in Warsaw of such historic victories
won in times of old by Polish arms, and for recollections of the erstwhile grandeur of
a nation deprived of its statehood. Of course the recollecting could only be one-sided,
not permitting the display of Polish victories over Muscovite Russia, which was a perfectly feasible subject in the Austrian and Prussian zones of partition.
Unger’s name is associated with the establishment of a periodical that played an
enormous role in Poland’s cultural life. The weekly Tygodnik Ilustrowany was a storehouse of information, into which we have often delved in this book. It was founded
by Józef Unger (1817–1874), Gracjan’s adoptive father, in 1859. In 1882, on the initiative of Franciszek Maksymilian Sobieszczański, its editors rented an office in the
south wing of the Palace. Like his adoptive father, Gracjan Unger (born Gracjan
Jeżyński), made his mark professionally as a printer, publisher, and bookseller. He
published a literary weekly entitled Biesiada Literacka, and set up a photo-chemigraphic printing shop which manufactured postcards and reproductions of paintings,
and in 1879 opened his gallery, known as Salon Sztuk Pięknych. Oddly enough, it
pursued its activities as a business belonging to Józef Unger, by then already deceased.
Apart from exhibiting works of art, Gracjan Unger was also an art dealer. The operations of his gallery upset the plans of another cultural institution, Towarzystwo
Zachęty Sztuk Pięknych (the Society for the Encouragement of Fine Arts), which had
Fig. 108. Gracjan Unger, photograph; Archiwum Miasta Stołecznego Warszawy
(Warsaw Municipal Archives).
130
Unger`s pavilion
been founded in 1860. The Society’s aims were to hold exhibitions, purchase works of
art for the national collection, and assist young artists. Unger’s vigorous activities in
1879–1882 practically eclipsed the work of the Society. However, in 1883 the Society
took the initiative and became the tenant of the gallery in the court of the Potocki
Palace, where it continued its operations until 1896, when the pavilion was demolished. Unger’s short-lived episode as proprietor of the gallery may be divided into two
parts: 1879–1881, when the gallery was located on ulica Niecała, and subsequently
from 14th December 1881 to the end of 1882, when he was exhibiting in the pavilion
set up in the court of the Potocki Palace. An insight into the situation between Unger
and the Zachęta is provided by one of Henryk Sienkiewicz’s newspaper columns in
1880, in which the novelist wrote that all the exciting new works in painting went into
Unger’s gallery, while the Zachęta could count only on the small fry, the crumbs falling
from the artists’ tables. Not much was going on in it; there were not many new pictures,
and even fewer visitors. It was believed that when a second gallery was opened this lethargic institution would wake up and be encouraged to introduce changes in its regulations or
a reform, but nothing of the sort happened. The exhibition stayed as it was. One could still
Fig. 109. Unger’s art gallery in the Palace
court, photograph, 1896; Archiwum Miasta
Stołecznego Warszawy (Warsaw Municipal
Archives)
131
Secrets
SSe
ecr
cret
ret
e s of
of tthe
he P
he
Past
ast
ast
as
Unger`s
Un
U
nge
nge
ger`
rsp
pa
pavilion
avili
viliioon
vi
n
Secrets of the Past
display a picture in it – and that was it. One could, but it was not worth it, the public was
coming to ignore it and was far more interested in Unger’s gallery; and above all, anyone
who wanted to buy a picture went not to the old exhibition, but to Unger’s.
Before we move on to an account of the activities of Unger’s gallery, the weekly
Tygodnik Ilustrowany and the other periodicals, art shops, and cultural institutions
associated with the Potocki Palace in the latter half of the 19th century, we shall
give a brief outline of the history of Warsaw’s public art exhibitions. Such expositions were to a large extent dependent on the operations of an art college. Not even
a patron as magnanimous as King Stanisław August managed to found an institution fully meeting these expectations. Nonetheless his collections of drawings and
plaster-casts of ancient artworks, and his ideas for a future art college gave rise to
the foundations of an institution which was finally established largely thanks to
Stanisław Kostka Potocki, the illustrious master of our Palace. In 1808–1818, when
Potocki was Minister of Public Education and the University of Warsaw was founded, the plans for an art college were put into practice. It was called the Oddział
Sztuk Pięknych (Fine Arts Department), and was an integral unit of the University’s
Faculty of Arts and Sciences. It had its own building, collections, and studios.
In 1817–1830 Warsaw was truly a city of the arts. A national art was developing
at the University, and being displayed at public exhibitions which attracted crowds
of visitors. In 1881–1896 the gallery set up in the court of the Potocki Palace played
a similar role. We shall therefore devote some attention to Warsaw’s earliest art exhibitions and the Zachęta.
Warsaw’s
first art
exhibitions
Fig. 110. Title page of the catalogue for the
University of Warsaw’s 1825 art exhibition;
BUW
134
The first real exhibition of the fine arts on Polish territories was held in 1819, in
the familiar university buildings near the Potocki Palace. Subsequent exhibitions
were held every two years in various buildings on the campus, such as the vice-rector’s building (1819), the fine arts pavilion (1821 and 1823), and the mineralogical
building (1828). All of them were tremendous successes. Visitors were so eager to
purchase the catalogues published for them that sometimes they even had to run
into two re-issues (Figs. 110–111). One of the papers described the opening of the
1819 exhibition as follows: Of the many benefits which the Monarch [Alexander I]
has granted us, the foundation of the University of Warsaw may justly be regarded as
a characteristic reflecting his soul and way of thinking. Young Poles are no longer obliged
to travel abroad for the light of education, and are able to acquire all they need by way
of enlightenment in their own country. It is quite right to consider the first exhibition of
the fine arts, the fruits of painting, drawing, and carving done by our compatriots, as
one of the highlights in the history of the said University. Like other enlightened nations,
we have seen paintings and sculptures, delivered unto public judgement, and many
a visitor who had thought that talent had to be sought abroad was proved wrong when
he saw them (Kozakiewicz 1952, p. 29).
It would be hard to overestimate the documentary value for the period of a painting by Wincenty Kasprzycki, a work absolutely in a class of its own for Polish 19thcentury art. It shows the exhibition of 1828, which was held in the mineralogical
building (now the University of Warsaw Faculty of Polish Studies). Antoni Blank
served as its curator. Kasprzycki depicted the exhibited pictures and Warsaw’s principal painters with well-nigh photographic fidelity. Among the artists visiting the
Unger`s pavilion
exhibition we observe Kasprzycki himself (seated, first right), Antoni Brodowski
(standing, fourth from the right), Antoni Blank (last standing, frontal view), and
Aleksander Kokular (centre, profile view, holding a snuff-box). A surviving copy
of the catalogue and the reviews in the daily newspapers were a tremendous help
in the identification of these figures. At the end of the hall, opposite the entrance,
there are two canvasses, Antoni Brodowski’s “Alexander I granting the University of Warsaw its foundation charter”, and Antoni Blank’s “Oedipus at Colonus”.
Today’s observers will also find the manner in which the exhibits are displayed
extremely interesting. They are arranged in three rows according to size and genre.
Kasprzycki managed to finish this extraordinary canvas in time to have it shown in
the same exhibition. Kurier Warszawski commented: The work was done during the
exhibition, and is most interesting, commended by its completion and precise attention
to detail, indicative of the artist’s familiarity with this kind of painting. It is noteworthy
as a synopsis of the pictures shown in the fifth exhibition, for it will recall the growth of
the fine arts in our country (Kurier Warszawski, 14th July 1828, No. 187).
Unfortunately growth was halted three years later. After the fall of the November
Uprising the University and its Fine Arts Department were closed down. Exhibitions
continued to be held, usually in the city hall on Plac Teatralny, but they did not enjoy
the same status, nor were they as popular as before. Not much changed when a new
art college was established in 1844; it was closed down already in the mid-1860s.
Luckily 1860 saw the foundation of the Zachęta Society, but it did not acquire premises of its own until 1900.
The last in the series of exhibitions launched at the University in 1819 took place
in 1845. The new art college in operation as of 1844 did not enjoy the privilege of
exhibiting the works of its masters and students. However, political events brought a
change to this situation, difficult for the artists and people of Warsaw. After years of
hegemony in Europe, Russia sustained a severe defeat in the Crimean War, which finished in 1855. Tsar Nicholas I, the second most notorious enemy and oppressor of the
Polish people (after Catherine II), did not survive the humiliating blow. There were
rumours that the despot, hated not only by the Poles, committed suicide. In the aftermath of the fall of Sebastopol his successor, Alexander II, was forced to relax the iron
grip of oppression (Wawrykowa 1998, pp. 15–21 and 51–59). The Zachęta emerged
on the crest of the changes, followed two years later, in 1862, by the Muzeum Sztuk
Pięknych (Fine Arts Museum) and Szkoła Główna – the restored University (Lorentz
1938; Miziołek 2005, pp. 168–185). The former conducted activities until 1875, and
the latter only to 1869. Luckily the Zachęta managed to survive and pursued its activities almost without intermission.
In its statute (Ustawa Towarzystwa Zachęty Sztuk Pięknych) of 1860 we read that the
Society’s aim is to disseminate the fine arts, and to assist and encourage artists, especially
young graduates of the Warsaw art college. This was to be accomplished by 1. the continuous holding of exhibitions of contemporary art regardless of the artists’ nationality; 2.
the purchase of the best of the works on exhibition; 3. the publication of graphic works
or reproductions, for distribution to members of the Society as bonuses for paying their
membership fees; 4. the organisation of competitions with prizes for winners; 5. the accumulation of collections and the purchase of scholarly publications; and 6. the estab-
The Zachęta
Society for the
Encouragement
of Fine Arts
Fig. 111. Catalogue for the University of Warsaw’s 1825 art exhibition; BUW
135
Secrets of the Past
Fig. 112. Interior of Józef Unger’s art gallery
on ulica Niecała during the exhibition of the
works of Maurycy Gottlieb, 1879
Fig. 113. Exhibition of Jan Matejko’s “Battle of
Grunwald” and “Prussian Homage” in the pavilion on the Krakowskie Przedmieście, drawing, 1882
lishment of relations and keeping in touch with similar institutions (Wiercińska 1961,
pp. 74–75). One of the founders of the Zachęta was the well-known painter Wojciech
Gerson; he was supported by people like Rafał Hadziewicz and January Suchodolski,
as well as Ignacy Kraszewski and Edward Rastawiecki, individuals regarded as real authorities. The first meeting of the new Society was convened on 13th December 1860 in
the aula of the Medical and Surgical Academy (in today’s Staszic House).
The new institution’s first headquarters were in the no longer extant Mokronowski Mansion on the corner of the Królewska and the Krakowskie Przedmieście; its
second in the Hotel Gerlach (on the site of today’s Hotel Europejski), from 1862 to
136
Unger`s pavilion
1869; and its third premises, from 1869 to 1884, in the former Observantine Monastery next to St. Anne’s Church. All of these locations, where the arts and art exhibitions flourished, were right next to, or in the close vicinity of the Czartoryski-Potocki
Palace, today the headquarters of the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage.
Finally, thanks to Unger, the arts lodged themselves right in the Palace’s court. The
Society’s first big success was the exhibition of Józef Simmler’s “Death of Barbara
Radziwiłłówna” (Kurier Warszawski, 1860, No. 289, 2nd November). This painting,
which was purchased thanks to donations from art lovers, started the Zachęta’s collection. It is now in the National Museum in Warsaw (Wiercińska 1968 and 1969).
Exhibitions in the court of the Potocki Palace continued to be held after Unger’s pavilion passed to the Society in 1883. But before we go on to that we shall take a closer look
at the exhibitions organised by Gracjan Unger, especially those in the Palace. Dozens
of pictures by Maurycy Gottlieb were presented at the exhibition opened in December
1879 in the gallery on the Niecała. One of them was a large canvas showing “Christ
preaching at Capharnaum”, and much smaller pictures entitled “A Jewish wedding”
and “Self-portrait as a Polish nobleman” (Fig. 112). The drawings documenting Unger’s
exhibitions in the pavilion in the Palace court show exhibits well spaced out, though
this was due mainly to their size if they were canvases as big as the huge paintings by
Matejko, “The Battle of Grunwald” and “The Prussian Homage” (Figs. 113–115).
Fig. 114. Interior of Józef Unger’s art gallery
in the pavilion in the court of the CzartoryskiPotocki Palace, during the exhibition of Matejko’s “Battle of Grunwald”, 1881
137
Secrets of the Past
Fig. 115. Jan Matejko, “The Battle of Grunwald”, 1878, oils on canvas; MNW
138
Unger`s pavilion
139
Secrets of the Past
Pictures
that stirred
hearts
Fig. 116. Jan Matejko, “The Battle of Grunwald”, detail, 1878, oils on canvas; MNW
140
Since the opening of his permanent exhibition in Count Krasiński’s house on the corner of the Wierzbowa and the Niecała three years ago, Mr. Unger has made a very
substantial contribution to reviving the arts, on the one hand off ering the public an
excellent opportunity to see the latest achievements of our artists working at home and
abroad, and on the other hand facilitating the selling of artworks thanks to his services
of brokerage. He has now moved his gallery to a new building, put up at his own expense
in the court of Count Stanisław Potocki’s property at Number 15 in the Krakowskie
Przedmieście. In this custom-built gallery, splendidly illuminated by day through its
glass dome roof, and in the evening by electric lights, there are now two of Matejko’s
best masterpieces on show, “The Battle of Grunwald” and “The Prussian Homage” (Fig.
116). This is how Henryk Struve commented on Unger’s achievements, in one of
the issues of a well-known Warsaw magazine (Kłosy, No. 832, XXXV, 1882, p. 72).
Earlier No. XXXIV of the same magazine had written that Varsovians were as excited about Matejko’s second canvas as they had been about “The Battle of Grunwald”,
and that shortly the second masterpiece by the great artist from Kraków would be up
next to “Grunwald” in Mr. Unger’s gallery, thereby presenting an excellent sequel to the
picture showing the crushing defeat of the Teutonic Order. All who see it are immediately spellbound by this painting. Crowds of visitors are thronging Mr. Unger’s gallery
to see “The Prussian Homage”; they stand before it overawed and excited, as if under
the influence of a magical power emanating from the picture and giving them a strange
waking dream (Kłosy, XXXIV, V, 1882, p. 315; Figs. 117–119).
The raptures over these paintings were no doubt attributable to Matejko’s genius
and the patriotic message in his works; but their success was also due in part to the
modern facility and manner in which they were presented. Unger’s gallery provided
the best possible conditions for viewing. On fine days a stream of light flows in, giving
a bright atmosphere free of shadows; only in such conditions is the richness of the colours
to be observed in full bloom, the outlines of the drawing are made more distinct, and
justice is done to the whole composition, giving it a tantalising palpability that amplifies its eff ect (Kurier Warszawski, 1882, No. 24, p. 30). But the biggest novelty was
the use of electric lighting, which made visiting possible in the evening hours. The
press was in raptures, emphasising that this type of illumination in no way curtailed the reception of the artistic quality of the pictures, and indeed, viewed in the
white light provided by electricity the paintings seemed better visible than in the
natural light of a winter’s day. Electric lighting had just been installed to illuminate
“The Battle of Grunwald”. The masterpiece could now shine forth in a riot of colour
and composition. . . . Nothing had changed about the painting itself, only the light, that
second master and assistant to all creators of the visual arts, had brought out to the full
all the marvellous eff ects in Matejko’s masterpiece. . . . Four large electric lamps cast
their light on the painting, enveloping the rest of the room in a gentle half-shadow. . . .
The shapes and outlines of the figures and accessories stand out with astonishing clarity
(Kurier Warszawski, 1882, No. 24, p. 3).
Everything seemed to be going smoothly, when suddenly problems appeared and
a minor scandal erupted. Here is Ignacy Baliński’s account: Gracjan Unger, the
nephew of Józef the printer and long-standing publisher of the popular calendar in a
green cover with an abundance of facts and literary information at a price of 50 kopecks
(a similar calendar issued by Jan Jaworski competed with it), was extremely ingenious
and active. He ran a newspaper and advertising agency in the theatre building on the
Wierzbowa street-side. Then he had his provisional pavilion built to exhibit noteworthy
Unger`s pavilion
Secrets of the Past
Fig. 117. Jan Matejko, “The Prussian Homage”,
oils on canvas, 1880–1882; The Cloth Hall,
National Museum in Kraków
142
Unger`s pavilion
143
SecretsOPIEKĄ
POD
of the Past
MUZ
paintings which he managed to procure from time to time. I remember seeing huge canvasses there, “Christ before Pilate” by the Hungarian Munkácsy; “Hus on trial before
the Emperor Sigismund” by the Czech Brožik; and Vereshchagin’s cycle on Napoleon’s
retreat from Moscow. All these paintings, mostly on historical subjects, which were the
most appreciated at the time, attracted large audiences. But once Gracjan elicited a
great rough when he exhibited a painting by Marceli Suchorowski showing Nana, the
heroine of Emile Zola’s famous novel. The fair courtesan was portrayed nude, “ in her
birthday suit”, reclining on a leopard skin with one knee slightly raised. The figure was
illuminated all the time with artificial light to amplify the undoubtedly slightly pornographic eff ect. Visitors viewed it from the depths of a darkened corridor. The public
outcry contributed to the exhibition being taken off earlier than planned, and the school
authorities prohibited its viewing by pupils (Baliński p. 155).
Baliński, who recorded his recollections many years later, seems to have got the
chronology of the exhibitions wrong. Except for the Suchorowski, all the other
canvasses he mentions were put on display in the gallery when it was in the hands
of the Zachęta Society. But let’s return to the 1881–1882 interval.
Henryk Struve was another contemporary who commented on Unger’s exhibiting policy and his problems following the presentation of “Nana”: After the display
of Matejko’s “Prussian Homage” there was such a big slump in Mr. Unger’s exhibition
that he had to resort to special measures of arousal, such as Suchorowski’s “Nana” and
Makart’s “Leda” to get the public to visit his gallery. It is not a very encouraging symptom, nor a sign of a dignified treatment of art. Regardless of all the doctrinaire points
of view, we cannot but acknowledge that counting on the excitement of or appeal to the
lowest human instincts does not befit the dignity and aim of art. Even if these paintings
were to come up to the standards of artistic quality of Raphael’s “Graces”, Titian’s and
Palma the Elder’s “Venuses”, the “Ledas” of Leonardo and Paolo Veronese, or Titian
and Correggio’s “Ios” – even then we should have to call all manner of attracting a large
public by resorting to such subjects an undignified abuse of art. From the point of view
of the dignity of art and public decency there is an essential diff erence between exhibiting this kind of picture in a gallery or museum among numerous other works of beauty,
in a place where artworks are viewed chiefly for aesthetic reasons, and displaying it in
a separate show and using posters to bring in not only art lovers but all and sundry, excitable by the very nature of the item and its lasciviousness, irrespectively of its artistic
appreciation. This is an approach entailing motives which are in conflict not only with
art itself, but also with a serious attitude to civic duty. For under no circumstances is it
ever right to exploit Man’s low instincts. As regards the artistic quality of these paintings, I shall only say that “Leda” is one of Makart’s earliest, student works, and does not
aspire to a high level of artistry. Suchorowski’s “Nana” is but a technical ploy used for
the purpose of endowing the presented body with the qualities of a wax figure. It has to
be admitted that he achieved this purpose. The dark background, along with the body’s
hot complexion, and the diff usion of the source of light in the picture itself along with its
removal to beyond the canvas, all work to accomplish the intended optical illusion. But
the illusion in itself, coupled with a completely inaesthetic pose and an uncultivated facial expression, bereft not only of dignity but also of the simple, harmonious beauty of the
feminine face, cannot endow the composition with a genuine artistic quality. In their
works on similar subjects the above-cited Italian masters never forsook their respect for
womankind. They presented female nudes to demonstrate the full beauty of their body;
even sensual love was no stranger to their women; however, none of them presumed to
144
SALON
Unger`sUNGRA
pavilion
show a woman humiliated to the condition of an animal. That has been done by Mr.
Suchorowski (Kłosy, 1882,Vol. XXXV, No. 913, p. 405).
How may Gracjan Unger and the work of his gallery in the court of the Potocki
Palace be assessed retrospectively? His contemporaries observed that the primary
purpose of his gallery was commercial. Its proprietor was interested first and foremost
in selling his exhibits as quickly as possible in a viable commercial transaction (Bluszcz,
1880, No. 4, p. 29). Not only did the gallery accept items designated for sale, but
it also purchased works to be resold at a profit. The press wrote that his prices were
moderate enough for his business to be justified and advantageous both for buyers
and sellers. A no less significant source of income came from the tickets to his exhibitions, which changed frequently enough and were diversified enough to draw in
the public (Konstantynów 2005).
A common observation made by his reviewers was that Unger displayed the works
of well-known artists, as well as those who were fashionable and whose work was
the talk of the town and sought after. On this list we find the names of virtually all
the most popular Polish painters of the latter half of the 19th century: Jan Matejko,
Wojciech Gerson, Franciszek Żmurko, Henryk Siemiradzki, Władysław Czachórski, Władysław Bakałowicz, Jan Styka, Tadeusz Ajdukiewicz, Józef Szermentowski,
Juliusz and Wojciech Kossak, and Józef Brandt. Unger also exhibited works by deceased artists, such as Maurycy Gottlieb and Artur Grottger. His assortment was
exceptionally diversified; he also presented and offered drawings for sale, including
illustrations by Michał Elwiro Andriolli to Juliusz Słowacki’s Balladyna, Józef I.
Kraszewski’s Stara baśń, Adam Mickiewicz’s Pan Tadeusz, and Władysław Motty’s
illustrations to the works of Lucjan Siemieński. In 1882 he put on an exhibition
entitled “An Album of Polish Painters”, with watercolours and drawings by Polish
artists working in Munich.
However, since the gallery’s profit did not satisfy its proprietor he resorted to
a measure which was popular in the 19th century: an additional incentive for visitors in the form of a lottery, for which he assigned a total of 36 items. 22 were to be
raffled among weekday visitors, and 14 by those attending the gallery on Sundays
and holidays. Tygodnik Ilustrowany (1882, No. 256, p. 263) advertised the opportunity: There are many fine works in the gallery with the foremost signatures; those who
become their owners will be able to congratulate themselves that they acquired them in
an inexpensive and easy way. However, the lottery was not held because the gallery
closed shortly after this announcement was published. Nevertheless Unger’s ingenuity and busy activity knew no bounds. After the success, followed by a slight
slump, in the exhibition and sales of artworks, he set up Parisian-style news-stands
in Warsaw. This investment turned out to be a bull’s-eye winner.
Fig. 118–119. Jan Matejko, “The Prussian Homage”, detail, 1880–1882, oils on canvas;
The Cloth Hall, National Museum in Kraków
145
Secrets of the Past
The Zachęta
Society takes
over the
initiative
146
Despite the short spell for which his gallery was in operation, we can hardly fail
to appreciate Unger’s significance. He made a paramount contribution not only to
the revival of trade in works of art, but also to a rise in public interest in the works
of Polish and foreign artists. In February 1883 the Zachęta Society moved into the
pavilion Unger had built. As Baliński remarked, to display its not very large collection for a time, it availed itself of the huge wooden shed Gracjan Unger had installed in
the court of Stanisław Potocki’s mansion, which was later the property of Józef Potocki
of Antoniny.
Henryk Struve was eff usive in his praise of the Society’s decision to move into
the court of the Potocki Palace: Two facts of artistic significance are to be observed in
particular as evidence for the mobility and vigour of the Zachęta Society under its current management: the temporary exhibition of Polish artists it has arranged in Kiev,
and the renting out of Mr. Unger’s gallery for its second exhibition, dedicated chiefly to
good works from abroad. The former needs no special reflection, for everyone will readily appreciate its meaning. The latter is significant as one of the most efficient means
of stimulating public interest in art. Not once in our opinions have we indicated the
pressing need for the work of foreign artists to be brought into our exhibitions. We have
certainly not been doing so out of disregard for Polish art, whose magnificent progress we
have been observing with great joy. But we cannot deny that such progress has been to
a large extent the outcome of Polish artists’ encounters with foreign European art; and
that despite the brilliant works created recently in Polish art, there is still a lot we can
learn from foreigners; and that this lesson calls for the observation of noteworthy European works of art and the comparison of our art with them. Until outstanding paintings
and sculptures come to Warsaw, just as they do to Paris, Vienna, Berlin, Munich, and
Dresden, there can be no question of vigorous activity in our visual arts. . . . We are
very pleased that thanks to the current management of the Zachęta Society as of the new
year we shall be taking the first steps on that road. We are in no doubt that the excellent
works of Munkácsy, Makart, and Gallait will draw in more visitors to Mr. Unger’s gallery than Suchorowski’s “Nana”, which had been intended to bring about eff ects that
have nothing whatsoever to do with art, being a symptom of a far lower order (Kłosy,
1882, Vol. XXXV, No. 909, p. 348).
The Zachęta Society for the Encouragement of Fine Arts pursued its activities
in Unger’s pavilion until the structure was dismantled. In those twelve years
not only did it install a permanent exhibition but also held temporary exhibitions there, as we have said. The temporary exhibitions included works such as
Szymon Buchbinder’s “Sigismund III in a goldsmith’s shop”; Louise Abbéma’s
“Four seasons”, for which the famous actress Sarah Bernhardt had posed; and
“The death of Gedymin” by Kazimierz Alchimowicz. About a thousand photographs acquired from the traveller and naval officer Antoni Prosiński were accorded a place in the gallery. Their subjects were generic scenes, landscapes, and
ethnography. Matejko’s masterpiece, “The Battle of Grunwald”, was the highlight of the Society’s permanent exhibition. It had been bought from the artist
in 1878, when it had not been fi nished yet, by Dawid Rosenblum, a Warsaw
banker. It was soon on display for Unger, and subsequently as a deposit for the
Zachęta. The Society did not purchase it until 1902, for a truly symbolic sum;
the Rosenblum family made a bequest of it to the Nation and to Warsaw. Today
the huge canvas is one of the greatest artistic treasures in the National Museum
in Poland’s capital.
Unger`s pavilion
In October 1896 Kurier Warszawski reported that now that the lease for the site of
the exhibition hall had expired Count Józef Potocki wanted to restore his Palace to its
former grandeur and was going to have the exhibition pavilion dismantled completely,
and no trace of it would be left.
There were already several Warsaw periodicals with offices in the Palace before
the weekly Tygodnik Ilustrowany moved in. From 1848 to 1864 Gazeta Rządowa
Królestwa Polskiego, the official government gazette of the Kingdom of Poland,
which was issued in a Polish and a Russian edition, had its editorial and administrative office in the wing on the second court; as of 1861 it appeared under a new
title, Dziennik Powszechny – Pismo Urzędowe, Polityczne i Naukowe. The location
in the Palace of the editorial office of a daily publication entitled Antrakt dedicated
to the theatre was an ambitious undertaking which unfortunately proved ephemeral. Alongside repertoires of the Warsaw theatres and news of cultural events,
it provided readers with information on famous actors, playwrights, and theatre
personalities, as well as reviews. It was published in 1876–1877, but closed down
owing to an insufficient number of subscribers. A similar fate befell the weekly
Przyroda i Przemysł, which presented information on science and technology to
the general reader and was issued by Gebethner and Wolff ’s publishing company
in 1878–1881.
One of the tenants whose work was associated with the cultural sphere and who
rented premises in the Palace was the bookbinder Karol Bagiński, who bound
volumes of a series called Wzory sztuki średniowiecznej on medieval art with lithographs by Maksymilian Fajans, for the scholars Aleksander Przezdziecki and
Edward Rastawiecki. For several decades there was a bookshop, Zawadzki and
Węcki’s, in the corps de garde. When it moved out in 1855 its place was taken by
a new bookshop run by Mr. L. Drwalewski, and Henryk Hirszel’s stationery shop
which also sold artists’ equipment. Hirszel also started to act as a broker in the sale
of works by Warsaw painters, such as Wojciech Gerson, Franciszek Kostrzewski,
Henryk Pillati, Tytus Maleszewski, and others, and his shop turned into a miniature gallery. Hirszel also traded in prints and photographs of famous places and
fine buildings, such as Gothic churches and monuments in France, England, and other
countries, as his advertisements in the daily press said in 1861. He must have had
competition from a company known as Skład Rycin i Obrazów, J. Dazziaro, established in September 1855 with a business address in the Potocki Palace. Franciszek
Dazziaro, whose company had branches in Moscow, Paris, and St. Petersburg, offered a wide assortment of the best French, English, and German aquarelles, prints,
and lithographs, the last-mentioned of which were usually coloured in. Dazziaro
published an album with views of Warsaw which was printed in Paris. Credit is
due to him as well for establishing working relations with Polish artists like Wojciech Gerson, who did drawings of Polish peasant costumes for him, which were
then printed in Paris and sold in his shop on the Krakowskie Przedmieście. In mid1865 Dazziaro’s was taken over by Mr. Nervo, as we are informed by the Warsaw
newspapers.
In April 1859 Henryk Natanson’s bookshop was established next to Dazziaro’s. It
sold chiefly scientific books, mostly medical works, alongside periodicals, atlases,
Watercolours,
beautiful prints,
and professional
printers
147
Secrets of the Past
and maps. Natanson published a medical weekly called Tygodnik Lekarski, but
also the novels of Józef Ignacy Kraszewski with illustrations by Henryk Pillati. We
shall now move on to Tygodnik Ilustrowany which earned a well-deserved reputation for merit (Figs. 120–122).
The finest
Polish weekly
paper
Fig. 120. Franciszek Kostrzewski, Portrait of
Józef Unger as The Publisher, ca. 1860, pencil
drawing; MNW
Fig. 121. Marcin Olszyński, a personalised
greeting card for Unger, 1884; MNW
148
From the very start Tygodnik Ilustrowany was never affiliated to any of the political
movements. It published articles on history and literary works, as well as engraved
reproductions of numerous works of art. From its publications readers learned of
the successes of Henryk Siemiradzki, Jan Matejko, and other Polish painters, writers, and actors. Many of the top names in literature, such as Henryk Sienkiewicz,
Unger`s pavilion
Fig. 122. Front page of a Tygodnik Ilustrowany issue for July 1878
Secrets of the Past
Wincenty Pol, Bolesław Prus, and Eliza Orzeszkowa, were its collaborators. The
paper also published translations of foreign literature, done by writers like Maria
Konopnicka, Zenon Przesmycki, and Czesław Jankowski. It drew its income from
subscriptions; in 1859, the year in which it was established, it had 300 subscribers, but by the close of the century, when its office was located in the CzartoryskiPotocki Palace, their numbers had risen to nearly 11,000. It was Poland’s most
popular illustrated weekly in the Positivist period.
The first editorial office Tygodnik Ilustrowany had when it moved to the Palace in
1882 was in the south wing, above Gebethner and Wolff ’s bookshop. Ten years later
it transferred to the wing in the Palace’s second court, at the back of No. 17, the
building designed by Lanci. An extant postcard from the period shows this location,
which Tygodnik Ilustrowany shared with the daily Kurier Codzienny. Both papers were
owned by the Gebethner and Wolff company. Today as you enter the court of the
Ministry of Culture and National Heritage you can imagine the editorial office of
Tygodnik Ilustrowany in the 1880s and famous Polish writers like Sienkiewicz, Prus,
Przesmycki, or Konopnicka, entering it.
From the Potocki Palace the periodical was distributed to all the Polish
territories. It had a circulation that reached Polish people living in
Russia, and under Austrian and Prussian rule. Research carried out hitherto indicates that it was read chiefly by
middle-aged and older people, usually with
conservative views. A feature that made
a special contribution to its popularity
was a new woodblock technique used for
its graphics. The publishers set up their
Unger`s pavilion
own graphics workshop for the paper, which facilitated the publication of numerous quality reproductions of artworks, by painters like Józef Chełmoński, Stanisław
Witkiewicz, Aleksander Gierymski, Henryk Siemiradzki, and Jan Matejko. Tygodnik
Ilustrowany was thus a truly modern periodical, skilfully combining word and image.
It also published cartoons by Franciszek Kostrzewski and, thanks to the initiative of
Juliusz Kossak, who was its artistic director for a time, a regular column on historic
costumes and arms.
Tygodnik Ilustrowany was special also for its size, 27 x 35 cm, unusual for the
period, and its modern style of editing. It ran a copious history section, with the
biographies of scholars, politicians, and writers, and articles on important national
anniversaries. But its most elaborate part was its literary section, which published
numerous well-chosen literary works, apart from reviews, writer’s biographies, and
illustrations attached to articles on the life and work of historic and contemporary
authors. Tygodnik Ilustrowany was where thousands of readers first read Sienkiewicz’s Ogniem i mieczem (By Fire and Sword), Eliza Orzeszkowa’s Nad Niemnem
(On the Banks of the Niemen), and Bolesław Prus’ Faraon (Pharaoh), all published
in instalments. In 1893 the paper published Sienkiewicz’s short story Pójdźmy za
Nim (Let Us Follow Him), which later inspired its author to write the Nobel prizewinning novel Quo Vadis, with its vibrant knowledge of archaeology and profound
reflection on Antiquity, the Early Christian period, and Rome. In a non-fiction corollary to what the novelists wrote, the paper also published articles on archaeological excavations in Egypt, Greece, and Italy. It had particularly interesting, professionally written and well-illustrated articles on the excavations in Pompeii which, as
we have said, left their mark on the Palace’s interior decoration and were described
in Leon Potocki’s book.
Conclusion
There can only be a surrogate of a conclusion, a few ideas, something like an introduction to a conclusion for which it is far too soon. Endurance, tradition, the aura
of past splendour, attempts to restore its components, the conjuring up of an artistic
atmosphere by juxtaposing and aligning historic and contemporary works of art – for
many years we have been observing all of this in the Czartoryski-Potocki Palace, seeing a continuation in the endeavours that inspired the Czartoryski, the Princess Marshal, Stanisław Kostka Potocki and his cousin Józef Potocki. A red car looking like
something from intergalactic space or straight from a racing course and parked on
the green lawn in the Palace’s court, with Magdalena Abakanowicz’s “Mutants” quietly grazing nearby. Isn’t there something of the enigma of artistic creation about it,
an aspect of the mystery of the world, or perhaps the aura of the exhibitions of times
bygone in Unger’s gallery, and Matejko, Siemiradzki, Witkiewicz, and Chełmoński
visiting it, or maybe the sound of Sienkiewicz’s footsteps on his way to see the editor
of Tygodnik Ilustrowany? And on top of that, an echo of the theatre performances, the
tableaux vivants, and concerts, the excitement engendered by the Palace’s magnificent
interiors and the masterpieces hanging between the bookcases and cabinets of books,
prints and engravings?
“There used to be…” says Leon Potocki’s book. But THERE STILL IS! – thanks to
the vintage photographs, the memoirs, and the film about “The Princess of Łowicz”.
Today the Palace has a mission which is quite different from its original purpose, but
it has had the good fortune to stay largely under the auspices of the Muses.
Even if not all of the Muses used to abide in the Palace in the old days, even if not all
of them are present now, doesn’t the concert very likely given here by the young Fryderyk Chopin, doesn’t the music-making by Maria Kalergis, Napoleon dancing with
Maria Walewska, the memoirs Niemcewicz wrote here, the plays and tableaux vivants
performed here, the frescoes, drawings, and watercolours by Brenna, Vogel, Bojanowicz, and the other artists – doesn’t all this call to mind at least some of the daughters
of Mnemosyne – Calliope, Melpomene, Euterpe, Polyhymnia, Thalia, and Clio?
Clio, Polyhymnia, and Euterpe have been extending their special care over the corps
de garde for a long time now. Originally built as a guardhouse, a few decades later it
ceased to serve this purpose and turned into a bookshop, a shop selling artists’ equip-
As the business
of the Muses
has been our
subject…
153
Secrets of the Past
ment, and finally a jeweller’s shop for artistically crafted jewellery. For several years
now the corps de garde has been used as a gallery and small concert hall. In 2010 it was
full of the music of Chopin; in 2011, on the anniversary of the Third of May Constitution, the original document, the Government Act known as the Third of May
Constitution compiled by men like Stanisław Kostka Potocki and his friend Julian
Ursyn Niemcewicz, was exhibited here.
In one of his letters to Jan Białobłocki in 1826 Chopin wrote that he had bought the
music score his friend had asked for, but I had not passed it on to Wysocki yet, who was
going to see Białobłocki. The score was full of Euterpes: it was a collection of arias and
other pieces by Rossini (Perświet-Sołtan 1926, p. 48). Not only the arias of Rossini
were sung in the Palace, but also those of Bellini and many other maestros of the opera. Led and looked after by Apollo, the Muses – daughters of Mnemosyne, Goddess
of the Memory, and Zeus – are ubiquitously present in the arts and culture. Once
upon a time people called them to mind far more often than we do today. Chopin
penned his letter in the environs of the Czartoryski-Potocki Palace, and sent it off
from the post-office which was just round the corner, on the site of what is now the
Telimena café, named after Mickiewicz’s stylish heroine. Located on Warsaw’s Royal
Route, the headquarters of the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage is preserving and cherishing the memory of many works of art and literature and their most
distinguished makers. Fate has been kind to the beautiful building at Number 15 on
the Krakowskie Przedmieście: it has come down to our times, and so has the memory
of what once USED TO BE in it (to use one of the key phrases in Leon Potocki’s
book)…
Artur Oppman (1867–1931), a well-known Warsaw poet who wrote under the nomde-plume “Or-Ot”, used simple words to describe the swift passage of time and the
dramatic oblivion it causes, the fleeting visions of the past, but also the phenomenon
of human memory. He was probably thinking of the Warsaw of bygone times, its culture, and perhaps its finest houses, such as the Czartoryski-Potocki Palace, thanks to
which the national culture managed to survive the long age of dismemberment and
non-existence of the Polish State. The atmosphere created by great artists, writers, and
poets, and what they achieved lingers on within the confines of these magnificent
houses. May that atmosphere and those memories provide us with a wonderful source
of inspiration. Here’s how Or-Ot put it:
Strange how this world turns and twists,
Like a film hobgoblins have scrolled…
A flash and you’re gone, and won’t be missed,
But not in my mind’s eye – there you’re on hold
(Moja Warszawa 1949, p. 27)
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POD OPIEKĄ MUZ
1156
15
56
The Ministry of Culture
and National Heritage
in a nutshell…
The history of the Polish ministry of culture goes back to the restoration of Poland’s independence in 1918 and the establishment of national institutions in the
Second Republic of Poland. That was when the Ministry for the Protection of Culture and Fine Arts (Ministerstwo Ochrony Kultury i Sztuk Pięknych) was founded.
In 1922 it was amalgamated with the Ministry of Religious Denominations and
Public Education (Ministerstwo Wyznań Religijnych i Oświecenia Publicznego) as
a department for the arts (Departament Sztuki), and its head was the well-known
painter Julian Fałat (1853–1929), one of the most distinguished Polish watercolourists, an individual deeply committed to the revival of Polish cultural life on the
restoration of independence.
During the Second World War Poland’s government operated in exile, and there
was a Department for Cultural Affairs (Dział Spraw Kulturalnych) attached to the
Ministry of Internal Affairs. Its chief concern was the preservation and care of the
national cultural heritage, and assistance for artists living in Poland and in exile.
When the People’s Republic of Poland was established in 1944 a department of art
and culture was set up, and its first minister was the journalist and politician Wincenty Rzymowski (1883–1950). The Czartoryski-Potocki Palace, which had been
gutted by fire during the War, was reconstructed in the late 1940s after a design by
Jan Zachwatowicz (1900–1983). Ever since it has housed the Ministry of Art and
Culture (Ministerstwo Kultury i Sztuki), the name we have been known by for the
longest time. In 1999 it was changed to Ministerstwo Kultury i Dziedzictwa Narodowego (the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage); in 2001 it was shortened
to Ministerstwo Kultury (the Ministry of Culture), and in 2005 it reverted to Ministerstwo Kultury i Dziedzictwa Narodowego, the current name.
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In the Ministry’s nigh-on centennial existence we have had many changes in our
organisation and range of powers. Currently the Ministry is responsible for culture
both in the sense of activity in the arts, educating artists, and looking after the
national heritage; as well as for promoting artists and their work, in Poland and
abroad. We coordinate the development of cultural and artistic activities by supervising the national and jointly managed cultural institutions, as well as public
education in the arts, from the primary schools providing a special music education
to the institutions of higher education for the arts. The Ministry also acts as patron
of the arts by conducting programmes addressed to a wide circle of recipients and
by supporting the best and most promising cultural phenomena. We also manage
a pool of EU structural funds and EEA Financial Mechanism funds, thanks to
which Poland has been able to enjoy a rapid rate of growth in its cultural infrastructure, thereby enhancing its cultural image in Europe and worldwide. The Ministry
is devoting special attention to the dissemination of cultural education in the broad
sense of the term – as an instrument to foster the social potential which is helping
to create good conditions for the growth of artistic creativity, encouraging more
people to take part in cultural affairs, and developing their ability as recipients to
make an informed choice in the arts.
158
159
Ministers
of Culture
1. Wincenty Rzymowski
(21.07.1944 – 2.05.1945)
2. Edmund Zalewski
(2.05.1945 – 28.06.1945)
3. Władysław Kowalski
(28.06.1945 – 5.02.1947)
4. Stefan Dybowski
5. Włodzimierz Sokorski
6. Karol Kuryluk
7. Kazimierz Rusinek – head of the Ministry
8. Tadeusz Galiński
(6.02.1947 – 20.11.1952)
(21.11.1952 – 19.04.1956)
(19.04.1956 – 29.04.1958)
(3.05.1958 – 2.07.1958)
(2.07.1958 – 12.12.1964)
9. Lucjan Motyka
(12.12.1964 – 26.10.1971)
10. Czesław Wiśniewski – head of the Ministry
(26.10.1971 – 22.12.1971)
11. Stanisław Wroński
(22.12.1971 – 16.02.1974)
12. Józef Tejchma
(16.02.1974 – 26.01.1978)
160
13. Janusz Wilhelmi – head of the Ministry
(26.01.1978 – 16.03.1978)
14. Jan Mietkowski
(29.03.1978 – 4.07.1978)
15. Zygmunt Najdowski
(20.07.1978 – 8.10.1980)
16. Józef Tejchma
(8.10.1980 – 9.10.1982)
17. Kazimierz Żygulski
(9.10.1982 – 29.09.1986)
18. Aleksander Krawczuk
(29.09.1986 – 1.08.1989)
19. Izabella Cywińska
(12.09.1989 – 14.12.1990)
20. Marek Rostworowski
(12.01.1991 – 5.12.1991)
21. Andrzej Siciński
(23.12.1991 – 15.07.1992)
22. Piotr Łukasiewicz – head of the Ministry
(15.07.1992 – 17.02.1993)
23. Jerzy Góral
(9.02.1993 – 26.10.1993)
24. Kazimierz Dejmek
(26.10.1993 – 7.02.1996)
25. Zdzisław Podkański
(7.02.1996 – 31.10.1997)
26. Joanna Wnuk-Nazarowa
(31.10.1997 – 25.03.1999)
27. Andrzej Zakrzewski
(26.03.1999 – 10.02.2000)
28. Kazimierz Michał Ujazdowski
(16.03.2000 – 12.07.2001)
29. Andrzej Zieliński
(13.07.2001 – 18.10.2001)
30. Andrzej Celiński
(19.10.2001 – 5.07.2002)
31. Waldemar Dąbrowski
(5.07.2002 – 31.10.2005)
32. Kazimierz Michał Ujazdowski
(31.10.2005 – 16.11.2007)
33. Bogdan Zdrojewski
(16.11.2007 – 16.06.2014)
34. Małgorzata Omilanowska
(since 17.06.2014)
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Inventory
Inventory of the
Czartoryski-Potocki Palace
The Palace at No. 15 on the Krakowskie Przedmieście was built in the Louis XV
style in the first half of the 18th century by the Sieniawski family. With its two
wings and corps de garde, it is one of Warsaw’s major sites of museum value.
It has always been regarded as a museum asset rather than as a commercial
property.
It contains the following works of art valued as museum items and not designated for commercial purposes:
I. THE VESTIBULE
1 Old Venetian pearwood bench with back and arm rests, elaborately carved,
with an enclosed chest
1 Oak grandfather clock, by Lamreghts [Lambrechts?] of Paris
1 Marble statue of Venus on a marble pedestal
Pair of giltwood console tables
Pair of Japanese porcelain dishes
1 Antique Louis XVI litter
1 Portrait in oils of Stanisław Potocki, by Brodowski
1 Portrait in oils of King Stanisław August, by Baciarelli
II. THE BILLIARD ROOM
1 Wooden console table, with a gilded base and black top
1 carved oak sideboard, containing:
1 Porcelain tureen and lid, vintage Saxon (first period), dragon decoration
1 Porcelain tureen and lid, Louis XV, bird and vegetable decoration
Pair of Japanese porcelain vases and lids
1 Small porcelain jug and lid, vintage Saxon, landscape decoration
32-piece porcelain tea and coffee set, vintage Saxon, figural and landscape
decoration with a green edge, comprising 14 cups, 14 saucers, 1 sugar bowl,
1 milk jug, 1 teapot, and 1 coffeepot
4 Japanese porcelain dessert bowls
1 Vintage Saxon porcelain plate, relief flower decoration
1 Antique oak cabinet on high legs
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Secrets of the Past
1 German Renaissance (1560) cabinet, black wood inlaid with ivory
1 Chinese porcelain dish
1 Faience flower basket
1 Japanese porcelain dish (on the wall)
1 Marble bust on a console table
Pair of oak console tables
Pair of Japanese porcelain dishes
1 Painted faience plate, with the Pilawa arms
1 Enamelled copper plate
Pair of Japanese embroidered green velvet cloths
III. THE LIBRARY
1 Solid mahogany table, rectangular with gilded decorations (Jacob style)
1 Carved oak extending table, made in the Gdańsk style
Pair of gilded mahogany card tables
1 Mahogany folding table (set of 4 small tables with illustrated tops)
1 Gilded mahogany console with a marble top, Empire style
Pair of gilded mahogany semi-circular console tables with marble tops, Empire style
1 Wooden chest with bronze trimmings
1 Large globe
1 Portrait in oils of Georgius Cyriakus Potocki, in a gilt frame
1 Portrait in oils of King Stanisław August in his coronation robes, by Marcello
Baciarelli
1 Portrait in oils of King Vladislaus IV in his coronation robes, by P. Soutman
1 Portrait in oils of King Henri de Valois, by a follower of Clouet
1 Marble bust of Count Potocki, on a marble column
1 Bronze postument (lion)
1 Bronze postument (two female figures)
1 Small white marble bust of Napoleon I
1 Bronze clock by Deuier of Paris
Pair of porcelain dishes
1 Portrait in oils on an easel, of King Stephen Báthory
1 Clock, “Neptune”, Empire style, standing on a table
1 Wall-to-wall fitted carpet
Set of 4 portières with haberdashery decorations
1 Antique (16th century) cloth embroidered with the words “Ave Maria”
Set of 4 bronze wall lamps, Empire style decorated with eagles
1 Empire-style gilded chandelier
IV. THE COUNT’S BEDROOM
1 Bronze and marble office clock, Louis XVI style
1 Bronze candlestick
Pair of bronze candelabra
1 Paperweight in the shape of a fox
1 carved oak table
Mahogany and bronze suite (in the Jacob style), comprising
1 Table
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Inventory
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Secrets of the Past
168
Inventory
4 Armchairs with velvet and fabric upholstery
4 Chairs with velvet and fabric upholstery
1 Oak cupboard, elaborately carved in the Italian Renaissance style
1 Buczacz wall tapestry
1 Polish gentleman’s ornamental belt
1 Oriental woollen wall tapestry
1 17th -century rug
1 Picture, “The Poacher”, by J. Fałat, in a bronze frame
1 Picture, “Two Soldiers”, by A. Orłowski, in a black frame
1 Picture, “A grey horse”, by A. Orłowski, in a bronze frame
1 Picture, “A soldier on a grey horse”, by A. Orłowski, in a bronze frame
1 Picture, “Head of an old man”, by A. Orłowski, in a gilded frame
1 Picture, “The return of the prisoners-of-war”, by J. Kossak, in a bronze frame
1 Picture, “A horse”, by W. Kossak, in a bronze frame
1 Picture, “The ferry”, by J. Rybkowski
1 Heavy bronze Renaissance candelabrum
V. THE COUNT’S WARDROBE
1 Mahogany three-door wardrobe (Jacob style)
1 Mahogany cabinet (Jacob style)
1 Bronze postument (a reclining female figure)
1 Wall-to-wall fitted carpet
VI. THE DINING ROOM
14 White and gilded chairs, upholstered with yellow fabric
1 White and gilded console table with a marble top
Pair of white and gilded console tables with marble tops
1 White and gilded console table with a marble top
1 Portrait in oils, “Napoleon I” (Italian school)
1 Empire crystal chandelier
VII. THE BALLROOM
1 Venetian glass chandelier
10 Bronze four-candle chandeliers
17-Piece suite of Empire furniture
6 Gilded Empire armchairs with red velvet upholstery (antiques from Rome)
Pair of gilded white Empire armchairs
1 Empire étagère with bronze trimmings
1 Mahogany four-panel screen decorated with prints
Pair of Empire cabinets with bronze trimmings
1 Empire sofa with green upholstery à caissons et bronzes
1 Large Empire mahogany screen
Pair of bronze Empire incense-burners
VIII. THE WHITE ROOM
1 Table made of black wood with rich gilding
1 Gilded armchair, upholstered with damask
1 Small walnut armchair, upholstered with damask
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Secrets of the Past
5 High-backed oak chairs upholstered with damask
1 Antique Italian desk with inlaid decoration
1 Spanish chair, inlaid with bone
1 Cabinet made of gilded black wood
1 Ebony cabinet, with a Florentine mosaic decoration and bronze trimmings
1 Louis XIV cabinet made of red wood with inlaid decorations and gilded
bronze trimmings
This cabinet contains
A set of 24 Sèvres porcelain plates, ca. 1830–1840, sumptuously gilded and
decorated with portraits of the ladies of the court of Louis XV
A set of 4 square Sèvres porcelain dessert bowls
A set of 3 round Sèvres porcelain dessert bowls
A pair of similar dessert bowls, shell-shaped
Pair of Sèvres porcelain sugar bowls with lids
1 inlaid cupboard with drawers
1 marble statue (of Bacchus and a Bacchante) on a marble plinth
Pair of blue gilded Chinese vases
1 Japanese vase
1 Large Japanese antique vase, porcelain
1 Louis XIV bronze clock
Pair of Louis XVI bronze candelabras
Pair of large Italian faience plates
1 Large Spanish faience plate
1 Oil painting of Bishop Kajetan Sołtyk, by Baciarelli [sic!]
1 Portrait in oils of a man, early 18th century
1 Oil painting, “A Bivouac”, by H. Pillati
1 Oil painting of the drawing room in Wilanów Palace, by Gryglewski
1 Chinese porcelain statue of a dog
Pair of Frankenthal porcelain candlesticks, Louis XV style
1 New Saxon porcelain écritoire,
with the following on it:
Pair of Japanese bronze figures of cranes
1 Japanese bronze figure of a peacock on a column
1 Japanese bronze bell
1 ivory figure of a Chinaman
Pair of Chinese marble figures
1 barometer
1 Glass flower vase
1 Persian carpet
1 Directoire crystal chandelier
1 Louis XV Bergère armchair upholstered with heavy Spanish damask
1 Small gilded table (Louis XVI) with a marble top
IX. ANTECHAMBER
1 Louis XIV gilded sofa, upholstered with tapestry
Pair of Louis XIV gilded armchairs, upholstered with tapestry
1 Footstool, upholstered with tapestry
1 Table with carved and gilded legs and a marble top
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Secrets of the Past
172
Inventory
1 Stool with gilded legs and upholstered with black fabric with a floral pattern
Pair of Louis XVI armchairs, upholstered with silk
1 Tea table made of red wood
1 Gilded Louis XIV table with a marble top
1 Louis XVI-style walnut étagère with bronze trimmings, containing:
2 Large Saxon porcelain vases
2 Small Saxon porcelain vases
Set of 4 Saxon porcelain openwork baskets, floral decoration
Pair of porcelain vases with new Sèvres painted figures
Pair of new Saxon porcelain vases with lids, with painted tableaux and figures
1 Gilded étagère made of black wood, containing:
1 New Saxon porcelain group, “The Apotheosis of Augustus III”, with the arms
of Saxony
1 Yellow Saxon porcelain vase, on a stand
1 Saxon porcelain teapot, with pictures (music and painting)
1 New Saxon porcelain vase, with a relief flower decoration
1 Cup and saucer, blue Viennese porcelain
1 Similar cup, yellow
1 Similar cup, sapphire blue with gilding
1 Similar cup, pink
1 Cup and saucer, white Berlin porcelain with deer decoration
1 Similar cup, yellow with gilding
1 Gold enamelled watch decorated with pearls
1 Yellow Chinese plaque
1 Wall clock, wood inlaid with tortoiseshell and bronze trimmings, in the Louis
XV en boulle style
1 Gilded marble vase
1 Italian mirror, in a gilded grape-cluster frame
1 Portrait in oils of a lady, the wife of Gaston d’Orléans [Marguerite of Lorraine], a copy after van Dyck, in a carved wooden frame (Louis XIV)
1 Oil painting, Marcin Zalewski, “The Church of the Holy Cross”
1 Oil painting, S. La Fontaine, “Church interior”, 1796
1 Oil painting, V.S. Hugues, “ Landscape”
1 Oil painting, genre scene, original Dt monogram
1 Oil painting, F. Esselius, “The Seacoast”
1 Oil painting, signed T. Wynands
1 Oil painting, landscape, Italian school
2 Oil paintings, Bourguignon [Burgundy], battle scenes
2 Oil paintings, generic scenes à la Wouwerman, the smaller one with horses
1 Oil paintig, L. Veverschnur, “Sea landscape”
Pair of elephants, Japanese fireside statues made of enamelled copper
1 Louis XVI porcelain clock, bisquit with bronze trimmings
Pair of Louis XV porcelain candelabra, bisquit with bronze trimmings
1 Venetian glass chandelier, original
1 Wall-to-wall fitted carpet
1 Chinese carved ivory etui
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X. THE COUNTESS’ BOUDOIR
1 Sofa, with silk upholstery, Louis XVI style
Pair of armchairs, with silk upholstery, Louis XVI style
1 Sofa, with damask upholstery, Louis XVI style
Pair of Louis XVI armchairs, with damask upholstery
1 Louis XV gilded sofa, with silk upholstery
1 Small Louis XVI sofa, upholstered with pink silk
1 Louis XVI gilded chaise longue, upholstered with silk with a floral pattern
1 Louis XVI sofa, upholstered with silk
1 Louis XVI armchair, upholstered with silk
1 Small Louis XVI armchair, upholstered
1 Small Viennese armchair, upholstered, Louis XVI style
1 Bench, gilded and upholstered, Louis XIV style
1 Jacob rosewood table with a mosaic top and bronze fittings
1 Rosewood table with bronze trimmings, Louis XVI style
1 Rosewood table with inlay, Louis XV style
1 Antique Italian Renaissance chest of drawers
1 Desk, inlaid and with a marble top, Louis XV style
1 Tall bronze standing lamp
1 Glass cabinet, gilded, containing:
2 Large antique Saxon porcelain groups of amoretti
A small coffee set, antique Berlin porcelain
1 Antique Saxon porcelain plate
1 écritoire, a pair of porcelain candlesticks, and a small Sèvres vase mounted
in bronze, Louis XV
1 Antique Saxon porcelain plate
1 Blue Saxon porcelain plate
1 Saxon porcelain plate, with a bird decoration
1 Cup and saucer, celadon Saxon porcelain
1 Cup and saucer, Saxon porcelain
1 Cup and saucer, Viennese porcelain
1 similar cup, butterfly decoration
1 Louis XVI screen with mirrors
1 Louis XVI screen decorated with prints
1 Portrait in oils, “Portrait of a lady”
1 Oil painting (Prince Marshal Lubomirski)
1 Oil painting, portrait of a lady, on an easel (Princess Ludwika Radziwiłłowa)
1 Saxon porcelain vase (King August), mounted in bronze, Louis XV style
1 White marble statuette of Venus
5-Piece bisquit mantelpiece set
1 Oil painting, Dupré, “Landscape”
1 Pastel picture, Etienne Liotard, “The coffee girl”
2 Small carpets
1 Crystal chandelier mounted in bronze fittings
1 Pastel picture (Prince A. Radziwiłł)
PAINTINGS AND SCULPTURES
1 Portrait in oils of Count J. Potocki (Pochwalski)
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8
7
6
1
5
4
2
3
Ground-floor plan of the main building of the Czartoryski-Potocki Palace
1. Vestibule
2. Library
3. Study
4. Golden Room/Dining Room/Drawing Room III
5. Arabesque Room/ Ballroom/Drawing Room II
6. White Room/Drawing Room I
7. Small Drawing Room/Antechamber
8. Boudoir
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Secrets of the Past
1 Portrait in oils of Counts Adam and Alfred Potocki, 1832 (Stadler)
1 Oil painting, “King John III in battle against Kara Mustapha, 1683”
1 Oil painting, “Prince Janusz Sanguszko, Lord of the Ostróg Estate-in-Tail”
1 Portrait in oils of Prince Paweł Sanguszko
1 Oil painting, “The Partitioning of Poland”
1 Watercolour by Kossak, “Prince Alfred Potocki on horseback”
1 Painting, “Hunting at Zakrynicze”, by Kossak Senior
1 Painting, “Hunting at Zakrynicze”, by Kossak Senior
1 Painting, “Hunting at Zakrynicze”, (Tally-ho!)
1 Painting, “Achmet the black horse”, by Kossak
1 Jubilee painting by Kossak, “The Hunt”
3 Paintings, “Bison”
1 Oil painting by Kossak, “A Mounted Frenchman”
1 Oil painting by Kossak, “A Four-in-hand carriage next to the stable at Antoniny”
1 Oil painting by Kossak, “Kadi the race horse on the racetrack”
1 Oil painting by Fałat, “Hunting at Nieśwież”
1 Portrait in oils, “Count Józef Potocki on horseback”, by Kossak
1 Oil painting, “Bonaparte”
1 Oil painting, “St. Dorothy’s Church at Sławuta”
1 Portrait in oils of Prince Roman Sanguszko
1 Watercolour, “Stockholm Palace”
1 French print, “War”
1 Oil painting, “Lakeside view”
1 Print, “Kościuszko and Tsar Paul”
1 Watercolour by Rybkowski, “A poplar and the chapel at Antoniny”
1 Oil painting, “An Eagle”
1 Portrait in oils of Count Alfred Potocki
1 Portrait in oils of Count Roman
1 Portrait in oils of Count Józef
1 Oil painting, “Hunting a bear”
1 Watercolour, “Prince Sanguszko and a dwarf”, 1837
1 Watercolour, “Prince Roman and Jadwiga Sanguszko”
1 Painting, “Prince Roman E. Sanguszko in prison”
1 Painting, “Prince Roman E. Sanguszko in Tbilisi”
1 Silver statue, “Count J. Potocki on horseback”
1 Portrait in oils, by Matejko (Exc. Countess Potocka)
1 Portrait in oils of the Duchess of Württemberg
1 Portrait in oils of Count Feliks Potocki
1 Bronze sculpture by Canonica of Count J. Potocki
1 Golden Polish Eagle on a marble plinth
1 Bronze Japanese sculpture, “A lion and a bear”
1 Sculpture, “King John Sobieski”
1 Marble sculpture, “King Stanisław August”
1 Marble sculpture, “The Primate of Poland”
1 Portrait in oils of King Stanisław Leszczyński
1 Portrait in oils, “Prince Michał Poniatowski”, by Bacciarelli
1 Portrait in oils of Queen Maria Leszczyńska
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Inventory
1 Portrait in oils of Count Mniszech
1 Porcelain figure of King John Sobieski
1 Louis XV-style sofa
Pair of Louis XV-style armchairs
1 Small sofa, Louis XV style
1 Louis XV-style footstool
1 Sławuta carpet, green with deer pattern
1 Grand piano
*This inventory for the Palace, which dates back to the times of Józef
Mikołaj Potocki (1862–1922) and is kept in the Archives of the Institute of
Art History of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw, has never been
published before. It gives a very good idea of the extraordinary opulence
of the collection of artefacts in Count Potocki’s Warsaw residence, and its
overtly Polish patriotic nature, as evidenced by the large number of portraits of the kings of Poland and of paintings by Polish artists such as Jan
Matejko, Juliusz Kossak, and Julian Fałat.
Józef Potocki, who inherited vast estates amounting to nearly 70 thousand hectares in what is now Ukraine, read Law and Administration at
the Universities of Lwów, Wilno, and finally Vienna. As Walerian Meysztowicz writes, he was a first-rate landlord and manager of his properties,
as well as a grand aristocrat, even prouder than the Russian aristocracy
(Meysztowicz 2008, pp. 128–131). His principal residence, Antoniny, 4 km
from Zasław (now in Ukraine), designed by the renowned architect Ferdinand Fellner of Vienna, was full of books and works of art such as paintings by Jan Matejko, Józef Brandt, Piotr Stachiewicz, Józef Chełmoński,
and Kazimierz Pochwalski. Potocki allowed others to enjoy a share in his
wealth; he was the financial patron of periodicals Kraj and Słowo, and
a benefactor and curator of the Warsaw learned society Towarzystwo
Naukowe Warszawskie. His hobbies and favourite pastimes were horses,
natural history, travel, and hunting. He published several books on hunting in Africa, and some of them were translated into English and published
in London. In 1920 he transferred part of his Antoniny collection, particularly the books, archives, and paintings, to the Potocki Palace in Warsaw,
where most of them were destroyed in the fire of 1944 (PSB, Vol. XXVIII,
pp. 78-81).
The portrait of Potocki in oils on canvas (ca. 1890) we have reproduced
in this book, painted and signed by Teodor Axentowicz, comes from the
Museum collection at Łańcut Castle. According to the Inventory there
was a portrait of Count Józef Potocki by Kazimierz Pochwalski in the
Czartoryski-Potocki Palace, but its current whereabouts are unknown.
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Secrets of the Past
*We were able to write this book thanks to the work of authors like Antoni
Magier, Piotr Bohdziewicz, Aleksander Kraushar, Władysław Konopczyński,
Tadeusz Jaroszewski, Marek Kwiatkowski; and above all the authors of the
only monograph written on the Czartoryski-Potocki Palace so far, Irena
Malinowska and Maria I. Kwiatkowska. We also found the recently published books by Katarzyna Kuras and Jakub Sito an invaluable help; the
former sheds new light on the character and achievements of August
Aleksander Czartoryski, and the latter on the construction of his Palace
on the Krakowskie Przedmieście. Our remarks on the Rococo, the style in
which the Palace was built (and not in the Baroque style), owe a lot to the
work of Jan Białostocki, Mariusz Karpowicz, and Władysław Tomkiewicz.
We are indebted to Juliusz A. Chrościcki and wish to thank him for reading the manuscript of this book and offering constructive criticism. Maria
Romanowska-Zadrożna and Tadeusz Zadrożny were our generous consultants on the works of art which were lost during the Second World War.
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Album architektoniczne 1895 – Album architektoniczne zabytków od XII–XIX w.,
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Secrets of the Past
List of Illustrations
1. Leon Potocki, Święcone czyli Pałac Potockich w Warszawie, Poznań 1854; BNW. Title
page of Leon Potocki’s book on the Potocki Palace
2. The Czartoryski-Potocki Palace, Warsaw, in 2011. Photo by Hubert Kowalski
3. Peter Schenk, View of the court of Marywil, copperplate engraving, 1703; MNW. Photo
by Piotr Ligier
4. Plan of the City of Warsaw, dedicated to His Majesty Augustus III, King of Poland,
Elector of Saxony, made by order of Count Bieliński, Lord Grand Marshal of Poland, by the
engineer Lt.-Col. P. Ricaud de Tirregaille in the service of His Majesty and the Republic of
Poland, 1762; AGAD
5. Peter Schenk, The Denhoff residence, detail of Fig. 3; MNW
6. Unidentified painter, Portrait of Lord Hetman Sieniawski and his wife, with their
daughter Maria Zofia and her first husband, Stanisław Denhoff, oils on canvas, 1724–26;
Wilanów Palace Museum
7. Unidentified painter, Portrait of Stanisław Ernest Denhoff, Lord Field Hetman of Lithuania, oils on canvas, ca. 1720; Royal Łazienki Museum in Warsaw
8. Unidentified painter, Portrait of August Aleksander Czartoryski, oils on canvas, 1730s;
Wilanów Palace Museum. On what is probably the best of all the Prince’s known portraits
we see a self-confident, proud, and intelligent man in his mid-thirties. His apparel, a breastplate and ermine-lined cloak, displayed against a homogeneous dark background, endow
him with an air of nobility, a perfect match, it seems, for his ambition to obtain the throne.
The exquisitely painted face, the highlights on the breastplate, the delicately applied Crimson verging on purple, and the unobtrusively presented cross of honour make this painting
an outstanding work of art.
9. Elevation of the main building of the Czartoryski-Potocki Palace, 1762; detail from the
vignette of Ricaud de Tirregaille’s plan of Warsaw; AGAD
10. Design for the elevation of the Palace’s main building and portico, ca. 1840, pen-andink drawing; BNW. A question arises: when was the Palace’s Classicising conversion, including the addition of its Doric portico, done? Perhaps not until the 19th century?
11. View of the Czartoryski-Potocki Palace, ca. 1928. Photo by Henryk Poddębski; ISPAN
12. Ruins of the Czartoryski-Potocki Palace, façade of the main building, 1945. Photo by
Leonard Sempoliński; NID
13. View of the Czartoryski-Potocki Palace in 2011. Photo by Hubert Kowalski
14. Design for the elevation of the Palace’s north wing, ca. 1840, pen-and-ink drawing; BNW
15. Elevation of the Palace’s north wing, ca. 1915–18; ISPAN
16. Detail on the south wing of the Czartoryski-Potocki Palace, 2011. Photo by Hubert
Kowalski
17. Vase at the top of the attic on the south wing of the Czartoryski-Potocki Palace, 2011.
Photo by Hubert Kowalski
18. View of the Palace’s corps de garde, 1930; ISPAN. Photo by Henryk Poddębski
19. View of the Palace’s corps de garde, 2011. Photo by Hubert Kowalski
20. View of the Palace’s corps de garde, 2011. Photo by Hubert Kowalski
21. View of the corps de garde from the Palace’s court, 1895; MNW. Photo by Piotr Ligier
22. View of the corps de garde from the Palace’s court, before 1939; BNW. Photo by Leonard
Sempoliński
190
List of illustrations
23. View of the corps de garde from the Palace’s court, 2011. Photo by Hubert Kowalski
24. Statue of Mars (or Bellona) on the corps de garde, 1951; ISPAN
25. Statue of Mars (or Bellona) on the corps de garde, 2011. Photo by Hubert Kowalski
26. Statues of putti on the corps de garde, 2011. Photo by Hubert Kowalski
27. Sculptural decoration of the corps de garde, 2011. Photo by Hubert Kowalski
28. Sculptural group decorating the corps de garde, 2011. Photo by Hubert Kowalski
29. Anton Raphael Mengs (?), Portrait of Giacomo Casanova, oils on canvas, 1768; private collection. The frame is an excellent example of the Rococo style with an elegant rocaille ornament.
30. Efraim Szreger, Design for the fountain put up in Warsaw for King Stanisław August’s
name day in 1766, drawing; GR BUW
31. Marcello Bacciarelli, Portrait of Prince Stanisław Lubomirski, oils on canvas, ca. 1770;
Wilanów Palace Museum
32. Alexander Roslin, Portrait of the Princess Marshal Izabela Lubomirska née Czartoryska,
before 1781, oils on canvas; Wilanów Palace Museum
33. The Doric portico on the Czartoryski-Potocki Palace, 2011. Photo by Hubert Kowalski
34. The Golden Room, before 1939 [ca. 1924]; ISPAN
35. Interior of the Arabesque/Pompeian Room, 1938; MW. Photo by Zofia Chomętowska
36. Interior of the Arabesque/Pompeian Room, ca. 1924; MNW. Photo by Piotr Ligier
37. Interior of the Arabesque/Pompeian Room, 1938; MW. Photo by Zofia Chomętowska
38. Interior of the Arabesque/Pompeian Room, 1895; MNW. Photo by Piotr Ligier
39. A Centauride and Bacchant; watercolour (copy made ca. 1785 of a detail from a painting in the Villa of Cicero at Pompeii; after an engraving in Antichita di Ercolano, vol. 1, tab.
XXVIII); GR BUW
40. Count Soter Krasicki, Plan of the Hon. Princess Marshal Lubomirska’s garden, 1783–
1794; GR BUW
41. Charles Bechon, Portrait of Jan Chrystian Kamsetzer, miniature, 1789; MNW. Photo
by Piotr Ligier
42. Jan Chrystian Kamsetzer, Design for interior decoration, ca. 1785; GR BUW
43. Interior of the vestibule of the Czartoryski-Potocki Palace, with the portraits of King
Stanisław August and Stanisław Kostka Potocki, ca. 1924; ISPAN
44. Marcello Bacciarelli, Portrait of Stanisław August Poniatowski and the bust of Pius
VI, oils on canvas. A copy of this painting used to hang in the vestibule of the Palace (see
Fig. 43). The Ciechanowiecki Foundation at the Royal Castle of Warsaw
45. Angelika Kauffmann, Henryk Lubomirski as Cupid, oils on canvas, 1786; Lviv, Lviv
National Art Gallery (Ukraine)
46. Elisabeth-Louise Vigée Lebrun, Portrait of Henryk Lubomirski as the genius of fame;
oils on oak board, 1789; Berlin, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin. Photo by Jörg P. Anders, The
BPK/BE&W Agency
47. Domenico Zampieri (Domenichino), “The Guardian Angel”, workshop version, slightly
smaller than the original, oils on canvas, early 17th c.; Wilanów Palace Museum
48. Pompeo Batoni, Aleksandra Potocka née Lubomirska (the wife of Stanisław Kostka) as
Melpomene, oils on canvas, 1780; Wilanów Palace Museum
49. Jacques-Louis David, Portrait of Stanisław Kostka Potocki on horseback, oils on canvas,
1781; Wilanów Palace Museum
50. Pompeo Batoni, Apollo and two Muses, Euterpe and Urania, replica, oils on canvas,
after 1741; Wilanów Palace Museum
51. Antoni Blank, Portrait of Stanisław Kostka Potocki, oils on canvas, ca. 1815; Wilanów
Palace Museum
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52. Antoni Brodowski, Portrait of Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz, oils on canvas, 1820; Wilanów
Palace Museum
53. The Wilanów Library in the Palace of the Republic of Poland: the Special Collections of
the National Library. Reproduction by courtesy of the National Library of Poland. Photo
by Jan Kriwol
54. Aleksander Kokular, Portrait of Aleksander Potocki, son of Stanisław Kostka, oils on
canvas, ca. 1830; Wilanów Palace Museum
55. Johann Ender, Portrait of Natalia Sanguszkowa née Potocka, daughter of Aleksander
Potocki, oils on canvas, 1829; Wilanów Palace Museum
56. Design for the arrangement of Aleksander Potocki’s study, ca. 1820, pencil drawing;
BNW
57. The Corpus Christi procession on the Krakowskie Przedmieście and Czysta street corner, 30th May 1861. Photo by Karol Beyer
58. Gebethner and Wolff ’s bookshop on the Krakowskie Przedmieście, May 1933; NAC
59. German bookshop in Warsaw under wartime occupation, July 1941. Photo by
Mieczysław Bilażewski-Bil; NAC
60. P. Tyrowicz, Portrait of Stanisław Potocki in the Polish national costume, oils on canvas,
1848; Wilanów Palace Museum
61. No. 17 on the Krakowskie Przedmieście in 2011. Photo by Hubert Kowalski
62. View of the Czartoryski-Potocki Palace ca. 1900; ISPAN
63. View of the Krakowskie Przedmieście – Czysta junction, before 1886; ISPAN
64. View of the entrance gate to the Czartoryski-Potocki Palace, 1938; MW. Photo by Zofia
Chomętowska
65. View of the entrance gate to the Czartoryski-Potocki Palace, period between the World
Wars; ISPAN
66. Detail on the Palace gate, with the Pilawa arms, 2011. Photo by Hubert Kowalski
67. The Boudoir/Green Drawing Room, ca. 1924; ISPAN. Photo by Leonard Kowalski
68. The Small Drawing Room, ca. 1924; ISPAN. Photo by Leonard Kowalski
69. The Boudoir/Green Drawing Room, ca. 1924; ISPAN. Photo by Leonard Kowalski
70. The Small Drawing Room, ca. 1924; ISPAN. Photo by Leonard Kowalski
71. Interior of the Library, ca. 1924; ISPAN
72. Bartholomeus Milwitz, Portrait of Vladislaus IV in his coronation robes, after 1636, oils
on canvas; MNW. Photo by Piotr Ligier
73. Interior of the Drawing Room/Golden Room/Dining Hall, 1938; MW. Photo by Zofia
Chomętowska
74. Marcello Bacciarelli, Portrait of Stanisław August Poniatowski in his coronation robes,
oils on canvas, 1764; Muzeum Lubelskie, Lublin. Photo by Piotr Maciuk
75. The ground-floor study in the Czartoryski-Potocki Palace, ca. 1924; ISPAN
76. Marcello Bacciarelli, Portrait of Kajetan Sołtyk, oils on canvas, 1768; Wawel Royal
Castle. A replica of this painting used to be part of the decoration of the Palace’s White Room
77. Interior of the White Room in the Czartoryski-Potocki Palace, with a marble sculptural
group of a Satyr and a Bacchante, before 1939; ISPAN
78. Interior of the Library in the Czartoryski-Potocki Palace, ca. 1924; ISPAN
79. Portrait of Jan Potocki, photograph, ca. 1924; MNW. Photo by Piotr Ligier
80. Jan Chrzciciel Lampi (Giovanni Battista Lampi) the Elder (?), Portrait of Jan Potocki,
copy, oils on canvas; Wilanów Palace Museum
81. Ruins of the Czartoryski-Potocki Palace in the aftermath of wartime devastation, 1945;
MW. Photo by A. Funkiewicz
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List of illustrations
82. Ruins of the south wing of the Palace from ulica Czysta in the aftermath of wartime
devastation, 1945; MW. Photo by A. Funkiewicz
83. Interior of the Drawing Room/Arabesque Room in the aftermath of wartime devastation,
1945; MW. Photo by Zofia Chomętowska
84. Entrance way to the Czartoryski-Potocki Palace in the aftermath of wartime devastation,
1945; MW. Photo by Zofia Chomętowska
85. Interior of the Czartoryski-Potocki Palace in the aftermath of wartime devastation,
1945; MW. Photo by Zofia Chomętowska
86. Military review in the Palace court; scene from the film The Princess of Łowicz, 1932; NAC
87. Military parade in the Palace court; scene from the film The Princess of Łowicz, 1932;
NAC
88. Military parade in the Palace court; scene from the film The Princess of Łowicz, 1932;
NAC
89. Jadwiga Smosarska as Joanna Grudzińska (the Princess of Łowicz) and Józef Węgrzyn as
Walerian Łukasiński in a scene from the film The Princess of Łowicz, 1932; NAC
90. Unidentified painter, Maria Zofia Czartoryska née Sieniawska, oils on canvas, 1st half
of 18th c., Wilanów Palace Museum
91. Unidentified painter, Portrait of Adam Kazimierz Czartoryski, pastels, 2nd half of 18th
c.; Wilanów Palace Museum
92. Interior of the Library in the Czartoryski-Potocki Palace, 1938; MW. Photo by Zofia
Chomętowska
93. Marcello Bacciarelli, Napoleon grants the Duchy of Warsaw its Constitution, 1811, oils on
canvas; MNW. Photo by Krzysztof Wilczyński
94. François Gérard, Joachim Murat, 1801, oils on canvas; Château de Versailles. Photo by
Philippe Sébert, The RMN/BE&W Agency
95. Leon Potocki, Święcone czyli Pałac Potockich w Warszawie, Poznań 1861; BNW. Title
page of the second edition of Leon Potocki’s book on the Potocki Palace (Poznań, 1861).
The small volume by Bonawentura of Kochanów (Potocki’s pen-name) must have enjoyed
considerable popularity to go into a second, more decorative edition.
96. Unidentified painter, Portrait of Anna (“Anetka”) Tyszkiewicz née Potocka, ca. 1800;
MNW. Photo by Piotr Ligier
97. Kazimierz Wojniakowski after an original idea by Wojciech Bogusławski; aquatint by
Jan Ligber; “Napoleon as the Rising Sun”: standard displayed in the Teatr Narodowy on
18th January 1807 on the occasion of Napoleon’s attendance at a performance of Ludwik Osiński’s play Andromeda. The aquatint is kept in the Muzeum Teatralne collection in
Warsaw. There is a distinct connection between the Emperor’s apotheosis on these artefacts
and the warm, well-nigh affectionate attitude to him in Leon Potocki’s book. After nearly
half a century Napoleon was still an important person for Poles and affectionately remembered by them. The Theatre Museum, Warsaw
98. Josef Grassi, Portrait of Prince Józef Poniatowski, oils on canvas, ca. 1810; ZKW. Photo by A. Ring and B. Tropiło. The Prince has high-ranking military distinctions on his
uniform: the Virtuti Militari, which King Stanisław August founded after the Battle of
Zieleńce, and the Order of the White Eagle. On hearing of the King’s accession to the proRussian Confederation of Targowica, Prince Józef returned the Orders of the White Eagle
and of St. Stanislaus.
99. Louis Marteau, Portrait of Izabela Czartoryska, pastels, ca. 1760; Wilanów Palace Museum
100. Jan Rustem, Group portrait of Maria Mirska, Barbara Szumska, and Adam Napoleon
Mirski, ca. 1808, oils on canvas; MNW. Photo by Piotr Ligier
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List of illustrations
101. Dancer with cymbals, watercolours. Copy made around 1785 of a detail from a painting in the Villa of Cicero at Pompeii, after a drawing in Antichità di Ercolano (vol. 1, tab.
XXI); GR BUW. The Pompeian dancers in this publication were undoubtedly an inspiration for painters and palace performances alike.
102. Laura Potocka, “Un Coup d’Oeil dans l’Avenir!” Cartoon showing the social life of the
Potocki Palace under the Duchy of Warsaw, 1809, pen-and-ink and pencil drawing; MNW.
Photo by Piotr Ligier
103. Title page of Julian Ursyn Niemczewicz’s poetic history of Poland set to music (1816)
104. Maria Kalergis, photograph; The Theatre Museum, Warsaw
105. Eliza Radziwiłłówna, Portrait of Fryderyk Chopin at the piano, drawing, 1826; NIFC
106. Cyprian Kamil Norwid, Portrait of Maria Kalergis with roses in her hair, pen-and-ink
drawing, ca. 1848; BNW, Warsaw
107. Maria Kalergis, photograph; The Theatre Museum, Warsaw. Photo by Karol Beyer
108. Gracjan Unger, photograph; Archiwum Miasta Stołecznego Warszawy (Warsaw
Municipal Archives). Photo by W. Twardzicki
109. Unger’s art gallery in the Palace court, photograph, 1896; Archiwum Miasta
Stołecznego Warszawy (Warsaw Municipal Archives)
110. Title page of the catalogue for the University of Warsaw’s 1825 art exhibition; BUW
111. Catalogue for the University of Warsaw’s 1825 art exhibition; BUW
112. Interior of Józef Unger’s art gallery on ulica Niecała during the exhibition of the works
of Maurycy Gottlieb, 1879
113. Exhibition of Jan Matejko’s “Battle of Grunwald” and “Prussian Homage” in the pavilion
on the Krakowskie Przedmieście, drawing, 1882
114. Interior of Józef Unger’s art gallery in the pavilion in the court of the CzartoryskiPotocki Palace, during the exhibition of Matejko’s “Battle of Grunwald”, 1881
115. Jan Matejko, “The Battle of Grunwald”, 1878, oils on canvas; MNW. Photo by Piotr Ligier
116. Jan Matejko, “The Battle of Grunwald”, detail, 1878, oils on canvas; MNW. Photo by
Piotr Ligier
117. Jan Matejko, “The Prussian Homage”, oils on canvas, 1880–1882; The Cloth Hall,
National Museum in Kraków
118. Jan Matejko, “The Prussian Homage”, detail, 1880–1882, oils on canvas; The Cloth
Hall, National Museum in Kraków
119. Jan Matejko, “The Prussian Homage”, detail, 1880–1882, oils on canvas; The Cloth
Hall, National Museum in Kraków
120. Franciszek Kostrzewski, Portrait of Józef Unger as The Publisher, ca. 1860, pencil
drawing; MNW. Photo by Piotr Ligier
121. Marcin Olszyński, a personalised greeting card for Unger, 1884; MNW. Photo by Piotr Ligier
122. Front page of a Tygodnik Ilustrowany issue for July 1878
p. 2. The Czartoryski-Potocki Palace in 1930; ISPAN. Photo by Henryk Poddębski
p. 6. The corps de garde by night, 2011. Photo by Hubert Kowalski
p. 20. Unidentified painter, Portrait of Aleksander Czartoryski, 1730, oils on canvas;
Wilanów Palace Museum
p. 26. The Czartoryski-Potocki Palace ca. 1928; ISPAN. Photo by Henryk Poddębski
p. 34. View of the Czartoryski-Potocki Palace from the court of the Governor’s (Presidential)
Palace, ca. 1925; ISPAN
p. 58. Marcello Bacciarelli, Izabela Lubomirska née Czartoryska, wife of Stanislaw Czartoryski, Lord Grand Marshal of Poland, 1757; Wilanów Palace Museum
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Secrets of the Past
p. 72. The Krakowskie Przedmieście – Czysta junction, ca. 1918–20; ISPAN
p. 104. Anton Graff , Portrait of Stanisław Kostka Potocki, 1785; Wilanów Palace Museum
p. 108. François Gérard, Napoleon I in his coronation robes, 1805, oils on canvas; The Louvre,
Paris. Photo by Philippe Sébert, The RMN/BE&W Agency
p. 114. François Gérard, Maria Walewska, ca. 1810, oils on canvas, Paris, Musée de l’Armée.
Photo by Philippe Sébert, The RMN/BE&W Agency
p. 132–133. William H. Lindley, Plan of Warsaw, scale 1:250 [?], 1897; Biuro Geodezji
i Katastru, Wydział Warszawskiego Systemu Informacji o Terenie (Surveying and Cadastral
Office, Department for the Warsaw Land Data System)
p. 150–151. The Krakowskie Przedmieście – Czysta junction, postcard; Archiwum Miasta
Stołecznego Warszawy (Warsaw Municipal Archives)
p. 152. The court of the Palace, 2011. Photo by Hubert Kowalski
p. 155. Detail on the entrance gate to the Palace, 2011. Photo by Hubert Kowalski
p. 156. The corps de garde, 2011. Photo by Hubert Kowalski
p. 158. The White Room, now the Minister’s office, 2011. Photo by Hubert Kowalski
p. 159. The Czartoryski-Potocki Palace, 2011. Photo by Hubert Kowalski
p. 162–163. The White Room in the Czartoryski-Potocki Palace, ca. 1924; ISPAN
p. 164. Ground-floor plan of the Czartoryski-Potocki Palace ca. 1920; ISPAN.
p. 167. Carved walnut grandfather clock, 1895, Album architektoniczne; MNW. Photo by
Piotr Ligier
p. 168. Gilded Venetian console table, 1895, Album architektoniczne; MNW. Photo by Piotr Ligier
p. 171. Italian inlaid and carved cabinet, 1895, Album architektoniczne; MNW. Photo by
Piotr Ligier
p. 172. Italian carved bench, 1895, Album architektoniczne; MNW. Photo by Piotr Ligier
p. 175. Ground-floor plan of the main building of the Czartoryski-Potocki Palace, 1930–31;
ISPAN. 1. Vestibule 2. Library 3. Study 4. Golden Room/Dining Room/Drawing Room
III 5. Arabesque Room/ Ballroom/ Drawing Room II 6. White Room/Drawing Room I 7.
Small Drawing Room/Antechamber 8. Boudoir
p. 177. Teodor Axentowicz, Portrait of Józef Potocki, oils on canvas, ca. 1890; Łańcut Castle
Museum
p. 178–179. Elevation of the north wing of the Czartoryski-Potocki Palace, ca. 1915–18;
ISPAN
p. 186. Interior of the White Room in the Czartoryski-Potocki Palace, 1895
p. 187. Detail of the rosette in the Golden/Dining Room, 1895
p. 188–189. Vestibule of the Czartoryski-Potocki Palace, 1930s; ISPAN
p. 194. Garden elevation of the Czartoryski-Potocki Palace, 2011. Photo by Hubert Kowalski
p. 197. Putto on the corps de garde, 2011. Photo by Hubert Kowalski
p. 198. Design for the court of the Palace, ca. 1840; BNW
p. 200–201. Antonio Rizzi Zannoni, Plan of Warsaw, 1772; Archiwum Miasta Stołecznego
Warszawy (Warsaw Municipal Archives)
p. 202. Decoration on the Palace’s entrance gate, 2011. Photo by Hubert Kowalski
p. 216. Supraporte in the Palace’s Arabesque Room, 1895, Album architektoniczne; MNW.
Photo by Piotr Ligier
Flyleaves:
Count Józef Potocki’s Palace, Warschau 1916, photo album published by the German
Occupation Government, Warsaw, 1917; BUW
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119
98
List of abbreviations
List of abbreviations
AGAD – Archiwum Główne Akt Dawnych w Warszawie, Central Archives
of Historical Records
BHS – Biuletyn Historii Sztuki, the leading Polish academic periodical on
art history
BNW – Biblioteka Narodowa w Warszawie, The National Library of Poland
BUW – Biblioteka Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego, The University of Warsaw
Library
GR BUW – Gabinet Rycin Biblioteki Uniwersyteckiej w Warszawie, The
Print Room in the University of Warsaw Library
ISPAN – Instytut Sztuki Polskiej Akademii Nauk, The Institute of Art of the
Polish Academy of Sciences
MNK – Muzeum Narodowe w Krakowie, The National Museum in Kraków
MNW – Muzeum Narodowe w Warszawie, The National Museum in Warsaw
MW – Muzeum Warszawy, The Museum of Warsaw
NAC – Narodowe Archiwum Cyfrowe, The National Digital Archives of
Poland
NID – Narodowy Instytut Dziedzictwa, The National Heritage Board of
Poland
NIFC – Narodowy Instytut Fryderyka Chopina, The Fryderyk Chopin Institute
PSB – Polski Słownik Biograficzny, the multi-volume Polish national biographical dictionary
ZKW – Zamek Królewski w Warszawie, The Royal Castle in Warsaw
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Index
Index
Abakanowicz, Magdalena 153
Abbéma, Louise 146
Ajdukiewicz, Tadeusz 145
Ajnenkiel, Andrzej 180
Alchimowicz, Kazimierz 146
Alexander I Romanov, Tsar of Russia and “king of Poland” 67, 105, 134, 135
Alexander II Romanov, Tsar of Russia 135
Amor (Cupid), myth. 54–55
Andriolli, Michał Elwiro 145
Apollo, myth. 40, 52, 60, 126, 154, 191
Ashfield, Andrew 185
Augustus II, King of Poland 16, 17, 21, 184
Augustus III, King of Poland 14, 21, 44, 84, 88, 102, 103, 173, 190
Averlino, Antonio, Filarete 76
Axentowicz, Teodor 93, 177, 196
Babst (ébéniste) 52
Bacchant, myth. 51, 191
Bacchante, myth. 88, 120, 170, 192
Bacchus, myth. 45, 126, 170
Bacciarelli, Marcello 7, 45, 54, 59, 86, 88, 106, 107, 122, 165, 166, 170, 176, 181, 191–193, 195
Bach, Johann Sebastian 129
Baden, Grand Duke of, see Charles, Grand Duke of Baden
Bagiński, Karol 147
Bakałowicz, Władysław 145
Baliński, Ignacy 74, 130, 140, 144, 146, 180
Baliszewski, Mikołaj 183
Barbara Radziwiłłówna, Queen of Poland 126, 137
Bartczakowa, Aldona 180
Bartoszyński, Kazimierz 185
Batoni, Pompeo Girolamo 56, 57, 60, 184, 191
Batowska, Natalia 180
Batowski, Zygmunt 180
Bavaria, King (Prince) of, see Maximilian I Joseph
Bavaria, King of, see Ludwig III
Bąbiak, Grzegorz 69, 76, 180
Beaufort, Duchess of (Berkeley, Elizabeth, wife of 4th Duke of Beaufort?) 59
Bechon, Charles 52, 191
Bellini, Vincenzo 129, 154
Benjamin, Walter 54, 180
Benke (ébéniste) 52
Bernardin de Saint-Pierre, Jacques Henri 103
Bernatowicz, Aleksandra 180
Bernhardt, Sarah (born Henriette Rosine Bernardt) 146
Bernoulli, Johann 103
Berthier, Louis Alexandre 112, 117
Beseler, Hans Hartwig von 97
Beyer, Karol 192, 195
Białobłocki, Jan 154, 184
Białostocki, Jan 42, 180, 181
Bieliński, Franciszek 14, 23, 190
Bieliński, Piotr 110
203
Secrets of the Past
Bilażewski-Bil, Mieczysław 192
Blank (Blank-Białecki), Jan Antoni 62, 134, 135, 191
Blondel, Nicolas François 52
Boehn, Max von 181
Boerhaave, Hermann 44
Boffrand, Germain 42
Bogucka, Maria 185
Bogusławski, Wojciech 118, 193
Bohdziewicz, Piotr 22, 180, 181
Bojanowicz, Jan 41, 153
Bolla, Peter de 185
Boisgelin de Kerdu de, Pierre-Marie-Louis, (Caillot-Duval) 54
Bona Sforza d’Aragona, Queen of Poland 125, 126
Bonawentura of Kochanów, see Potocki, Leon
Borghese-Guastalla, Prince: Don Camillo Filippo Ludovico Borghese, Prince of Sulmona and of
Rossano, Duke and Prince of Guastalla 112
Boucher, François 54, 88
Bourbon royal family 47, 124
Bowron, Edgar Peters 184
Brandes, George 67, 181
Brandt, Józef 145, 177
Branicki family 42
Branicki, Franciszek Ksawery 184
Bray, Baron de – Bray, François-Gabriel, Comte de 112
Brenna, Vincenzo 49, 52, 53, 153
Brodowski, Antoni 64, 121, 122, 135, 165, 185, 192
Brodziński, Kazimierz 43, 106, 181
Broniec, Adam (?) 112
Bronikowska (Amelia, daughter of Mikołaj Oppeln-Bronikowski?) 117
Brožík, Václav 144
Brühl, Henrich von 102
Brumer, Witold 98
Brutus (Marcus Iunius Brutus) 103
“Brzozia” (unidentified aristocratic lady) 122
Buchbinder, Szymon 146
Burke, Edmund 43
Calliope, myth. 153
Carace, see Carracci, Hannibal
Carracci, Hannibal (Annibale) 54, 110, 121
Casanova, Giacomo 7, 42–44, 181, 191
Catherine de Medici, Queen of France 127
Catherine II (Sophie Friederike Auguste von Anhalt-Zerbst-Dornburg), Empress of Russia 135
Cecylia Renata, Queen of Poland 16
Celiński, Andrzej 161
Cellary, Dominik 64, 66
Cellini, Benvenuto (Bonaventura) 127
Centauride, myth. 51, 54 191
Ceres, myth. 29
Charles, Grand Duke of Baden 112, 113
Chełmoński, Józef 151, 153, 177
Chłędowski, Kazimierz 181
Chomętowska, Zofia 191–193
Chopin family 120
Chopin, Frédéric (Szopen, Fryderyk) 11, 40, 64–66, 75, 106, 127, 129, 130, 153, 154, 181, 184,
185, 195, 199
Chrościcki, Juliusz A. 180
Chyczewska, Alina 110, 181
204
Index
Cicero (Marcus Tullius Cicero) 9, 51, 54, 121, 191, 195
Cichocka 118
Ciechanowiecki family 54, 191
Cieszkowski, Ludwik 39, 101, 181
Cimarosa, Domenico 113, 116, 117
Clio, myth. 40, 153
Clouet, François (Janet) 166
Colonna-Walewski, Alexandre Florian Joseph115
Constantine, Grand Duke 98, 99, 122
Contessa, Samuel 41
Correggio (Antonio Allegri da Correggio) 144
Cupid (Amor), myth. 55
Cywińska, Izabella 161
Czachórski, Władysław 145
Czapski family 65
Czarniecki, Stefan 11
Czartoryska née Fleming, Izabela, Princess 56, 120, 193
Czartoryska née Sieniawska, Maria Zofia, Princess 16–18, 21, 22, 59, 100–102, 182, 193
Czartoryska née Zamoyska, Zofia, Princess 70
Czartoryska, Izabela, see Lubomirska née Czartoryska, Izabela
Czartoryski family 7, 9–13, 18, 19, 21–23, 28–31, 34, 39, 41, 42, 46, 53–55, 59, 66, 67, 70,
78–80, 88, 90, 93, 95–98, 100, 101, 103, 106, 110, 115, 119, 127, 128, 130, 134, 136, 137, 145,
150, 151, 153, 154, 157, 180, 181, 182, 185, 186, 190–193
Czartoryski, Adam Jerzy, Prince 125
Czartoryski, Adam Kazimierz, Prince 21, 44, 45, 54, 56, 59, 101–106, 120, 124, 127, 193
Czartoryski, August Aleksander, Prince 9, 18, 19, 21–23, 39, 43–46, 59, 101-103, 180, 182, 185, 190, 191
Dahlberg, Duke de (Emmerich Joseph von Dahlberg) 112
David, Jacques-Louis 57, 62, 109, 185, 191
Davies, Norman 181
Dazziaro, Franciszek 147
Dazziaro, Józef 147
Dąbrowski, Waldemar 161
Dejmek, Kazimierz 161
Delacroix, Eugène 117, 181
Dembowska see Grabowska née Dembowska, Cecylia
Dembowski, Edward 122
Dembowski, Leon 54, 120, 121, 181
Denhoff family 7, 11–13, 16–18, 24, 190
Denhoff, Kacper 16
Denhoff, Aleksander 16
Denhoff, Ernest 16
Denhoff, Stanisław Ernest 17, 18, 101, 190
Denhoffowa née Sieniawska, Maria Zofia, see Czartoryska née Sieniawska, Maria Zofia, Princess
Deuier (clockmaker) 166
Diomedes, myth. 9
Dobrowolski, Witold 181
Dogrumowa, Teresa 59
Dolabella, Tommaso 86
Dollinger, Michał 41
Donizetti, Gaetano 129
Drwalewski, Leonard 147
Dunin-Wąsowicz, Krzysztof 96, 181
Dupré, Jules 174
Dutkiewicz, Józef 182
Dybowski, Stefan 160
Dyck, Anton van 121, 173
Działyński, Ksawery Szymon 110
205
Secrets of the Past
Edward VII, King of Great Britain and Ireland 76
Ender, Johann 69, 192
Esselius, F. 173
Eugene of Savoy, Duke 21
Euterpe, myth. 40, 60, 153, 154, 191
Fabre, Jean-Henri 181
Fajans, Maksymilian 147
Fałat, Julian 88, 157, 169, 176, 177
Fedorowicz, J.K. 185
Ferdinand Karl Joseph of Austria-Este, Archduke 119
Fidanza, Gregorio 54
Fiske Kimball, Sidney 182
Fiszman, Samuel 181
Fontana, Jakub 22, 42, 180
Fortia de Piles de, Alphonse-Toussaint 54
Franaszek, J. 12, 13
Franz (Francis) II, Emperor of Austria 115
Frederick (Friedrich) Augustus I, King of Saxony 107
Frederick (Friedrich) Augustus III, King of Saxony 96
Frederick William II, King of Prussia 119
Frederick William III, King of Prussia 110
Friedrich-Hermann-Otto, Prince of Hohenzollern-Hechingen, Prince 112, 119
Funkiewicz, Alfred 192, 193
Gainsborough, Thomas 59
Galiński, Tadeusz 160
Gallait, Louis 146
Ganymede, myth. 29
Gaston Bourbon, Duke of Orléans 173
Gąsiorowski, Wacław 98
Gebethner, Gustaw A. 12, 13, 71, 74, 77, 147, 150, 192
Gérard, François 86, 107, 109, 111, 115, 193, 196
Gereke, Major General and German Governor of Warsaw (1915) 96
Gerson, Wojciech 136, 145, 147
Gervaso, Roberto 181
Ghiberti, Lorenzo 76
Gierowski, Józef Andrzej 181
Gierymski, Aleksander 151
Gieysztor, Stanisław 12, 13, 77, 181
Głowacka-Pocheć, Teresa 187
Goethe, Johann Wolfgang 62, 105, 120, 181
Goldberg, Halina 181
Gołębiowski, Łukasz 181
Gorzeński, Augustyn (Ignacy Augustyn Michał Gorzeński), Major General, Senator and Castellan of the Duchy of Warsaw, 112
Gorzeński, Tymoteusz (?), Bishop of Poznań 112
Gottlieb, Maurycy 136, 137, 145, 195
Gouvion Saint-Cyr, Laurent de, Marquis and Marshal of France 112
Góral, Jerzy 161
Grabowska née Dembowska, Cecylia 120
Grabowski, Michał 121, 123
Graff, Anton 62, 105, 196
Greuze, Jean-Baptiste 117
Grochulska, Barbara 105, 106, 119, 181
Gronowski, Tadeusz 13
Grottger, Artur 145
Grudzińska, Joanna 98, 99, 193
206
Index
Gryglewski, Aleksander 86, 170
Gutakowski, Ludwik 110, 112, 119
Gutakowski, Walenty 123
Gutowski, Bartłomiej 59, 182
Habsburg royal family 119
Hadziewicz, Rafał 136
Hamilton, Emma 120, 187
Hamilton, William 120, 187
Haydn, Joseph 116
Heckel, Johann Jakob the Younger 60
Hendrykowska, Małgorzata 98, 182
Henning, Mrs., a Potocki tenant (Marie, wife of painter Carl Adof Henning?) 71
Henri de Valois, King of Poland and France 84, 118, 166
Hentschel, Walter 182
Herder, Johann Gottfried 105
Hermann-Maria-Friedrich-Otto of Hohenzollern-Hechingen, Prince 112, 119
Hiche, Piotr (Piotr Hiż) 22, 23, 185
Hirszel, Henryk 147
Hiż, see Hiche, Piotr
Hoesick, Ferdynand 182
Hohenzollern-Hechingen, Prince, see Hermann-Maria-Friedrich-Otto of Hohenzollern-Hechingen, and Friedrich-Hermann-Otto, Prince of Hohenzollern-Hechingen
Holbein, Hans the Younger 54
Holmström, Kirsten Gram 120, 182
Hornsby, Clare 187
Hugues, V.S. 173
Hus, Jan 144
Hutten-Czapski, Bogdan 96, 97, 182
Ingres, Jean-Auguste-Dominique 109
Inklewicz (Stanisław K. Potocki’s steward) 64
Izabella Jagiellon, Queen of Hungary 125, 126
Jabłonowski, Ludwik Józef Napoleon 101, 107, 109, 182
Jan z Tęczyna (Jan of Tęczyn, c.1410–1470), Voivode of Kraków, 125, 126
Janion, Maria 182
Jankowski, Czesław 150
Jaracz, Stefan 98
Jaroszewski, Tadeusz Stefan 62, 180, 182, 183
Jarzębski, Adam 13, 16, 182
Jasieński, Wawrzyniec 45
Jastrzębowska, Elżbieta 185
Jaworski, Jan 140
Jentsch (ébéniste) 52
Joanna, Queen (Joanna the Mad of Castile?) 54
John (Jan) III Sobieski, King of Poland 176, 177
John of Austria 54
Joséphine de Beauharnais, Empress of the French, 115
Kaczmarek, Marian 183
Kalergis (Calergis-Nesselrode, Calegris-Mukhanov) Maria 8, 11, 75, 126–129, 153, 185, 195
Kalergis, Jan (Johann, John) 128
Kamsetzer, Jan Chrystian (Kammsetzer, Johann Christian) 52, 53, 180, 191
Kara Mustapha Pasha (Merzifonlu Kara Mustafa Paşa), Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire 176
Karpowicz, Mariusz 180
Kasprzycki, Wincenty 134, 135
Kauffmann, Angelika 54, 191
207
Secrets of the Past
Kayserling (Keyserling), Hermann-Karl von 21
Kellner (violinist) 129
Kerber, Peter Björn 184
Kicka, Mrs. – Józefa née Szydłowska, wife of Onufry Kicki 110
Kicka Natalia 67, 112, 122, 127, 182
Kicka, Ewa 118, 121, 123
Kicka, Teresa 121, 122, 123
Kicki, Ludwik 120, 123
Kicki, Onufry (royal equerry) 110
Kieniewicz, Stefan 181, 182
Kipa, Emil 119, 182
Kirkow, Jerzy 76
Kitowicz, Jędrzej 182
Kochanowski, Jan 126
Kokular, Aleksander 68, 135, 192
Komar (Stanisław K. Potocki’s tenant) 65
Komza, Małgorzata 120, 182
Konopczyński, Władysław 18, 21, 102, 103, 106, 180, 182
Konopnicka, Maria 150
Konstantynów, Dariusz 145, 182
Kortmann, Ludwik 129
Kossak, Juliusz (Fortunat Juliusz Kossak) 88, 145, 151, 169, 176, 177
Kossak, Wojciech 145, 169
Kostrzewski, Franciszek 147, 148, 151, 195
Kościuszko, Tadeusz Andrzej Bonawentura 124, 125, 176, 182
Kowalski, Hubert 4, 66, 120, 184, 190–192, 195–19
Kowalski, Władysław 160
Kownacki, Hipolit Tymoteusz 122
Kozakiewicz, Stefan 134, 182
Kozerowicz (upholsterer) 41
Koźmian, Andrzej Edward 69, 70, 124, 125, 127, 183
Koźmian, Kajetan 69, 183
Kraff t, Per, the Elder 86
Kralowa, Halina 181
Krasicki, Soter 52, 140, 191
Krasiński family 42, 65, 67, 109
Krasiński, Count (Władysław Wincenty or Adam?) 140
Krasiński, Zygmunt Napoleon 107, 109
Kraszewski, Józef Ignacy 136, 145, 148, 181
Kraushar, Aleksander 12, 78, 86, 88, 180, 183
Krawczuk, Aleksander 161
Krawicz, Mieczysław 98, 99
Kriwol, Jan 192
Krzeczkowski, Henryk 181
Kuras, Katarzyna 18, 21, 102, 180, 183
Kuryluk, Karol 160
Kwiatkowska, Maria I. 23, 65, 76, 82, 124, 129, 180, 182
Kwiatkowski, Marek 22, 180, 182
La Fontaine, S. (Pierre-Joseph?), painter 173
Labruzzi, Carlo 60
Lampi, Giovanni Battista 92, 93, 192
Lanci, Franciszek Maria (Francesco Maria Lanci) 76, 77, 150
Lantara, Simon Mathurin 54
Le Marois (Lemarrois), Jean 112
Le Ray-Burimi, Sylvie 115
Lednicki, Wacław 183
Lehndorff, Ernst Ahasverus von, 42, 103
208
Index
Leonardo da Vinci 144
Lewicki, Karol 182
Ligber, Jan 118, 193
Liotard, Jean-Etienne 174
Livingston Kean (Livinston Kean Niemcewicz), Susan 125
Lob, Augustyn 41
Loch (joiner) 52
Lorentz, Stanisław 44, 135, 183
Louis XIV, King of France 46, 109, 170, 173, 174
Louis XV, King of France 12, 86, 88, 165, 170, 173, 174, 177
Louis XVI, King of France 165, 166, 170, 173 , 174
Louis Philippe I, King of the French 115
Lubomirska née Czartoryska, Izabela, Princess 7, 18, 25, 41, 42, 45–47, 49, 52–56 , 58, 59, 66,
91, 101, 103, 105, 183, 191
Lubomirska, Aleksandra, see Potocka née Lubomirska, Aleksandra
Lubomirska, Izabela Elżbieta 59, 60, 106
Lubomirska, Julia 59, 91, 191
Lubomirska, Konstancja see Rzewuska née Lubomirska, Konstancja
Lubomirski family 9, 12, 96, 103, 182
Lubomirski, Stanisław, Prince 18, 45, 52, 59, 102, 106, 174, 183, 191
Lubomirski, Henryk 54, 55, 105, 191
Ludwig III, King of Bavaria 96
Łętowski, Ludwik, Bishop 67, 183
Łojek, Jerzy 183
Łubieński, Feliks 112
Łukasiewicz, Piotr 161
Łukasiński, Walerian 98, 99, 193
Łuszczewski, Jan P. 110, 112
Magier, Antoni 22, 180, 183
Majewska-Maszkowska, Bożena 62, 183
Makart, Hans 144, 146
Maleszewski, Tytus 147
Malinowska, Irena 19, 23, 65, 76, 124, 129, 180, 182
Małachowski, Stanisław 110, 112, 118
Marconi, Jan 180
Marconi, Leandro (Leander) 74, 78, 79, 130
Marconi, Władysław 12, 78, 180
Maret, Hugues-Bernard 110, 112
Marescalchi, Ferdinando, Count 112
Marguerite of Lorraine (wife of Gaston d’Orléans) 173
Maria Leszczyńska, Queen of France 176
Marie Louise Habsburg, Empress of the French 115, 116
Mars, myth. 38–39, 191
Marteau, Louis François 120, 193
Masséna, André (Andrea Massena) 112
Matejko, Jan 11, 74, 86, 130, 136–138, 140–142, 144–148, 151, 153, 176, 177, 182, 183, 195
Matuszewska, Przemysława 182
Maximilian Habsburg, Archduke of Austria (1756–1801) 103
Maximilian I Joseph, King (Prince) of Bavaria 112, 113, 117
Meissonnier, Justin-Aurèle 42
Melbechowska-Luty Aleksandra 129, 183
Melpomene, myth. 56, 60, 153, 191
Mengs, Anton Raphael 43, 191
Mercury, myth. 29
Metzell, Ludwik Christian 122
Meysztowicz, Walerian 177, 183
209
Secrets of the Past
Mickiewicz, Adam 65, 107, 109, 145, 154
Mieleszko, Jadwiga 187
Mietkowski, Jan 161
Milwitz, Bartholomeus 85, 192
Minerva, myth. 39
Mirska, Maria 121, 122, 193
Mirski, Adam Napoleon 121, 122, 174, 193
Mithridates, King of Pontus 54
Miziołek Jerzy 4, 54, 57, 66, 67, 120, 121, 135, 180, 183, 184
Mnemosyne, myth. 153, 154
Mniszech, Jerzy August Wandalin 177
Mokronowski family 136
Moniuszko, Stanisław 129, 130
Morawińska, Agnieszka 184, 185
Mostowska, Izabella, see Potocka née Mostowska, Izabella
Motty, Władysław 145
Motyka, Lucjan 160
Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus 113, 116, 117
Mrozowski, Przemysław 187
Müller, Michael 184
Munkácsy, Mihály 144, 146
Murat, Joachim 9, 55, 96, 110–113, 118, 193
Myers, Mary L. 184
Mysłakowski, Piotr 185
Nach, J.P. 129
Najdowski, Zygmunt 161
Nałęcz-Górska, Tekla, see Nesselrode née Nałęcz-Górska, Tekla
Napoleon I Bonaparte, Emperor of the French 7, 9, 11, 47, 54, 55, 63, 67, 69, 86, 96, 100, 106,
107, 109, 110, 112, 113, 115, 117–119, 123, 144, 153, 166, 169, 176, 182, 184–187, 193, 196
Napoleon III (Charles Louis Napoléon Bonaparte), Emperor of the French 115
Naruszewicz, Adam Stanisław 127
Nassau-Usingen, Ambassador of – envoy of Friedrich August, Duke of Nassau-Usingen 112
Natanson, Henryk 147
Negri, Pola (Barbara Apolonia Chałupiec) 98
Nervo (Warsaw bookseller) 147
Nesselrode, Karl Robert 74, 75, 128, 129
Nesselrode née Nałęcz-Górska, Tekla 128
Neufforge, Jean-François de 52
Neuperg (von Neipperg, Neuberg), Adam Albert 112, 119
Nicholas I Romanov, Tsar of Russia 67, 69, 135
Nicholas II Romanov, Tsar of Russia 96
Niemcewicz, Julian Ursyn 8, 9, 45–47, 64–67, 70, 122, 124–127, 153, 154, 184, 185, 192
Nieuważny, Andrzej 184
Niewójt, Monika 185
Norblin, Jan Piotr (Jean-Pierre Norblin de La Gourdaine) 122
Norton, Lucy 181
Norwid, Cyprian Kamil 128–129, 183, 195
Nouvel-Kammerer, Odile 184
Novosiltsov, Nikolai N., 65, 123, 126
Ogiński, Michał Kleofas, Prince 125
Olszyński, Marcin 148, 195
Oppman, Artur (nom de plume Or-Ot) 154, 184
Orłowski, Aleksander 88, 169
Ornano family, 115
Ornano, Philippe-Antoine d’ 115
Ornano, Rodolphe-Auguste d’ 115
210
Index
Orzeszkowa, Eliza 150, 151
Osiński, Ludwik 118, 126, 193
Ossoliński family 12, 71
Ossoliński, Józef Maksymilian 112, 119
Ostrowski, Tomasz Adam 112
Pac family 18
Pac, Ludwik Michał 18, 101
Paer (Pär, Paër), Ferdinando 113, 117
Palma the Elder (Jacopo Negretti, Palma il Vecchio) 144
Paskevich, Ivan 67, 122, 129
Paskevicheva (wife of Ivan Paskevicz) 129
Paul I Romanov, Tsar of Russia 125
Pawlikowska, Hanna 184
Pecold, Kazimierz 183
Percier, Charles 109
Perświet-Sołtan, Stanisław 154, 184
Pevsner, Nikolaus 42, 43, 184
Pichler, Luigi 60
Piles, Fortia de, see de Fortia de Piles
Pillati, Henryk 147, 148, 170
Piłsudski, Józef 13, 97
Pimer (stonemason) 52
Pinck, Ferdynand 120
Piola, Józef 16
Piramowicz, Grzegorz 105
Piroli, Tommaso 120
Pius VI (Giovanni Angelo Braschi), Pope 54, 191
Pliny the Younger (Caius Plinius Caecilius Secundus) 57, 66, 105
Poddębski, Henryk 190, 195
Podkański, Zdzisław 161
Pokora, Jakub 45, 184
Pol, Wincenty 150
Polaczek, Janusz 109, 184
Polyhymnia, myth. 40, 60, 153
Pomian, Krzysztof Andrzej 106, 184
Pompadour, Jeanne Antoinette de (Jeanne Antoinette Poisson, Marquise de Pompadour) 59
Poniatowski, Józef Antoni, Prince 107, 110, 112, 113, 118, 119, 193
Poniatowski, Michał, Prince 176
Poniatowski, Stanisław, Prince 102
Popiołek, Barbara 184
Poprzęcka, Maria 182
Porębski, Mieczysław 184
Potocka, Helena, Countess 86
Potocka née Sapieha (Sapieżanka), Maria 76
Potocka née Cetner, Anna 116, 193
Potocka née Lubomirska, Aleksandra 7, 8, 18, 19, 55–63, 66, 67, 70, 103, 113, 119, 120, 122,
124–127, 176, 191, 192
Potocka née Mostowska, Izabella 67, 70
Potocka, Natalia 125
Potocka, Laura (Lorcia) 120–123, 195
Potocka née Potocka (Branicka by her second marriage), Róża 120
Potocka-Wasowiczowa née Tyszkiewicz, Anna 5, 45–47, 55, 62–64, 66–68, 70, 110, 112, 113,
115, 116, 117, 119, 120, 122, 184, 193
Potocki, Adam 176
Potocki, Aleksander 67–70, 75, 86, 112, 192
Potocki, Alfred 86, 176
Potocki, Antoni 121, 146
211
Secrets of the Past
Potocki, Artur 123
Potocki, August 70, 76
Potocki family 7–12, 22, 23, 28–31, 34, 42, 46, 53–55, 65-67, 70, 71, 76–80, 88, 90, 93, 95–98,
100, 103, 105, 106, 109, 110, 112, 115, 119, 120, 122–125, 127–130, 134, 136, 137, 145–147,
150, 151, 153, 154, 157, 180, 182, 185, 186, 190–193
Potocki, Feliks (Stanisław Szczęsny) 176
Potocki, Ignacy 62, 106
Potocki, Jan 90–93, 105, 184, 185, 192
Potocki, Jerzy 86, 166, 176
Potocki, Józef 12, 78, 84, 86, 93, 96, 102, 107, 146, 147, 153, 174, 176, 177, 196
Potocki, Józef Jun. 93
Potocki, Leon (nom de plume Bonawentura of Kochanów) 9, 11, 54, 60, 81, 100, 107, 110, 112,
113, 117–119, 151, 153, 154, 184, 185, 190, 193
Potocki, Roman 96, 176
Potocki, Stanisław 70, 76, 77, 192
Potocki, Stanisław Kostka 5, 7, 9, 11, 18, 43, 49, 53, 54–57, 59, 60, 62–64, 66, 67, 69, 75, 76, 78, 103,
105–107, 110, 112, 117, 118, 122, 123, 129, 134, 140, 146, 153, 154, 165, 166, 181–187, 191, 192, 196
Potocki, Stanisław Rewera 11
Poussin, Nicolas 54
Prince Adam’s wife – Potocka née Rostworowska, Maria Antonina, wife of Prince Adam Potocki (?) 122
Prosiński, Antoni 146
Prus, Bolesław (Aleksander Głowacki) 11, 150, 151
Przesmycki, Zenon 150
Przezdziecki, Aleksander 147
Przyborowski, Walery 12, 79
Przybylski, Ryszard 184
Puëva (husband-and-wife opera duet) 113
Putkowska, Jolanta 23, 184
Raczyński family 110
Raczyński, Atanazy 123
Radzimiński, Józef 112
Radziwiłł family 11, 12, 45
Radziwiłł, A., Prince 174
Radziwiłł, Michał Gedeon, Prince 112
Radziwiłłowa, Ludwika 174
Radziwiłłówna, Barbara, see Barbara Radziwiłłówna
Radziwiłłówna, Eliza 127, 195
Ranocchi, Emiliano 105, 185
Raphael (Raffaelo Santi) 144
Rastawiecki, Edward 136, 147
Redler, Jan (Johann) Chryzostom 41
Rehberg, Friedrich 120
Reimann (medical practitioner) 44
Rej, Mikołaj 125, 126
Repnin, Mikhail 183
Ricaud de Tirregaille, Pierre 13, 14, 23, 25, 42, 190
Ricciardi (musician) 129
Richter, Józef 52
Ring, Andrzej 193
Romanowska-Zadrożna, Maria 109, 180, 185
Rosenblum family 146
Rosenblum, Dawid 146
Roslin, Alexander 45, 191
Rosset, François 93, 185
Rossini, Gioacchino 154
Rostworowski, Marek 161
Rottermund, Andrzej 183, 187
212
Index
Rozen (Rosen), Jan 88
Rożniecki, Aleksander 123
Rudnicka, Jadwiga 67, 185
Ruisdael, Jacob van 76
Ruisdael, Salomon van 76
Rusinek, Kazimierz 160
Rusinowa, Izabella 125, 185
Rustem, Jan 121, 122, 193
Rybkowski, Tadeusz 88, 169, 176
Ryszkiewicz, Andrzej 62, 185
Rzewuska née Lubomirska, Konstancja 59
Rzewuska, Rozalia 125
Rzewuski, Wacław 102
Rzymowski, Wincenty 157, 160
Sagatyński, Antoni 122
Saint-Julien, Franz Xaver de (François-Xavier de Guyard) Count (Austrian Ambassador to Napoleon) 112
Saint-Julien, Joseph de, Count 112
Salieri, Antonio 129
Sallust (Gaius Sallustius Crispus) 9
Salm, Prince of (either Konstantin-Alexander-Joseph, Prince of Salm-Salm, or Friedrich IV,
Prince of Salm-Kyburg) 112
Samsonowicz, Henryk 185
Sanguszko, Jadwiga 176
Sanguszko, Paweł Karol, Prince 176
Sanguszko, Hieronim Janusz, Prince 176
Sanguszko, Roman, Prince 69, 122, 176
Sanguszkowa, Barbara 102
Sanguszkowa née Potocka, Natalia, Princess 69, 70, 78, 102, 122, 192
Santarelli, Giuseppe 129
Sapieha, Aleksander Michał, Prince 112
Savinelli, Angelo 129
Saxony, King of, see Frederick Augustus III
Saxony, Minister of (envoy of Frederick Augustus I, King of Saxony) 112
Schenk, Peter (Piotr) 13, 16, 190
Schopfer (stonemason) 52
Schreger, Efraim (Ephraim Schröger, Szreger) 22, 23, 44, 46, 183, 190, 191
Schumann, Robert 129
Scipio Africanus the Elder (Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus Maior) 62
Scipio Africanus the Younger (Publius Cornelius Scipio Aemilianus Africanus Minor) 62
Sempoliński, Leonard 190
Sévigné, Marie de Rabutin-Chantal de 54
Shakespeare, William 127
Siciński, Andrzej 161
Siemieński, Lucjan 145
Siemiradzki, Henryk 130, 145, 148, 151, 153
Sieniawska née Lubomirska, Elżbieta Helena 17, 181, 190
Sieniawski family 12, 16, 17, 101, 165, 190
Sieniawski, Adam Mikołaj 17, 22, 86, 190
Sienkiewicz, Henryk 11, 131, 148, 150, 151, 153
Sierakowski, Józef 122, 127
Sigismund III Vasa, King of Poland 11, 110, 146
Sigismund II Augustus, King of Poland 125, 126
Sigismund of Luxemburg, Holy Roman Emperor 144
Sikorski, Janusz 180
Simmler, Józef 137
Simonetti, Luigi (or his son Achille?), sculptor 88
213
Secrets of the Past
Sito, Jakub 4, 22, 23, 45, 180, 185
Skarbek, Fryderyk 63, 64, 67, 110, 119, 125, 126, 185
Słowacki, Juliusz 125, 145
Smosarska, Jadwiga 98, 99, 182, 193
Smuglewicz, Franciszek 45
Smuglewicz, Łukasz 45
Sobieszczański, Franciszek Maksymilian (Władysław Sobieszczański) 130
Sobolewska née Grabowska, Izabela (wife of Walenty Sobolewski, presumed daughter of King
Stanisław August Poniatowski) 113, 120
Sobolewski, Ignacy 65, 66
Sobolewski, Walenty 65, 66, 110, 112, 113
Sokorski, Włodzimierz 160
Sołtyk, Kajetan Ignacy, Bishop 86, 88, 112, 170, 192
Sołtyk, Stanisław 112
Soutman, Pieter Claesz 166
Spain, Ambassador of – envoy of Napoleon’s brother Joseph Bonaparte, installed on the Spanish
throne 112
Sroczyńska, Krystyna 66, 183, 185
St. Vincent (De Saint-Vincent d’Aiglun, Francois-Pierre-Jean?) 112
Stadler (painter) 176
Stanisław August Poniatowski, King of Poland 12, 21, 23, 39, 44, 45, 53, 54, 59, 65, 84, 86,
102–103 , 110, 119, 120, 122, 134, 165, 166, 176, 180, 181, 184, 191, 192, 193
Stanisław Leszczyński, King of Poland 21, 176
Starkman (owner of tailor’s shop) 77
Starzyński, Juliusz 185
Staszic, Stanisław 11, 136
Staude, Johann 41
Stephen Báthory, King of Poland 11, 84, 86, 166
Stępiński, Zdzisław 77
Struve, Henryk 140, 144, 146
Styka, Jan 145
Suchodolski, January 136
Suchorowski, Marceli 144–146
Sulerzyska, Teresa 23, 185
Sułkowska née Kicka, Ewa 123
Sułkowski, Antoni Paweł, Prince 123
Sutherland, Christine 115, 117, 185
Szafrański, Tadeusz 182
Szenic, Stanisław 75, 129, 185
Szermentowski, Józef 145
Szreger, see Schreger
Szumlański, Józef 118
Szumska, Barbara 121, 122, 193
Talleyrand-Périgord, Charles-Maurice de 86, 109, 110, 112
Tarło, Karol 18
Tarnowska née Potocka, Laura 122, 123
Tarnowski, Jan Amor 11
Tejchma, Józef 160, 161
Tejchmann (musician) 129
Telimena (fictional character) 154
Tepper family 115
Thalia, myth. 153
Tilman van Gameren 16, 42
Titian (Tiziano Vecellio) 54, 144
Tombari, Antonio 53
Tomkiewicz, Władysław 42, 180, 183, 187
Touchette, Lori-Ann 120, 187
214
Index
Triaire, Dominique 93, 185
Tropiło, Bartosz 193
Twardzicki, Walerian 130, 195
Tyrowicz, P. 76, 192
Tyszkiewicz family 11
Ujazdowski, Kazimierz Michał 161
Unger, Gracjan (Gracjan Jeżyński) 9, 11, 74, 78, 130–153, 193
Unger, Józef 130, 136, 137, 140, 144–146, 148, 153, 182, 195
Urania, myth. 60, 191
Urbański, Antoni 187
Vasa royal family 13
Venus, myth. 52, 144, 165, 174
Vereshchagin, Vasily 144
Vernet, Horace 54
Victoria, Queen of Great Britain and Ireland 76
Vigée-Lebrun, Élisabeth-Marie-Louise 54, 55, 191
Virgil (Publius Vergilius Maro) 5, 62
Vladislaus IV Vasa, King of Poland 13, 84–86, 166, 192
Vogel (Vogiel), Zygmunt 9, 65, 66, 153, 185
Voisé, Irena 187
Voltaire (François Marie Arouet) 42
Wagner, Richard 129
Walewska née Łączyńska, Maria (Anastazowa Walewska) 7, 70, 86, 100, 113, 115–117, 153,
185, 196
Walewski, Anastazy 113, 115, 117
Walewski, Antoni Bazyli Rudolf 117
Waliszewski, Kazimierz 187
Warnecki, Janusz (Jan Maria Kozłowski) 98, 99
Warneck, Alexander G. 93
Wasilewska, Anna 185
Wasylewski, Stanisław 187
Watteau, Jean-Antoine 54, 59
Wawrykowa, Maria 135, 187
Wąsowiczowa, see Potocka-Wąsowiczowa née Tyszkiewicz, Anna
Wentzlowa (Stanisław K. Potocki’s tenant) 65
Węcki, Józef 147
Węgrzyn, Józef 98, 99, 193
Wielopolski family 184
Wielopolski, Hieronim 23
Wiercińska, Janina 136, 137, 187
Wilczyński, Krzysztof 193
Wilhelm II, King of Württemberg 96
Wilhelmi, Janusz 161
Wilson-Smith, Timothy 187
Wiśniewski, Czesław 160
Witkiewicz, Stanisław 151, 153
Witkowska, Alina 181
Witkowski, Mikołaj 19
Wnuk-Nazarowa, Joanna 161
Wojniakowski, Kazimierz 118, 193
Wolff, August R. 12, 71, 74, 147, 150, 192
Wouwerman, Philips 88, 173
Wroński, Stanisław 160
Wrzosek-Müller, Monika 184
Württemberg, Duchess of (Wirtemberska née Czartoryska, Maria) 176
215
Secrets of the Past
Wybicki, Józef 110, 112, 119
Wynands, T. 173
Wysocki, Józef 154
Zabiełło, Stanisław 105
Zabiełłowa née Gutakowska, Gabryela 121
Zachwatowicz, Jan 12, 157
Zadrożny, Tadeusz 109, 180, 185
Zahorska, Stefania 98, 187
Zakrzewski, Andrzej 161
Zalewski, Edmund 160
Zalewski, Marcin 173
Zamoyski, Jan 11
Zampieri, Domenico (Domenichino) 55
Zawadzki, Józef 147
Zawadzki, P. 19
Zawadzki, Wacław 184
Zdrojewski, Bogdan 161
Zeisel, Sebastian 41
Zeus, myth. 154
Zieleziński, Stanisław 79
Zielińska, Zofia 187
Zieliński, Andrzej 161
Zieliński, Jarosław 187
Zola, Emile 74, 144
Zug, Szymon Bogumił (Simon Gottlieb Zug) 49, 52
Żebrowski, Walenty (Antoni Żebrowski) 52
Żelisławski (jeweller)12
Żmigrodzka, Maria 182
Żmurko, Franciszek 145
Żółkiewski, Stanisław 11
Żygulski, Kazimierz 161