Description
In 1688 the Dutch architect Tilman built a lazienki (which means a bathhouse in Polish) in a park located half a kilometer from Warsaw that afterwards gave the name to the whole estate.The bathhouse represented a small park pavilion with a wide terrace constructed on an island in the centre of the regular-shaped pond. Reconstructed in 1774 by Domenico Merlini, this building became a royal residence and afterwards was more than once rebuilt. In the period when the nobility preferred to spend their time in small country residences rather than in huge royal palaces, the architectural ensemble Lazienki , an outstanding example of Polish park art, became a favourite residence of King Stanislaw August. In 1795 the Polish monarch, who by that time had fallen out of favour, was compelled to leave Warsaw. When he was sent into exile, he took with him eight watercolour views of his favourite park .Their creator was Vogel Zygmunt, the king’s personal ‘cabinet draughtsman’ known as Ptashek. Soon Stanislaw August commissioned Vogel to make more drawings of his former estate. Thus after a two-year exile in Grodno, having lived in St.Petersburg since 1797, Poniatowski had in his possession a large selection of watercolour landscapes of Lazenki. Out of a total of twenty-four plates from this series, sixteen are currently displayed in the Hermitage. Later one more landscape was added to them, which in 1817 was presented by Vogel personally to Emperor Alexander I. Eight drawings were done in the summer of 1794, while the other eight date back to 1795, when Poniatowski had already visited Grodno. In October-November 1996, seventeen Hermitage watercolours were exhibited in Warsaw [Views of Lazenki 1996]. The watercolour painting represents a landscape with the Lazienki Palace surrounded by water. In 1784 the main façade of the palace was decorated in the new style, which acquired the name of ‘Stanislaw August’s Classicism’. Comments by Valery Shevchenko
Image Licence
All Rights Reserved
Image Credit
Image is used from www.hermitagemuseum.org, courtesy of The State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia
Location
Lazienki Palace, Warsaw, Poland
Country
Poland
Medium
Watercolour
Tags
Category
Buildings & Architecture
