Łazienki. View of the Palace on the Island from the Side of the Waterfall
Artist
Zygmunt Vogel (1764–1826)
Date
1794
Material
Paper
Technique
Watercolour
Dimensions
42.3 × 58.3 cm
Collection
The State Hermitage Museum
Provenance
Entered the Hermitage in 1922; previously in the A.K. Rudanovsky collection.
Inventory Number
ОР-27273
The history of Łazienki dates to 1688, when the Dutch architect Tilman constructed a bathhouse — łazienki in Polish — in a park located approximately half a kilometre from Warsaw. The building, which eventually gave its name to the entire estate, was originally a small park pavilion with a broad terrace, situated on an island in the centre of a regularly shaped pond.
In 1774, the building was reconstructed by the Italian architect Domenico Merlini and transformed into a royal residence. It was subsequently rebuilt on several occasions. At a time when members of the nobility increasingly preferred smaller country residences to monumental royal palaces, the architectural ensemble of Łazienki became a favourite residence of King Stanisław August Poniatowski and an important example of Polish landscape and park design.
In 1795, Stanisław August was compelled to leave Warsaw. During his exile, he took with him eight watercolour views of his beloved park created by Zygmunt Vogel, the king’s personal “cabinet draughtsman,” who was also known as Ptaszek.
Stanisław August later commissioned Vogel to produce additional views of his former estate. After two years in Grodno and following his move to St Petersburg in 1797, the former king possessed a substantial group of watercolour landscapes depicting Łazienki.
According to the historical account associated with the Rudanovsky collection, the series comprised twenty-four works, sixteen of which entered the Hermitage. A further landscape was later added to the group and, in 1817, was presented by Konstantin Rudanovsky personally to Emperor Alexander I.
Eight drawings from the series were created during the summer of 1794, while another eight date to 1795. In October and November 1996, seventeen Hermitage watercolours were exhibited in Warsaw in Views of Łazienki.
This watercolour depicts the Palace on the Island surrounded by water. In 1784, the principal façade of the palace had been redesigned in the architectural style that became known as “Stanisław August Classicism.”
