The Royal Castle in Warsaw joins the celebrations of the Rembrandt Year by opening the exhibition, which features 36 original works by Rembrandt. The most important of them are two paintings from the Castle’s collection: Girl in a Picture Frame (1641) and Scholar at his Writing Table (1641). The main goal of the exhibition is to remind the public about the paintings’ presence in the Castle and their long and chequered history.
The first part of the exhibition tells how the paintings found their way into our collection. In this part we present effigies of the previous owners of the paintings, starting with Stanislaus Augustus (1732-1798), the king of Poland. A special place is given to prof. Karolina Lanckorońska (1898–2002), who donated the paintings to the Castle in 1994. In 2019, we celebrate the 25th anniversary of this magnificent donation.
The second part of the exhibition focuses on two paintings by Rembrandt. At the side of originals we present their copies from 18th and 19th centuries. Among them are miniature paintings and graphic works. The public will have a chance to see how the copies reflect the history of the originals and trace the differences.
The last part of the exhibition comprises 31 graphic works and 3 drawings by Rembrandt, which belong to the Print Room of the Warsaw University Library, The Scientific Library of the PAAS and the PAS in Cracow and Museum of the Lubomirski Princes (The National Ossoliński Institute) in Wrocław. The works on paper provide a thematic context for the paintings. We have divided them into five groups: women, old men, scholars, self–portraits of Rembrandt in Oriental–like costumes and portraits of his acquaintances.
Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-1669), Scholar at His Writing Table, 1641
Royal Castle, Warsaw