DOI Heft:
Nr. 4
DOI Artikel:Michałowski, Maciej Piotr: The Raczyński of Rogalin
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.18940#0138
Museum.26 As was said in America after this transaction, this Was the last "beautiful Rembrandt'
wb-ich still remained to be accraired from the collections of the Old World.27
Other paintings which can be linked with Roger's occupancy are not of the same class but
.are interesting for other reasons, for example, a number of family portraits. These, fortunately,
survived the last war and can be found nowadays in the collection of the National Musem in
Poznań. Most of these are portraits of Roger: the brillant work by Henryk Rodakowski of 1859
and the equally valuable canvas by Leon Kapliński, painted in Paris in 1864 after the death
of Roger. Ten years earlier Kapliński also executed a smali portrait of Edward Aleksander,
Roger's son. It was doubtless due to Konstancja nee Lachmann, the second wife of Roger Ra-
czyński (she was also the daughter of his half-sister, Teresa nee Potocka) that the Portrait of
a Lady with a Fan (1862), by Paul Baudry found its way to Rogalin (Baudry was a representa-
tive of French academic eclecticism, and was highly respected in his day). This interesting por-
trait of a beautiful young woman is in all probability a likeness of Laura nee Lachmann the
Margravine de Noailles, whose first husband was Leon Swieykowski; Laura was the half-sister
of Konstancja,28 and Was a well-known beauty in Paris in the Empress Eugenia's circle of friends.
After the death of Roger Maurycy in 1864 in Paris, wherc he had fled after the failure of
the January Uprising in order to avoid arrest, the fortunes of Rogalin still remained Iow. Twenty
years were to pass before his son — Edward Aleksander Raczyński (1847—1926) — could re-
turn permamently to his family seat and restore it to its former place as a centrę of cultural
life in the Poznań region and in Poland.
This young man was known from his earliest years for his wild fantasy and stormy way
of life. At the beginning nothing indicated that in the futurę he would become a gcnerally res-
pected connoisseur of art and would create one of the finest and biggest collections of Polish
and European contemporary painting at the turn of thi century.
Edward Aleksander was without any doubt one of the most romantic figures in Poland
in the second half of the nineteenth century. Surrounded by an aura of mystery from the moment
of his birth,29 he inherited from his father a wild and eccentric disposition. At first he was raised
in Rogalin and in Florence by the eminent philosopher Stanisław Pawlicki, and after the death
of his father he was sent to secondary school in Wrocław. The next twenty years of his life
consisted of a series of continuous adventures and journeys over different continents, and re-
semble the plot of an adventure film. While still only seventeen years old, he fled to Turkey
where he joined a group of Cossacks led by Sadyk Pasha (Michał Czajko%\7ski). Brought back
to Poland by his guardian Kajetan Morawski, he went to France in 1866 with the intention
of entering the Military Academy in St. Cyr; finally he took up the study of law in Paris. In
1867 he joined the papai legions and fought in Italy against Garibaldi; he was almost fatally
wounded in the famous battle of Mentana. Saved in Rome by his aunt Zofia nee Branicka, Prin-
cess Odescalchi, he returned to Paris bathed in a hero's glory, and there he made a stir because
of his affair with a well-known courtesan of the Second Empire. He tried to make up for the
loss of his property in Poland by rash ventures. He went to Indochina where he attempted to
27. Quoted after M. Walicki,Rembrandt w Polsce", Biuletyn Historii Sstuki, XYIIt, 1056. p. 335.
28. See J. Żółtowski, Dwa pokolenia. Wspomnienia wielkopolskiego ziemianina, Poznań, 199(1. p. 130; M. Walewska, Polacy
w Paryżu, Florencji i Dreźnie. Sylwetki i wspomnienia, Warszawa, 1930.
-29. He was the natura! son of Roger Raczyński and Zeneida nee Holyńska Princess Lubomirska. the wife of Kazimierz. Ata-
nazy Raczyński disclosed the attempts that had been made to hide this fact, including the fictitious marriage between
Roger and Maria Gottsehall. This led to a heated disagreement with the family in Rogalin and finally to the cutting-off
of the Rogalin line from the succession to the Obrzycko estate, which fell to the Courland line as a result. The wanderings
of Roger became the subject of books by Saint George, Un mariage dc Prince (Paris, 1851) and E. About, Gcrmaine (Paris,
1857, German translalion, Wien, 1857).
119
wb-ich still remained to be accraired from the collections of the Old World.27
Other paintings which can be linked with Roger's occupancy are not of the same class but
.are interesting for other reasons, for example, a number of family portraits. These, fortunately,
survived the last war and can be found nowadays in the collection of the National Musem in
Poznań. Most of these are portraits of Roger: the brillant work by Henryk Rodakowski of 1859
and the equally valuable canvas by Leon Kapliński, painted in Paris in 1864 after the death
of Roger. Ten years earlier Kapliński also executed a smali portrait of Edward Aleksander,
Roger's son. It was doubtless due to Konstancja nee Lachmann, the second wife of Roger Ra-
czyński (she was also the daughter of his half-sister, Teresa nee Potocka) that the Portrait of
a Lady with a Fan (1862), by Paul Baudry found its way to Rogalin (Baudry was a representa-
tive of French academic eclecticism, and was highly respected in his day). This interesting por-
trait of a beautiful young woman is in all probability a likeness of Laura nee Lachmann the
Margravine de Noailles, whose first husband was Leon Swieykowski; Laura was the half-sister
of Konstancja,28 and Was a well-known beauty in Paris in the Empress Eugenia's circle of friends.
After the death of Roger Maurycy in 1864 in Paris, wherc he had fled after the failure of
the January Uprising in order to avoid arrest, the fortunes of Rogalin still remained Iow. Twenty
years were to pass before his son — Edward Aleksander Raczyński (1847—1926) — could re-
turn permamently to his family seat and restore it to its former place as a centrę of cultural
life in the Poznań region and in Poland.
This young man was known from his earliest years for his wild fantasy and stormy way
of life. At the beginning nothing indicated that in the futurę he would become a gcnerally res-
pected connoisseur of art and would create one of the finest and biggest collections of Polish
and European contemporary painting at the turn of thi century.
Edward Aleksander was without any doubt one of the most romantic figures in Poland
in the second half of the nineteenth century. Surrounded by an aura of mystery from the moment
of his birth,29 he inherited from his father a wild and eccentric disposition. At first he was raised
in Rogalin and in Florence by the eminent philosopher Stanisław Pawlicki, and after the death
of his father he was sent to secondary school in Wrocław. The next twenty years of his life
consisted of a series of continuous adventures and journeys over different continents, and re-
semble the plot of an adventure film. While still only seventeen years old, he fled to Turkey
where he joined a group of Cossacks led by Sadyk Pasha (Michał Czajko%\7ski). Brought back
to Poland by his guardian Kajetan Morawski, he went to France in 1866 with the intention
of entering the Military Academy in St. Cyr; finally he took up the study of law in Paris. In
1867 he joined the papai legions and fought in Italy against Garibaldi; he was almost fatally
wounded in the famous battle of Mentana. Saved in Rome by his aunt Zofia nee Branicka, Prin-
cess Odescalchi, he returned to Paris bathed in a hero's glory, and there he made a stir because
of his affair with a well-known courtesan of the Second Empire. He tried to make up for the
loss of his property in Poland by rash ventures. He went to Indochina where he attempted to
27. Quoted after M. Walicki,Rembrandt w Polsce", Biuletyn Historii Sstuki, XYIIt, 1056. p. 335.
28. See J. Żółtowski, Dwa pokolenia. Wspomnienia wielkopolskiego ziemianina, Poznań, 199(1. p. 130; M. Walewska, Polacy
w Paryżu, Florencji i Dreźnie. Sylwetki i wspomnienia, Warszawa, 1930.
-29. He was the natura! son of Roger Raczyński and Zeneida nee Holyńska Princess Lubomirska. the wife of Kazimierz. Ata-
nazy Raczyński disclosed the attempts that had been made to hide this fact, including the fictitious marriage between
Roger and Maria Gottsehall. This led to a heated disagreement with the family in Rogalin and finally to the cutting-off
of the Rogalin line from the succession to the Obrzycko estate, which fell to the Courland line as a result. The wanderings
of Roger became the subject of books by Saint George, Un mariage dc Prince (Paris, 1851) and E. About, Gcrmaine (Paris,
1857, German translalion, Wien, 1857).
119