Bulletin du Musée National de Varsovie (40.1999)

for the formation of art collections in Poland and for the crystallisation of
the Polish variety of Neoclassicism. I believe we should heed the summons
madę over the years by Lorentz to organize an exhibition, based on the
example of British scholars, devoted to the phenomenon of the Polish
grand tour. On the basis of his research and that of his students, it becomes
elear that the Poles, along with the British, Germans, French, and Russians,
were among the most numerous foreign visitors to appear in Italy in the
eighteenth century. Among the paintings, drawings, sculptures, graphics,
jewels, and numismatic items gathered for such an exhibition, Jacąues
Louis David’s portrait of Stanisław Kostka Potocki, one of Lorentz’s
favorites, would distinguish itself with particular brilliance.

The early 195 Os were the most active period of Lorentz’s scholarly work,
a period in which he concentrated on two fundamental themes in the history
of Polish art in the second half of the eighteenth century. The first concerned
the activity of the French architect Victor Louis and the interior decorator
Jean Louis Prieur at the Warsaw court of King Stanisław August. Along with
Franęois-Georges Pariset, Lorentz should be acknowledged for his diligent
research on the works of these distinguished French artists.

The unrealised or partially realised designs by Louis and Prieur for the
reconstruction and furnishing of the salons of the Royal Castle in Warsaw were
the first examples, on such a large scalę, of the extension of Neoclassical
principles to functional and artistic use in a monarchical residence. During his
stay in Warsaw, Louis worked closely with the King and elaborated a design for
the Great State Apartments as well as the rooms intended to hołd both
chambers of the Polish Parliament. These designs, together with earlier works
by Robert Adam, were the most important contribution to the development
of European Neoclassicist representative interiors. In Lorentz’s fundamental
work, uPrace architekta Louisa dla Zamku warszawskiego”8 as well as in the
catalogue edited with Pariset (Victor Louis et Varsovie, exhibition in the Musee
Jacąuemart-Andre in Bordeaux, 1958), he completed a precise analysis of a
large group of architectonic drawings, which not only elevated the artistic
appreciation of Louis’s and Prieur’s work, but clarified many of the
uncertainties connected with accurate identification of certain drawings. These
studies of the works of Louis and Prieur have assumed a permanent place along
with those by Pariset in the European bibliography of Neoclassical art. This is
significant because Victor Louis, subseąuent to his Warsaw period, acąuired
famę as the result of several works that secured him a major place in the history
of French architecture.

The second topie Lorentz addressed in the 195Os was the art in generał, and
in particular the architecture, of the second half of the eighteenth century in
Poland. He madę several attempts to create a comprehensive approach to Polish
architecture of the period; each time he brought a fresh perspective, linking his
research to the new discoveries in this field; however, without a deeper

Rottermund, op. cit.

Biuletyn Historii Sztuki, XIII, 1951, 4.

10