The interior of a Chinese house

Interior of a Chinese pavilion The painting is watercolours on paper, behind a glass, and depicts the interior of a Chinese-style pavilion. Princess Lubomirska commissioned a series of such depictions to show how to arrange summer houses and pavilions in Chinese style, which was popular until the end of the 18th century. This is confirmed by descriptions of these depictions in the castle inventory list of 1802. The colours of the described image are bright, with a majority of grey and blue tones. The layout has two planes. The interior of the pavilion is shown in a perspective, with a porch leading to a garden in the background. The round opening in the wall shows a faraway landscape. The room is divided into two smaller areas – the one closer to the viewer with moving divided walls (fusumi). The walls are divided into rectangular fields, framed by wooden slats. At the centre of the wall on the right, there is a round window with stained-glass glazing. The ceiling is divided into rectangles by horizontal slats. In the foreground, the walls meet at right angles, leading to farther rooms that are not visible. Above the table there is an image with a rocky landscape. In the niche on the right there is a similar image. Along the walls of the room are tables, on them – blue crates with plants. In the centre of the pavilion there is a blue vase in the form of a flattened sphere, holding lotus leaves. In the background, on the left, a wall moved away uncovers a further rooms, with flowers painted on the walls. The pavilion is closed off with a porch with a slightly raised floor, and in the background there is a wall with a round opening, through which one can see a garden and blue sky. Two lamps are suspended from the roof of the pavilion; their lampshades are pink, made of fabrics with golden fringes. All pictures from the series are framed the same way – wooden, with overlaid braidwork and rosettes in the corners; most likely made in Vienna. The paintings stem from the end of the 18th/ beginning of the 19th century, and were most probably made in China as reference templates. They are displayed in the bedroom of the Chinese Apartment, in the first floor of the castle of Łańcut.