View of the Palace in Puławy

The print shows the Puławy palace from the side of the honorary courtyard after the reconstruction by Chrystian Piotr Aigner commissioned by Izabela and Adam Kazimierz Czartoryski. The main reason for the reconstruction was the destruction of Puławy in 1794 by the Russian army. According to Aigner's design, the front pavilions were expanded and the interior given a Classicist décor.

The view comes from a set of three picturesque aquatints depicting the buildings of Puławy, published in a small circulation in the workshop of Karol Magnus in Warsaw. The prints were supposed to be a part of a graphic Album of Puławy planned by  Duchess Czartoryska, which was to have eighteen panels. For unknown reasons the fifteen remaining aquatints were not created.

The print was made by the Richter brothers, artists of German origin, associated with the Academy of Fine Arts in Dresden. In 1818, the elder, Charles August, a valued engraver and professor of the academy and a member of the Warsaw Society of the Friends of Science, etched on the plate a view of the palace based on a drawing made around 1809 by his brother, Józef, a landscape painter, draughtsman and teacher, a popular figure in the Warsaw artistic circles. Józef came to Puławy in 1806 at the invitation of the Czartoryski family, where he took the place of Norblin, who left Poland in 1804. The young Saxon spent six years at the Puławy court. He conducted artistic and educational activities. He painted Puławy, Kazimierz and the surroundings by the Vistula River. He gave lessons to, among others, Jan Feliks Piwarski. He married Zofia, a “Polish girl from Lublin”. The marriage ended in a break-up. In 1811 he moved with the Czartoryskis to Sieniawa. He also spent a short time in Dobromil. In this area he created landscapes from Galicia and finished the views of the palace, buildings and gardens in Puławy. In 1820 he settled in Warsaw. He was engaged in pedagogical and artistic work, and brought up his daughter Julia alone. He gave drawing lessons in private houses and at the Piarist College in Żoliborz and the Institute of Educating Ladies. After 1831 he opened a private studio. He made few illustrations. He was also involved in copying. Frim 1821 he showed his works at exhibitions. In 1823-1824 he was registered as a co-owner of the Warsaw lithography workshop “Vivier and Richter”.

Renata Bartnik