Tomb of John James Rousseau

The grave of Jean Jacques Rousseau This painting from the collection of the Potoccy family, the former owners of the castle of Łańcut, depicts the customary grave of Jean Jacques Rousseau on Poplar Island at the Arcadia (in Nieborów). The island is lush with poplar trees, with water all around, a boat on the river, with a man, woman and child walking along the shore. The grave site was created by order of duchess Heleny Radziwiłł nee z Przeździecka, at the Arcadia, and is based on the authentic grave of Rousseau in Ermenonville. The structure was built on an artificial island in the flood plains of the river Skierniewka. The grave site was made up of a base, a body with a nicht and covers with akroteria, with a white marble vase on top. In the niche, there was a sculpture of a reclining woman, also made of white marble. On the grave, there was the inscription „Et in Arcadia ego”. Jean Jacques Rousseau (b. June 1712 in Geneva, d. July 1778 in Ermenonville) was a philosopher, writer, educator and theorist of music who spread the philosophy of a return to nature; he rejected all political divisions, nationality or classes. He described his concept of natural education in the educational poem „Emile, or On Education” (1762), he also created the theory of the ”noble savage”, a person not skewed by the negative influence of civilisation. His theories gained much ground, especially among the enlightened ladies of Polish aristocracy. The painting from Łańcut is signed „Schiffner” and stems from the 1780s. Gotlieb Schiffner (b. January 1755 in Grosschönau, d. in 1795 in Dresden) is a German painter, active in Dresden, who remained in Warsaw between 1780 and 1784, invited by Friedrich von Brühl, starost of Warsaw. In 1787 he became a member of the Academy of Petersburg, and returned to Dresden in 1788. He was a landscape and portrait painter, and a skilled copyist; he copied in particular paintings by Vernet and Bacciarelli. The painting is displayed in the Boucher Salon in the first floor of the castle of Łańcut.