Celadon vase. China, Yongzheng period. Museum Palace Wilanów

From 30 April 2008 visitors to the Wilanów Palace can admire Chinese Rooms. The 19th-c. rooms, located in the right wing of the Palace, underwent conservation and restoration works, as part of a 3-year-long project entitled ‘Restoring the interiors of the Wilanów Palace Museum – the very first museum of fine arts in Poland’. Research and conservation works were possible thanks to financial resources obtained for the purpose from the European Union. The total cost of the project, including works inside the Queen’s apartments,   amounted to 6,000,054.98 PLN, of which the EU Integrated Regional Operational Programme funding equalled 72.50% of qualified costs, i.e. 4,097,274.82 PLN. The renovated interiors feature a temporary exhibition of unique collections amassed by subsequent Wilanów Palace owners.

The achievements of the Wilanów-employed conservators were awarded Grand Prix in the competition entitled MUSEUM EVENT of the YEAR – SIBYL, organised annually by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage. Each year the jury of the SIBYL competition gives distinctions to the best exhibitions, catalogues, conservation works and education-promoting activities, carried out in museums across Poland. As employees of the Wilanów Palace Museum, we are all proud of the highest award for 2007 that was bestowed on our institution!

A description of a Chinese Study in His Royal Highness’s Apartment is already found in the oldest inventory of the Wilanów Palace furnishings, drawn in 1696 after King Jan III Sobieski’s death. Far-East porcelain, lacquer objects and artefacts produced in Europe that imitated Chinese and Japanese art, alongside those decorated the ‘Chinese style’, embellished the Wilanów Palace interiors ever from its beginnings. Subsequent Palace owners, Augustus II the Strong, Izabela Lubomirska née Czartoryska, Stanisław Kostka Potocki, furnished their studies and apartments with decor inspired by, or imitating, motives taken from the Far East. On establishing in Wilanów one of the very first museums in the whole of Poland at the turn of the 18th and the 19th c., Stanisław Kostka Potocki created an extraordinary Chinese Apartment, which housed his collection of Hinese goods – as the contemporary inventory reads. The said apartment was decorated with Chinese paintings, wood engravings and wallpapers, and furnished with European pieces of furniture that imitated Chinese style. The collection of Far-East works of art amassed by Potocki was that of a true art admirer and a scholar, as he collected miscellaneous objects and products. S.K. Potocki’s collection of European painting, made available to the public in the Wilanów Museum, presented works of the finest artistic circles; likewise, the collection of artefacts from the Far-East was meant to give the best possible representation of achievements and distinctive features of the Chinese and Japanese art. A large number of the objects have been preserved to his day and form part of the contemporary Museum collection. Potocki’s former Chinese Apartment, located in the past on the first floor of the main Palace building, is non-existent today.

The decorations of the Chinese Rooms date back to the 1880s, when the rooms formed a private apartment of the contemporary Palace owners. They mirror the tradition of Wilanów interior arrangement, with motifs inspired by oriental art. At present the premises house Chinese-style furniture and a Wilanów-based collection of art from the Far-East. The rooms refer to former, 19th-c. collectors’ studies, filled with rich collections of various objects, which raised interest and fascinated collectors and scholars. Contrary to period customs, these exhibits were frequently displayed in large numbers, even a multitude, inside special cabinets fitted with glass or placed on shelves and console tables, small cupboards or tables. Unlike today, little attention was paid to single out individual, selected items; usually they were not grouped according to their origins or manufacturing technique, as is common practice in museums these days. Collections of objects from the Far-East were valued for their diversity, variety, exotic or even colourful nature; the size of a given collection was also significant. Chinese or Japanese products were appreciated and searched for in Europe. They were fashionable, yet luxurious and not easily available. Among exhibits representing the art of the Far-East found in today’s collection of the Wilanów Palace Museum there are examples of artefacts of distinctive manufacturing technique, set of colours and motifs used in decoration, raw material and origins. One can say the collection is cross-sectional, as it encompasses all typical examples of products from the Far East, collected in Europe at that time. It also testifies to possible knowledge of oriental art, represented by admirers and scholars who lived at the turn of the 18th and the 19th c. The majority of exhibits amassed here are goods that were meant for export. Made in the Far East and targeted specifically for the European market, they were to satisfy European tastes and expectations. A large number of objects show traces of mutual influence and inspiration that took place in the realm of art between Europe and the Far East.

The exhibition on display in the Chinese Rooms arranged by: Anna Ekielska-Mardal, Anna Kwiatkowska

Jewel case decorated with lacquer, Japan, ca. mid-17th c., wood; bronze; lacquer. Museum Palace Wilanów

Palace Wilanów