The museum is housed in a historic seat of King Stanislaw August - a Palace-Garden complex that was created from 1775 to the late nineteenth century, and has an area of approximately 76 hectares (188 acres), which includes: a park, divided into a farm and approx. 30 buildings, including the historic Palace on the Island (Palac na Wyspie), a baroque and classical building, constructed and reconstructed from 1772-1795, 1840-1849 by the architects Tylman van Gameren, D. Merlini, J. C. Kamsetzer and A. Golonski; The White House, a classical building erected in 1774 and designed by D Merlini; Hunting Palace, a classical building dating back to 1775 to sometime before 1788, which was designed by D. Merlini; Hermitage, a classical building dating back to the last quarter of the seventeenth century and the years 1775-1779, designed by Tylman van Gameren and D. Merlini; Old Orangery (Stara Pomaranczarnia) (theatre and orangery), a classical building erected during the years 1786-1788 by D. Merlini, Old Guardhouse (Stara Kordegarda), a classical building dating back to 1792, designed by J. C. Kamsetzer; The Water Tower a classical structure, built during the years 1777-1778 and 1822 by J. C. Kamsetzer and P. Aigner; and Theatre on the Island (Teatr na wyspie) (amphitheatre and stage on an island), a classical building dating back to 1793, which was designed by J. C. Kamsetzer.
Lazienki Krolewski served as a residence, first of princes, then later of monarchs, beginning in 1675. At first, it comprised part of the Ujazdow residence, and after 1784 became a separate palace-garden complex. After 1772, some of its collections were opened to visitors, with the intention that they would one day function as a museum. During the years 1817-1915, Lazienki remained the property of the Russian ruling family, the Romanovs. From the mid-nineteenth century, they officially began to take on the character of a museum - guests were principally allowed to view the Palace on the Island, and less often the White House and Old Orangery, theatre and winter garden. During the interwar period, Lazienki were used to entertain official state guests. After the Second World War, after reconstruction work on the Palace on the Island had finished in 1960, Lazienki became a museumZa division of the National Museum in Warsaw; in 1995, they became an independent museum.
King Stanislaw August was the founder and organiser of the collections at Lazienki. In 1764, when he assumed the Ujazdow and Lazienki properties, he also took over some of their art collections, which numbered 511 paintings. During his reign, which lasted over thirty years, he did major reconstruction work and enriched the collections with very high quality pieces of art. After the king's abdication and death, during the years 1795-1817, a significant portion of his collection found its way to variety of other locations. During the years 1914-1915, most of the collections were taken to Petersburg, and during the Second World War, they were plundered and taken away by the Germans, who burnt in 1944 burnt the Palace on the Water itself. After reconstruction work was finished in 1960 and the museum was founded, some of the surviving art-works returned to their original home. The most important works in the collection today are those that have historical ties to the residence and to Stanislaw August himself.
Larger groups of art-work: Painting - 310 paintings, including 150 from the Stanislawow collection, including canvases by Rembrandt, Steen, Helst and Watteau. Among those on display are paintings by J. Breughel, P. Breughel, F. Bola, J. van Goyen, J. Jordaens, A. Kaufmann, A. Mengs, L. Carracci and others. There are also portraits of prominent Poles, such as Jan Kazimierz, by Daniel Schultz, and more than a dozen portraits of members of the Polish-Saxon court painted by A. Manyoki, as well as works by L. de Silvestre. From the Stanislawow period, there is a large group of works by M. Bacciarelli, and others by Grassi, Lampi and Norblin. Graphics: this collection contains several hundred works, including the series of drawings by C. J. Eisen and F. Boucher, which were done during the years 1768-1772, and are particularly noteworthy. In addition, there are also some of the original Stanislawow passŽ-partout, which, along with the painted decorations on the walls, once adorned the rooms of the Bialy Dom (White House) beginning in 1775.
Furniture: There is a valuable collection of Rococo and classical furniture from the second half of the eighteenth century, including 31 works signed by Paris cabinet-makers. In addition, there are Italian pieces, such as the small table with a mosaic top made by P. Savini and V. Peter for Stanislaw August in Rome in 1788, and several pieces of furniture from the Maggiolini's Milan workshop, as well as examples of English, Dutch and German (Baroque and intaglioed commodes), Russian and Swedish furniture; Polish centres of this period are represented by pieces from the royal workshops, items from Kolbuszow, Gdansk, Polonka Radziwillowska (one of the rare examples of Polish furniture that has been signed), and also a one-of-a-kind lady's travel library from the late eighteenth century, with its original contents of 210 volumes of French books, representative of provincial craftsmanship; Bronzes and clocks: a small collection of valuable Parisian wall-lamps and candelabras; Rococo and classical signed cartele and mantel clocks, a unique Swiss clock/music box shaped like a bird cage with a bird, dating back to ca. 1780, and examples of clocks from Warsaw, Krakow and Gdansk clockmakers; Sculpture: the largest and most representative collection in Poland, especially for the nineteenth and early twentieth century, divided into three groups: 1. sculpture constituting an integral part of a building's interiors: including an antique statue of Aphrodite Anadyomene, a Roman copy from the second century A.D. of Praksyteles' original state (royal collections), works by E. Falconnet, J. B. Pigalle, J. A. Hudon, J. Sarazin, A. Canovy (replicas) and others, and also pieces by the first sculptor of the Stanislaw August, A. Le Brun and those working with him: Monaldi and Pinck (fireplaces in the Dining Room, kings' statues in the Rotunda, caryatids in the Old Orangery's theatre), a collection of sculptures from the royal sculpture collection, including busts of members of the court and copies of ancient statues; garden sculptures and architectural elevations: groups of sculptures, including A Satyr, A Nymph and Hermaphrodite with the Nymph Salmacis from the southern terrace of the Palace on the Island, statues by Le Brun from the Palace's main faade, the statues Zephyr and Flora by Monaldi which stand in front of the Myslewice building, the Equestrian Statue of King Jan III from 1788, by F. Pinck, the statues satyrs with lanterns, sundials from 1778 and 1786, and from later periods, pieces including Allegory of the Bug and Vistula (Alegorie Bugu i Wisly) by L. Kaufman from 1855; the FrŽdŽric Chopin Memorial, done in 1926 by W. Szymanowski (reconstructed in 1958), and the Henryk Sienkiewicz Memorial done in 1999 by G. Zemla; The Gallery of Polish Sculpture, 1500-1939 (Old Orangery) - 1228 pieces presented in chronological order, beginning from late Polish mannerism to classicism, including works by J. J. Plersch, A. Le Brun, J. Monaldi, F. Pinck, J. Tatarkiewicz, C. Godebski, K. Laszczko, W. Szymanowski, X. Dunikowski, H. Kuna, E. Wittig and others. Portraits of famous Poles comprise a separate exhibition, consisting of 283 works, which are displayed in the Hall of Prominent Personalities and Hall of Medallions.
Permanent exhibitions: historic interiors in the Palace on the Island, the Myslewicki Palace, the White House, Old Orangery (court theatre) and the Old Orangery - "Gallery of Polish Sculpture".
Muzeum Łazienki Królewskie
Zespół Pałacowo-Ogrodowy
ul. Agrykoli 1
00-460 Warszawa
Region: mazowieckie
Phone: centrala: (+48 22) 50 60 101
sekretariat:(+48 22) 621 82 12
Fax: (+48 22) 629 69 45
WWW: www.lazienki-krolewskie.pl
Email: rzecznik@lazienki-krolewskie.pl