Palais Lanckoroński

The "Palais Lanckoroński" was a palace in Vienna¹. It was constructed in 1894-95 for Count Karol Lanckoroński (in German: "Karl Graf Lanckoronski") and his family, as a personal residence, and it housed the count's enormous art collection. The palace was built in a neo-baroque style by the theatre architects Ferdinand Fellner and Hermann Gottlieb Helmer. The building was up to three stores high, set back from the street, and protected by a wall with double-gates. The entrance hall was wood-panelled, two stories high, and decorated with portraits of the family. Other festive halls were decorated with frescoes and luxurious gobelin tapestries from the 17th century. Precious paintings, furniture and sculpture from different eras combined to form a decor ensemble. The rooms had different names, reflecting the theme of the objects in them.

History

The noble Lanckoroński family, aristocratics originally from Galicia, had assembled a major art collection through the generations, including Italian Renaissance paintings as well as German, French, and Dutch pictures, antique sculptures, bronzes, glass miniatures and porcelain. Count Karol Lanckoroński was a personality who continued his family’s interest in the collection. He was a collector, archaeologist, art patron, author and conservator. His collection included an enormous antique sculpture collection, as well as paintings by Tintoretto, Canaletto and Rembrandt. The art collection in the Lanckoroński Palais became on of the largest in Vienna. His friends, whom he also aided financially and were frequent visitors to his Viennese residence, were the artists Hans Makart, Victor Tilgner, Arnold Böcklin, Kaspar Zumbusch and Auguste Rodin. Writers and authors such as Hugo von Hofmannsthal and Rainer Maria Rilke paid their visits.
After the end of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the count decided to return to Poland and began to move a large part of his collection to the family’s ancestral estate in Galicia.

With the annexation of Austria to Nazi-Germany in 1938, the Nazis not only confiscated Jewish property, but also property which Nazi functionaries desired. This included collections that belonged to Austrian nobility originally of non-Germanic origin, such as the Lanckoroński collection and the Rothschild collection. Adolf Hitler decreed that all works confiscated in Austria should remain within the country, although items purchased could be exported. This measure was introduced as a result of the acquisition by Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring of two paintings from the Lanckoroński collection. Göring kept the pictures despite an order from Hitler to return them; nevertheless, the decree prevented the loss of the majority of Austria's works of art beyond its borders [cite book | title=Lost Masters: World War II and the Looting of Europe's Treasureholds| last=Harclerode| first=Peter| coauthors=| date=2002| pages= | publisher=Welcome Rain Publishers| location=New York| id=ISBN 978-1-56649-253-9]

With the outbreak of World War II a year later, the SS confiscated the palace, most of the art objects were brought to Schloss Hohenems in the state of Vorarlberg, for safety. However most of the objects fell victim to fire, and the palace itself was plundered in the aftermath of the war and set on fire. The ruins, though, still were sturdy, and the roof was temporarily repaired. The palace and the gardens then were abandoned and fell into a state of disrepair. Financial costs for a renovation were deemed too high, subsequently, so during the 1960s the palace was completely torn down, and a modern office block was built on the spot for Hoffmann-La Roche [cite book | title=Stadtbildverluste Wien - Ein Rückblick auf fünf Jahrzehnte| last=Klein| first=Dieter | coauthors=Martin Kupf, Robert Schediwy| date=2005| pages= pg. 143| publisher=LIT Verlag| location=Vienna| id=ISBN 978-3-8258-7754-5] . Today this office block serves as Austrian headquarter of Motorola.

The Lanckoroński Collection

Many of the objects in the collection originally came from the Royal Castle in Warsaw, where they hung in the so-called "Gallery of Stanisław August", named after King Stanisław August Poniatowski. After the final partition of Poland in 1795, many of the objects in the Royal Castle were sold off and bought by polish noble families such as the Lanckoroński. About 120 art objects were destroyed in a fire after the war, but much of it saved too [ [http://www.zamek-krolewski.com.pl/index.php?page=1433 Zamek Królewski w Warszawie - Historia obrazów ] ] . The art objects that remained were sold by the three heirs to the National Gallery, London as well as the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna. The rest was intended to be returned to Poland, but only on the condition once Poland is free from communism. It was finally presented as a gift to Poland by Count Lanckoroński's youngest daughter Countess Karolina Lanckorońska in the 1990s. The so-called "Lanckoroński Collection" can be seen in the Wawel Royal Castle in Kraków and the Royal Castle in Warsaw.

Paintings in the Royal Castle, Warsaw

Paintings from the collection formerly housed in Vienna, today in the Royal Castle in Warsaw include [ [http://www.zamek-krolewski.com.pl/index.php?page=1088 Zamek Królewski w Warszawie - Galeria Lanckorońskich ] ] :
* Adriaen van Ostade, "The Smoker and the Drunkard"
* Anton von Maron, "The Brothers Franciszek and Kazimierz Rzewuski with Roman Buildings in the Background"
* David Teniers the Younger, "The Country Doctor"
* Rembrandt van Rijn, "The Scholar at the Lectern" (known as "The Father of the Jewish Bride")
* from Rembrandt or his workshop, "Girl in a Hat" (known as "The Jewish Bride")

other pieces are by Ludolph Backhuysen and Philips Wouwerman.

Paintings in the Wawel Royal Castle, Kraków

Pieces in the Wawel in Kraków include [ [http://www.asp.krakow.pl/wkirds/kt/streszczenie_eng.htm M ] ] :
* Bartolo di Fredi, "Saint Augustine"
* Niccolo di Tommaso, "Madonna and Child with Saints and Angels"
* Simone Martini, "Angel"
* Bernardo Daddi, "Entroned Madonna and Child"
* Sano di Pietro, "Madonna"
* Rossello di Jacopo Franchi, "Madonna and Child"
* Dosso Dossi, "Jupiter, Merkur und "Virtus" bzw. "Virgo""

Paintings in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Pieces in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna [ http://www.konvent.gv.at/pls/portal/docs/page/PG/DE/XX/AB/AB_05184/FNAMEORIG_000000.HTML ]
* Heinrich Angeli, "Margarethe Gräfin Lanckoronska"
* Carl von Blaas, "Leonie Gräfin Lanckoronska, geb. Gräfin Potocka, mit ihrem Sohn Karl"

Rudolf von Alt paintings

The realist painter Rudolf von Alt met Count Lanckoronski in Nuremberg on August 29 1881 during one of his numerous journeys. In the autumn of that year, he executed a series of ten interiors of the Count’s apartments at Riemergasse 8, in Vienna’s first district Innere Stadt. The paintings sometimes get confused as being interior depictions of the count's Palais at Jacquingassse. The paintings done however are of his former residence before he had his new one completed. Nevertheless these series themselves were part of the count's rich art collection.

The watercolour series represent various salons and rooms decorated with paintings and sculptures of the 17th and 18th century. In some, the Count can be seen sitting in one of the armchairs, reading a book. In his refined technique, von Alt very precisely depicted all works of art, which are easy to identify. For example the bust of Friedrich von Schiller, done by Johann Heinrich Dannecker, can be seen as well as paintings by Thomas Gainsborough, Anton von Maron, Jacob Isaakszoon van Ruysdael, and Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller.

Notes

¹ Address was at Jacquingassse 16-18, in the III. District Landstraße

References

Further reading

* Koschatzky, Walter. "Rudolf von Alt 1812 – 1905". Residenz Verlag, St. Pölten. 1989. ISBN 978-3-7017-0607-5
* Lanckorónska, Karolina. "Mut ist angeboren: Erinnerungen an den Krieg 1939-1945". Böhlau Verlag, Vienna. 2004. ISBN 978-3-205-77086-2

External links

* [http://www.zamek-krolewski.com.pl/index.php?page=1088 Warsaw Royal Castle | The Lanckoroński Gallery]
* [http://www.cyf-kr.edu.pl/wawel/ekomnat.htm Wawel | State rooms]
* [http://www.nationalfonds.parlinkom.gv.at/ National Fund of the Republic of Austria for Victims of National Socialism]