The longest journey of (portrait) Athanasius Raczyński

At the beginning of April 2023, after 84 years, the portrait of Athanasius Raczyński returned to the staircase of the Rogalin palace. It was painted exactly 200 years ago by Ludwik Fuhrmann, a painter from Wroclaw who worked for the Raczyńskis.

Since the palace's opening in 2015, it has been replaced by a copy, the making of which was made possible courtesy of Pierre Raczyński of the Kurlandic, Germanized line of the family. For in his possession at the time was the original rescued during World War II by his father Joseph, an art historian who was then the commissioned curator of the Raczyński Library in Poznan.

He did so at the request of Roger, the pre-war owner of Rogalin, who shortly after the Hitlerjugend School occupied the palace, asked him to secure the portraits and library collection still remaining in the palace. The portraits were initially stored in the Poznań Library, only to be sent in 1943, fearing the bombing of Poznan, to Obrzyck and Gaj Mały, the estates that Joseph's family had inherited from Athanasius.

According to Joseph's memoirs, this was the only painting he took with him when he fled in 1945. After all, Athanasius was close to him not only as a collector and art historian, but also a man who had a significant influence on the fate of his family, which moved from Courland to Greater Poland in 1899.

The painting went with Joseph to Chile, and after his death in 1999 to his son's Paris apartment. Pierre Raczynski, learning while making a copy that it was the only missing portrait from the palace's pre-war staircase furnishings, obliged his wife Sibylle Dunoyer de Segonzac before his death to return the painting to Rogalin. This was mediated by Wiridianna née Raczyńska Rey, in whose Paris apartment the painting was awaiting collection. This was finalized last September on the occasion of the "Greater Poland - an emigrant Europe" program.

Brought from Paris, the painting was in relatively good condition. This is because in the 1980s it was commissioned by Joseph Raczynski to undergo conservation by the conservator of the Munich Pinakothek. However, it required refreshing and adding a frame according to the pattern known from the pre-war photo of the staircase. The work was carried out by Lucyna Balewska in the Paintings and Sculpture Conservation Studio and by Łucja Błażeczek in the Frame and Gilding Conservation Studio of the National Museum in Poznań.

The recovered painting became the property of the Raczyński Foundation at the National Museum in Poznań, which was established in 1991 by Edward B. Raczyński, President of the Polish Republic in exile and the last legitimate owner of the palace. According to his will, the Foundation is entitled to all rights to the Rogalin estate and its former treasures. In 1997, the Kurland line of the family joined the Foundation, contributing the collections inherited from Athanasius and its own. As a result, the MNP can continue to display the magnificent collection of European paintings amassed by Athanasius at its headquarters in Poznań, and at the Rogalin palace, in addition to the collections belonging to Edward Bernard's ancestors, a collection of family portraits from Athanasius' gallery in Gaj Mały and the collections of the Kurland line of the family.

The gesture of successive members of both Raczyński lines, allowing the recovery of an important element of the pre-war furnishings of the Rogalin palace, fits perfectly with the idea of the Foundation, whose main goal is to protect and make available to the public the family legacy.

Ewa Leszczyńska, Rogalin 04.04.2023