New paintings in the collections of the Royal Łazienki

‘Italian Cuisine’ and ‘Peasant’s Home Among the Ruins’ – two 19th-century works by painter Amelia Lepige have been added to the collections of the Royal Łazienki Museum. These are further valuable paintings which contribute to the restoration of the collection of Stanisław August, partly sold by his heirs or lost in the turmoil of war.

Amelia Lepige’s paintings are faithful copies of canvases by the French painter Hubert Robert (1733–1808), which were acquired by Stanisław August for his collection before 1778.

The originals by Hubert Robert hung in the Picture Gallery in the Palace on the Isle among the most precious works from the royal collection. In 1915, they were taken by the Tsarist authorities to Russia. They returned to the Royal Łazienki under the terms of the Riga Treaty in 1921. They again adorned the interior of the Palace on the Isle until the outbreak of the Second World War. In 1939, they were evacuated to the National Museum in Warsaw and later taken out of Poland by the Germans. After the war, only one of the paintings, ‘Italian Cuisine’, was returned to the National Museum; the other one was lost.

So where did the 19th century copies of these works come from? Amelia Leipige, the Warsaw painter who made them, was also a restorer of paintings. She was in charge of the royal collection of paintings at the Royal Łazienki in the years 1833–1839. Thus, there is no doubt that these copies were modelled to Hubert Robert’s paintings. Today, this makes of them an important testimony for the Royal Baths Museum to the lost originals.

‘Italian Cuisine’ and ‘Peasant’s Home Among the Ruins’ hang in the Dressing Room on the first floor of the Palace on the Isle.