Cyprian Lachnicki (1824-1906), collector, amateur artist, for many years the director of the ‘Drawing Class’ Warsaw artistic school and honorary director of the Museum of Fine Arts in Warsaw (now the National Museum in Warsaw). He spent his youth in Petersburg, where he devoted himself to collecting, amateur painting, broadening his knowledge of ancient art and acquiring museologist skills. After his return from Petersburg, he settled in Warsaw. Enjoying the full confidence of tsarist authorities, he received many dignities and functions. Nonetheless, he was a man of virtues and a patriot, took care of the interest of the school and its pupils, from his professors he required a high level not only of teaching, but also of artistic creation. He fought the authorities’ restrictive directives aimed at Russification (such as conducting classes in Russian). For more than 30 years he defended the Polish character of the Drawing Class, making use of his influences and using diplomatic dodges. He retired in 1904, after 37 years of working for the school.    

Cyprian Lachnicki’s collection was bestowed on the Museum of Fine Arts after his death, on the basis of a bequest done by the collector in 1902. The collection encompassed 138 paintings, 83 drawings, c. 140 prints and photographs and reproductions. In subsequent years the Museum received many gifts from other collectors, sometimes even richer than Lachnicki’s collection in terms of quantity and quality, as but Lechicki was the first to make a donation, it is a common saying that he had laid basis for the Museum which was under construction. One clause in donator’s bequest, concerning the construction of a building designed for collections of the Museum of Fine Arts, was of especially great importance for the history of this institution and its future collections. The clause stated that if, during the two years following Lachnicki’s death the decision to build the Museum was not taken, the collection was to be donated to charity. It was a strong impetus for undertaking constructive actions. A localization was chosen and the Committee for the Construction of the Museum was created. However, the Museum and its collections did not move to the new building designed in 1926 by the architect Tadeusz Tołwiński until 1932. Thus, with his gift, the honorary director of the Museum of Fine Arts (from 1876 to 1904) helped the Museum obtain its own seat.

The set of prints from Cyprian Lachnicki’s collection displays c. 140 prints, mostly by European printers. Only four prints are by Polish printers: Jan Lewicki, Cyprian Kamil Norwid and Henryk Redlich. This collection is diversified in terms of chronology, themes and quality. Amidst the prints one can find mainly landscapes, hagiographic and Biblical scenes, portraits, studies for head portraits, allegoric, marine and mythological compositions and few genre scenes.

Marco Antonio (Marcantonio) Raimondi (1488-1527-34)
Christ as Salvator Mundi
Engraving, paper, 41 x 27,2
Signed bottom right: R. Sanct. Marc. Ant.
National Museum in Warsaw, Inv.no. 7957
Donated by Cyprian Lachnicki, in Museum since 1908

Lucas (I) Emil Vorsterman (1595-1675) after painting by Anton van Dyck (1599-1641)
Portrait of Isabella Clara Eugenia, Governor of Spanish Netherlands
Engraving, etching, paper, 24,7 x 15,6
Signed: D.A. van Dyck Eques pinxit, and: Vorsterman sculp.
National Museum in Warsaw, Inv.no. 7958
Donated by Cyprian Lachnicki, in Museum since 1908