Lot Essay
King Stanislaus III Augustus of Poland was one of the most cultivated political leaders of the Enlightenment. Born Stanislaw Antoni Poniatowski, the sixth child of a noble Polish family, he had a torrid affair in the years 1753-8 with the Grand Duchess Catherine Alekseyevna, who was to become Empress of Russia in 1762 and is now known as Catherine the Great. With Russian and Prussian backing he was elected King of Poland in 1763 but after ceaseless difficulties was forced to abdicate in 1795 and spent his last years under house arrest in St. Petersburg. Stanislaus Augustus's activities as patron and collector have recently been celebrated by the exhibition Treasures of a Polish King, Dulwich Picture Gallery, 13 May-26 July 1992. Although remembered best as a patron of Bernardo Bellotto, who was court painter from 1768 until his death in 1780, and Marcello Bacciarelli, who was court painter from 1776, Stanislaus Augustus's collection numbered no less than 2,289 paintings, about 500 of these Dutch, including The Polish Rider in the Frick Collection attributed to Rembrandt. Most of the collection was sold after the King's death and a substantial portion passed with the present picture through Count Rzewuski to the collection of the Counts Lanckoronski, to be dispersed after the Second World War, including other paintings attributed to Rembrandt (Bredius, nos. 219 and 359) and a Bellotto view of the interior of S. Paolo fuori le Mura, Rome (Kozakiewicz, no.392)