Ignacy Korwin-Milewski
Ignacy Karol Korwin-Milewski | |
|---|---|
 Portrait of Ignacy Korwin-Milewski, by Leon Wyczółkowski | |
| Born | April 27, 1846 |
| Died | October 16, 1926 (aged 80) |
| Occupation | art collector |
Ignacy Karol Korwin-Milewski (born 27 April 1846 in Hieraniony, died 16 October 1926 in Pula) − Polish-Lithuanian art collector, political writer and traveler.
Biography
He was born into a landowning, noble family. His parents were Oskar Korwin-Milewski and Weronika née Wołk-Łaniewska. His older brother was Hipolit Korwin-Milewski. In 1856-63 he stayed in Paris, where he graduated from Lycée Bonaparte, then studied law at the University of Dorpat in 1865-68.[1] There he belonged to the student corporation "Polonia", but maintained contacts mainly with the German-Baltic nobility.[1] In 1870-75 he studied painting in Munich, where he found himself in the circle of Polish artists.[2] He himself was not a talented painter, although he took part in the Paris Salon in 1874, where he exhibited a portrait of Maria Kwilecka, née Mańkowska, he soon gave up painting.[3]
In the winter of 1875 he went to Rome, where he was made a Knight of Malta and received from the papal chancellery the title of Count for himself, his father and brother.[3] His brother and father, however, did not accept the title, often signing themselves as "not a count". He also augmentatedhis coat of arms Ślepowron, and called the new coat of arms "Milan".[3]
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In 1877 he took over his mother's large estate, which gave him financial independence and allowed him to live the life of an art collector and philanthropist. In Vilnius he built a residence for himself on St. Georges street.
He was friends with Archduke Charles Stephen of Austria, from whom he bought the steam yacht "Christa" and, after renaming it "Litwa", made long-distance voyages for 20 years, which he described in semi-anonymous publications.[3] In 1900 together with the Archduke he travelled from Kiel to San Sebastian and Almeria to visit the Spanish Queen Maria Christina.[3] In 1905 he bought from the Archduke the exterritorial island of Santa Caterina in Istria, where he intended to establish a luxury spa and sanatorium. The outbreak of war prevented him from realizing these intentions.[3]
In 1922 he suffered a stroke that largely incapacitated him. He spent the rest of his life on his island. He died on 16 October 1926 in Pula and was buried in the cemetery in Rovigno d'Istria.[4]
Family and personal life
His brother Hipolit Korwin-Milewski was active in politics and patronage of the arts. Both brothers did not like each other, and in the later period were even hostile to each other. [5] After 1905, he married Janina Zofia Ostroróg Sadowska, the widow of Władysław Umiastowski, who was a patron of science and the founder of the J. Z. Umiastowska Roman Foundation in 1944. Their marriage was childless, the spouses living apart. After a stroke, Korwin-Milewski publicly insulted his wife, who began to pursue him in court.[6]
Art collection and patronage
Korwin-Milewski has been collecting art all his life. Especially in the years 1880-1895 when he collected over 200 works. He defined the scope of his collecting as follows: "wishing to have a collection more or less complete and constituting an original whole (...) I acquire paintings of the fellow-countrymen artists, currently living, and among them only those who belong or belonged to the Munich school".[4] His collection included paintings of:
- Jan Matejko (Stańczyk and Self-portrait)
- Aleksander Gierymski (The Feast of Trumpets, Peasant Coffin, Paris Opera at night, The Angelus, Jewish woman with lemons and 25 others)
- Józef Chełmoński (Indian Summer, Horse market in Balta and others)
- Władysław Czachórski (Actors before Hamlet)
- Józef Pankiewicz (Market for vegetables in the square behind the Iron Gate)
- Stanisław Witkiewicz
- Witold Pruszkowski
He commissioned a set of 17 self-portraits from various Polish artists, which are also included in the collection.[4] He planned to build a gallery building in which he would make his collection accessible to the public, but was unable to reach an agreement with the authorities in Kraków and Lviv. Until 1893 the paintings were located in Vienna, then in Lviv and again in Vienna. In 1897 they were moved to the family estate in Hieraniony, then to Santa Caterina Island. In 1915 they were returned to Vienna. After the First World War the collection dispersed. Most of the works were bought by the National Museum in Warsaw, some were found in private collections all over the world.[4]
He also supported artists with his wealth. From 1888, he paid a salary and financed Aleksander Gierymski's trip to Paris. He also founded a studio for Wincenty Wodzinowski in Swoszowice.[4]
Political views
Korwin-Milewski was a conservative, representing a loyalist stance, and as an eccentric person, he manifested his political views in ways that shocked those around him.[5] He felt he was a representative of the nobility of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. He believed that the nobility should play a leading role, as opposed to democratic ideals, and criticised the enfranchisement reform of 1861.[7] He believed that an agreement between the nobility and the people of the Lithuanian and Byelorussian lands ("Belarusians Russians", Lithuanians and Jews) was impossible because they and the tsarist government were opposed to it. He believed that the Lithuanian nobility should be loyal to the Tsar, who in return would repay them by giving them a leading role in society[8], as he put it, composed of "a couple of million compact masses of Lithuanians and Samogitians", "Russified Belarusians" and "incalculable crowds of Jews".[9]
He believed that the Lithuanian nobility was and should be separated from the nobility in the Crown of the Polish Kingdom. He acknowledged that the culture of the Lithuanian nobility was based on the principle of the reign of "absolute Polishness", but stressed that earlier it had based its development on the Ruthenian language and culture[10]. He acknowledged that the special social conditions prevailing in the lands of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania demanded that the Lithuanian nobility discover its own identity as the only means of maintaining the integrity of these lands:
These six gubernias, inhabited by Samogitians, Lithuanians, Latvians, Blacks and White Ruthenians, native Russians - Old Believers, Tartars, and also by millions of Jews - in fact have only one thing in common, namely that in them the greater part of the landed property still in the beginning of the last century remained (...) in the hands of the nobility, speaking Polish, and in a certain - small part - even of Polish origin.
— Walka z kłamstwem, p. 17.
He was an enemy of "Polish demagogy", i.e. the Polish national democratic movement. He blamed the Polish national movement for two unsuccessful uprisings that depleted the nobility's property in Lithuania, so that "the outer Polish shell is disappearing" and the masses of the rural population are growing in strength.[11] The solution for him was a full merger with the Russian nobility, as did it the German nobility in Livonia or the Georgian nobility.[12]
We, the Lithuanian nobility, are definitely unlucky with Polishness and that it is time, a great time, not to be torn left and right from one nationality to another, from one religion to another, from one culture to another, and once and for all in the self-recognition of our ethical value to finally rest in the bosom of the great common Russian Fatherland - as the most valuable conservative element, which within its immeasurable borders has ever existed and still exists today. For what could be more conservative than a Lithuanian Catholic nobleman, with Polish culture?
— Do czego ma dążyć szlachta litewska?, p. 8.
Korwin-Milewski believed at the same time that the growing revolutionary movement was a favourable phenomenon, as it would inevitably face defeat and the revenge of Russian reaction. The Tsar would seek allies among conservative elements, such as the Lithuanian nobility.[13]
List of publications
- Katolog der Ausstellung im Künstlerhause. Graflish I. Milewski'sche Sammlung (Template:Lang-en), Vienna 1895
- Vingt-trois jours dans l'Ocean Glacial et la Mer Blanche. 4éme Croisiére de la Litwa (Template:Lang-en), Paris 1898
- Une petite croisière en très haute compagnie (Template:Lang-en), Paris 1899
- Sa Majesté la Reine d'Espagne et son Frère Mgr l'Archiduc Charles-Étienne (Template:Lang-en), Paris 1901
- List otwarty do panów akcyonaryuszów Wileńskiego Ziemskiego Banku (Template:Lang-en), Kraków 1884
- Eine Antwort des Grafen J. Milewski dem Krakauer Einwohner Karol Wlodzimirski als Zuhälter seiner eigenen Frau erteilt (Template:Lang-en), Paris 1904
- Внутренный кризись России и Народное Представительство (Template:Lang-en), Vilnius 1905
- Głos szlachcica o wyborach posła do Rady Państwa (Template:Lang-en), Vilnius 1910, Warsaw 1911 and Sankt Petersburg 1911 in Russian
- Wiązanka odpowiedzi szlachcica tudzież słowo o tem, do czego ma dążyć szlachta litewska (Template:Lang-en), Warsaw 1910
- Do czego ma dążyć szlachta litewska? (Template:Lang-en), Warsaw-Vilnius 1911 in Polish and Russian
- Борьба с ложью (Template:Lang-en), Sankt Petersburg 1910 and Sankt Petersburg 1911 in Polish
- O reformie duchowieństwa na Litwie, (Template:Lang-en), Warsaw 1911
- Жажду Справедливости для угнетённого литовского дворянства (Template:Lang-en), Petersburg 1912
- Ein Separatfrieden mit Russland? (Template:Lang-en) as Polish-Russian magnate Doktor A.-Z., Vienna 1915
References
- ^ a b Ryszkiewicz 1976, p. 208.
- ^ Ryszkiewicz 1976, p. 208-209.
- ^ a b c d e f Ryszkiewicz 1976, p. 209.
- ^ a b c d e Ryszkiewicz 1976, p. 210.
- ^ a b Tarkowski 2016, p. 925.
- ^ Ryszkiewicz 1976, p. 209-210.
- ^ Tarkowski 2016, p. 926.
- ^ Tarkowski 2016, p. 927.
- ^ Ignacy Korwin-Milewski, Do czego ma dążyć szlachta litewska?, Warsaw-Vilnius 1911, p. 21.
- ^ Tarkowski 2016, p. 929.
- ^ Ignacy Korwin-Milewski, Walka z kłamstwem, Sankt Petersburg 1911, p. 17.
- ^ Tarkowski 2016, p. 930-931.
- ^ Tarkowski 2016, p. 931.
Sources
- Ryszkiewicz, Andrzej (1976). "Ignacy Karol Milewski". Polski Słownik Biograficzny (in Polish). Vol. 21. Wrocław. pp. 208–210.
{{cite encyclopedia}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - Tarkowski, Mikołaj (2016). "Szlachta Kraju Północno-Zachodniego w służbie imperatora rosyjskiego. Rys poświęcony poglądom politycznym hrabiego Ignacego Korwin-Milewskiego" [The nobility of the Northwestern Krai in the service of the Russian Emperor. Drawing devoted to political views of Count Ignacy Korwin-Milewski] (PDF). Studia Iuridica Lublinensia. XXV (3): 923–932.