Johann Peter Weyer, and the First Acquisitions of the Museum of Fine Arts in Warsaw

Abstract

Johann Peter Weyer’s (1806–76) collection of some 600 paintings was put up for auction in Cologne. Among the bidders was the first honorary director of the Museum of Fine Arts in Warsaw, Senator Justynian Karnicki, member of the Board of Education and the Society for the Encouragement of Fine Arts. He returned to Warsaw with 36 paintings from the auction and an additional seven artworks purchased from the antiques dealer Antoine Brasseur. These became the foundation of the newly opened museum’s collection of Old Masters. Today the National Museum in Warsaw holds 29 paintings from that acquisition (the remainder are war losses). They constitute a small fraction of Weyer’s original collection, but are nonetheless the largest group of works from it preserved in a single place.  Karnicki’s idea was to create an overview of the major painting movements. From each of those, he wanted to have at least one truly superb example. To this day, most of the artworks he acquired hold an important place in the National Museum’s Gallery of Old Masters.