Poniatowski has a boulevard named after him in Paris (Quai Poniatowski), and his full name also appears on the famous triumphal arch at Place de l’Étoile (French: Place de l’Étoile, Place Charles-de-Gaulle); a bust of him can be found in the Gallery of Battles at Versailles, whilst a full-length sculpture adorns the façade of the Louvre Museum.

The international life of Prince Józef Antoni Poniatowski

Before he became a legend in Poland and France, Józef Antoni Poniatowski’s colourful, international life began in Vienna on 7 May 1763. He was born the son of an Austrian army general, Prince Andrzej Poniatowski ( 1734–1773), and Countess Teresa Kinsky von Weichnitz und Tettau ( 1736–1806). He grew up at the court of his father’s elder brother, the King of Poland, Stanisław August , where he arrived at the age of ten, following his father’s death.

The king loved him as if he were his own son; he was portrayed by the royal painters, the monarch himself selected the best tutors for him and monitored his academic progress; yet Prince Pepi, as the king called him, preferred horse riding and the art of warfare to books. And he had a genuine talent for them. The young prince’s military career in the imperial army progressed rapidly, but the king ensured that the prince visited Poland regularly and eventually summoned him to return permanently.

Poniatowski – commander and patriot

In his homeland, Prince Józef made a name for himself as an excellent commander and patriot – a supporter and defender of the Constitution of 3 May. During the Polish–Russian War of 1792, following the victorious Battle of Zieleńce in Volhynia, he was one of the first to be awarded the Order of Virtuti Militari , which had been newly established for the occasion .

He also proved himself a man of honour when he symbolically returned to the king the Orders of St Stanislaus and the White Eagle which had previously been awarded to him, and resigned from his command after Stanisław August joined the Targowica Confederation. He also left Poland at that time . He returned to the country to join the Kościuszko Uprising, and returned for good following the death of his uncle, the former king (1798), taking up residence in Warsaw at the ‘Pałac pod Blachą’ , which he had inherited from Stanisław August .

The palace became the social and cultural centre of Warsaw , a venue for lavish parties, balls, romances and scandals, with the prince as their central figure, as well as the father of two illegitimate sons. As Wiktor Gomulicki wrote (‘Prince Józef and Women’, 1913): ‘One might attach a trite label to Prince Józef: “a lover of women”. But that would not be entirely accurate. It was not so much that the prince was a lover of women, but rather that women were lovers of the prince ” .

Prince Józef Poniatowski’s wartime achievements

Despite his dissolute life away from politics, following the French army’s entry into Warsaw in late 1806, Józef Poniatowski quickly returned to the art of war . It was Prince Pepi who took command of the Polish army being formed alongside the French , became Director of War for the Governing Commission (1807) , and subsequently Minister of War of the Duchy of Warsaw and Commander-in-Chief of the army , whilst the Pałac Pod Blachą became a government building.

Alongside the French Emperor, Prince Józef took part, with his soldiers, in the campaign against Russia and in the dramatic Battle of the Nations at Leipzig. It was then that he was awarded the title of Marshal of France by Napoleon , as the only foreigner in history to do so. He was killed a few days later, on 19 October 1813, in the currents of the Elster, whilst, wounded and under fire, he attempted to cross the swollen river.

He was buried with full military honours in Leipzig ( his tombstone is now set into the wall of the Grodzka Gate at the Royal Castle in Warsaw). A year later, the prince’s remains were transported to Warsaw and laid to rest in the Church of the Holy Cross , and in 1817 they were solemnly transferred to Kraków. Prince Józef Poniatowski was laid to rest in the Wawel crypt as the first hero — not a ruler — thus establishing this tradition for future great Poles.

A sculpture of Prince J. Poniatowski on the façade of the Louvre

The generals and marshals of France from the Revolutionary and Imperial periods occupy places of honour in the niches on the façade of the Louvre facing the Rue de Rivoli (Pavillon de Rohan). Among the statues of heroes is that of Prince Józef Poniatowski, the only non-French marshal of the Empire. The sculpture has recently been restored.

The first commissions for sculptures of distinguished figures were placed during the reign of Napoleon III ( 1852–1870); further sculptures were created between 1916 and 1928, whilst some of the statues of generals, which were commissioned between 1913 and 1936, never found their place in the niches of the Louvre’s façade.

Prince Józef Poniatowski joined the stone heroes in 1925. His sculpted likeness is rendered in a classical style. The Marshal stands in a niche, on a plinth inscribed with his name, in a slight contrapposto, looking down with his head slightly bowed. He is depicted as a commander , in a general’s uniform, with his order ribbons clearly visible. The Prince rests his left hand on the hilt of his sabre, whilst in his bent right hand he holds a shako with a plume. The Marshal’s shoulders are covered by a cape.

The sculpture alludes to the bust of the Prince at Versailles , which depicts a timelessly youthful Poniatowski with his characteristic Empire-era hairstyle, a moustache and sideburns, and the stars of the Legion of Honour and Virtuti Militari.

The sculptor is Philippe Besnard (1885–1971) , who created a stately and idealised portrait of the prince, a model of heroism.

Philippe Besnard – creator of works in public spaces

The French sculptor and art critic came from an artistic family. His father, Paul-Albert Besnard (1849–1934) , was a leading painter of the French Belle Époque, whilst his mother, Charlotte (Dubray, 1854–1931) – a sculptor and painter. His brother Robert ( 1881–1914) was a painter, and Jean ( 1889–1958) a ceramist, whilst his sister Germaine ( 1884–1975) was a sculptor.

Philippe Besnard married the sculptor Germaine Desgranges ( 1892–1974). Philippe took his first sculpture lessons from his mother, then studied under Henri Bouchard ( 1875–1960) in Rome, and – like his mother – benefited from the guidance of Auguste Rodin ( 1940–1917).

Just as Prince Pepi was portrayed in childhood by a famous painter, so too can we admire a childhood portrait of Philippe Besnard today at the Musée d’Orsay in Paris ( Albert Besnard, ‘The Family’ ; Philippe is second from the left).

Philippe Besnard was not only the creator of many works in the public spaces of French cities – monuments to the fallen, fountains, busts, religious sculptures, as well as reliefs, medals, drawings and ceramics – but also the author of publications on art. He was a Chevalier of the Legion of Honour .