Among foreign artists, she was the most famous and fashionable French painter of the 18th century. She painted the greatest number of Poles, even though she never visited Poland. Over 30 of her more than a thousand works depicted the Polish aristocracy.

Stanisław Poniatowski was a tall man. The monarch’s handsome face expressed gentleness and kindness. [ …] He loved the fine arts passionately ‒ wrote Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun in her memoirs. They met in St Petersburg, where they both shared the fate of exiles from their own homelands. She was the famous portraitist of Marie Antoinette, Queen of France; he was the last ruler of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, stripped of his crown following the Third Partition.

Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun’s path to fame

Marie-Louise-Élizabeth Vigée Le Brun (1755–1842) was one of the few women in the 18th century who managed to carve out a place for herself in the history of European painting. She aroused interest both then and now, not only as a gifted painter, but also as the architect of her own artistic and financial success, writing her own legend with brush and pen.

Self-Portrait in a Straw Hat, National Gallery, London

Her path to fame was paved by a prestigious commission for a formal portrait of Marie Antoinette. She became the official and favourite portraitist of the Queen of France, as well as a member of the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture.

Following the outbreak of the French Revolution in 1789, the painter found herself on the list of enemies of the supporters of the new regime. Owing to her connections with the court and her friendship with Marie Antoinette, who was hated by the people, she was forced to flee France in the autumn of 1789. For the next 12 years, she travelled throughout Europe, painting for new admirers of her talent who longed for the immortal fame of a portrait by Madame Le Brun’s brush.

St Petersburg – the place of exile for the Polish king and the French painter

In 1795, she arrived in Russia. Of all the places and courts she had visited, she loved St Petersburg the most, and remained there for five years. It reminded her of the splendour of pre-revolutionary France, and legends circulated throughout Europe about the generosity of its titled inhabitants. She painted portraits of the court of Empress Catherine II.

In St Petersburg, she also met Stanisław August Poniatowski (1732–1798), king of a country that no longer existed on the maps of Europe: the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. The monarch had not come to Russia of his own volition. Following the defeat of the Kościuszko Uprising, he was ordered to leave Warsaw and take up residence in Grodno. There, he was informed of the final partition of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth amongst the three partitioning powers. It was also there, at Russia’s insistence, that he abdicated on 25 November 1795, on the 31st anniversary of his coronation. In mid-February 1797, he was summoned to St Petersburg by the new Tsar, Paul I. Although he took up residence in the Marble Palace and was invited by princes and boyars, he knew that he would never return to Poland and that he was a prisoner on the Neva.

Stanisław August Poniatowski’s friendship with a French painter

A month after his arrival, Poniatowski was introduced to a famous painter. The meetings at the king’s court, described in her diaries, developed into a friendship between the two, both of whom were unable to return to their homeland. ‘Nothing moved me more than his frequent assurances that he would be very happy if I were to come to Warsaw during his reign, ’ she wrote.

Vigée Le Brun organised an exhibition of her works in her studio especially for Stanisław August. The Queen’s official painter was once again able to paint a portrait of the monarch. The king’s niece, Urszula Mniszech (née Zamoyska), commissioned a portrait of her uncle in the fashionable historical style à la King Henry IV of France (1533–1610), to whom he was often compared within the family. Stanisław August held the French monarch in high regard. His collection included a small portrait of Henry and a series of engravings depicting scenes from his life (based on paintings by Rubens). As an art lover, the king collected paintings, sculptures, engravings, coins and natural history specimens throughout his reign (1764‒1795).

Portrait of Stanisław August Poniatowski as Henry IV

The result is an almost psychological portrait of the sixty-five-year-old king. Vigée Le Brun’s works are characterised by a considerable degree of idealisation, but this royal portrait is neither excessively embellished nor sentimental; on the contrary, it is one of the finest male portraits in the artist’s oeuvre. We see an elderly, serene man who, despite the difficult events of recent years, remains full of dignity and majesty.

The king is turned to the right, wearing a hat with a feather, a dark blue doublet with a wide lace collar and a black cloak, with one hand resting on his hip; around his neck hangs an oval medallion on a gold chain bearing the image of the Eye of Providence, emphasising the role of divine intervention in decision-making and the exercise of power.

The fate of the portrait of Stanisław August Poniatowski as Henry IV

The portrait, commissioned for the collection at Wiśniowiec by Mniszchowa and described in contemporary memoirs, mysteriously disappeared for over 100 years. We now know that, following the dispersal of the Mniszchowa collection, the work found its way in 1819 to the Krzemieniec Lyceum, and subsequently, in 1833, to the collection of St Vladimir’s University in Kyiv as a portrait of a Russian nobleman, Count Golovkin.

Transferred in 1918 to the Khanenko Art Museum in Kyiv, it has been correctly attributed as a portrait of Stanisław August in the attire of Henry IV.

In Polish collections, this work can be seen reproduced in a replica at the National Museum in Kraków and in a miniature at the Royal Castle in Warsaw.

This is the first of two, and at the same time the last, portraits of the king painted by Vigée Le Brun in St Petersburg.

Mementoes of the French painter’s friendship with the Polish king

The second portrait was particularly precious and dear to the artist, as a memento of a friend who had recently passed away. In her catalogue, it is the only one marked with the note: ‘a portrait I have kept for myself’.

Reproduced many times in prints and miniatures, this representative portrait of the monarch in an ermine cloak with the ribbon of the Order of the White Eagle can now be admired at the Palace of Versailles.

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In May 2022, an exhibition entitled *Splendour and Knowledge: The Royal Library of Stanisław August* was planned at the Royal Castle in Warsaw , * *, where the eponymous portrait of the king from the Kyiv museum was to be displayed. Due to the ongoing war in Ukraine, the exhibition has been postponed.