Józef Brandt's Munich episode

In 1863, Jozef Brandt began his studies at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Munich, after a brief episode studying in the studio of the Parisian academic painter Léon Cogniet (1794-1880). In the Bavarian capital, he studied, among others, with the German painter of historical scenes Carl Theodor von Pilotyʼ (1826-1886) and with the eminent German battle painter Franz Adam (1815-1886). Within just a few years, he had won great acclaim among art critics and collectors in Germany for his battle paintings with images of horse riders.

Studio on Schwanthalerstraße 19

In late 1874 and early 1875, Brandt rented a studio in Munich in a newly completed neo-Renaissance building on Schwanthalerstraße 19. The painter used this space until the end of his days. The five-storey building was built in 1866 by German master mason Franz Kil in the Ludwigsvorstadt district, close to the old town and the New Pinakothek. The atelier quickly became an important point on the Munich tourist trail. Its tenant had been collecting antiquities for years, partly acquiring them from impoverished nobility and other artists during his numerous travels in Poland, Ukraine, Volhynia, Podolia and Bessarabia. In this way, he amassed a unique collection of oriental objects, which he used to create an original, carefully planned arrangement for his studio.

The atelier rented by the painter consisted of four rooms. In the largest room, Brandt's painting salon, the floor was decorated with a Persian carpet and the walls were covered with a purple Turkish tent, on which weapons, pieces of armour and a saddle were displayed. An easel with paintings and a bookcase with painting utensils, obscured by a curtain, were set up at the entrance. The adjoining studio was occupied by Brandt's fellow countryman, the creator of realistic, battle paintings Władysław Szerner (1836-1915). In Brandt's absence, Szerner looked after the studio and showed visitors around. The room occupied by Szerner had a primarily representative function, and, in addition to harnesses, oriental pieces and musical instruments, there was an extensive library. The third room was the so-called armoury, full of flags and armour, and the last room stored costumes and props - all of which were used to arrange the compositions of the paintings.

Brandt worked in the picturesque space, which was an important source of inspiration for him; at the same time, it was also a place for socialising with his professional colleagues and professional meetings with clients, travellers, and members of the reigning royal family, including the Duke of Bavaria Luitpold (1821-1912). Interestingly, from the 1860s, city guidebooks included the address, as well as the opening hours of Brandt's studio, among the places worth visiting. The reputation of the place also reached Poland, where, in 1876, the Warsaw magazine Kłosy published a detailed account by the writer Józef Ignacy Kraszewski (1812-1887), who lived in Dresden. Photographs of the studio were widely distributed at the turn of the 20th century in albums and magazines in Germany and Poland.