Habent sua fata picturae. Count Konstanty Branicki’s cabinet of paintings in Paris

The article contains an analysis of the history and provenance of a collection of 40 paintings belonging to Count Konstanty Branicki. In the year 1882 Michał Żmigrodzki, curator of the Branicki library in Sucha Beskidzka, compiled a handwritten, illustrated catalogue of this collection, which was originally held at 22 rue Penthièvre in Paris, and at the beginning of the twentieth century was moved to the Branicki Palace at Nowy Świat in Warsaw. The collection remained there when the building was rented to the legation, subsequently embassy, of Great Britain. Later, it was divided, with some paintings going to Przecław and others moved to the family’s residence at Smolna Street, with a few pieces remaining on loan to the British. During the Second World War and in the decades that followed, some of these paintings were destroyed by fire; some of them disappeared in mysterious circumstances and reappeared in the possession of family members; some were confiscated by the Germans and the Communist police; some constituted material evidence in political trials; some were recovered from Germany; some were included in museum collections, others returned to the family’s heirs; many were loaned for exhibitions. Each of these paintings has its own story, which in this article is linked to their history as an integrated collection.