MERCOR brought Chodowiecki back to Gdansk after 250 years.

MERCOR brought Chodowiecki back to Gdansk after 250 years.
250 years ago, he visited his hometown of Gdansk, and this year he returned to the city, accompanied by his beloved wife. They will stay permanently in our city and will be hosted at Museum of Gdansk. We are referring to the portraits of the painter and draftsman, Daniel Chodowiecki, and Jeanne Chodowiecka, which have been acquired for the museum's collection. These are the only portraits of the couple in Poland and will be available for viewing at the Uphagen House on Długa Street 12.

Museum of Gdańsk has been preserving and promoting the heritage of Gdańsk and co-creating the identity of its residents for over fifty years. The institution's collection consists of over 40,000 exhibits. In 2023, a portrait of Daniel Chodowiecki, a painter and draftsman born in Gdańsk in 1726, and his wife Jeanne Chodowiecka née Barez, was acquired for the collection. The paintings, authored by Anton Graff, are dated to 1801.

"The portraits of Mr. and Mrs. Chodowiecki complement the gallery of portraits of outstanding Gdańsk citizens that we have in our collection. Building this collection would not have been possible without the support of kind-hearted individuals, patrons, donors who entrust us with their collections, personal mementos, or financially support the acquisition of new exhibits," says Waldemar Ossowski, director of Museum of Gdańsk. "We are grateful that so many people support our museum, and together we work towards creating a heritage for future generations. Today, thanks to a patron from the business world, we can present these two extraordinary works."

The portraits will be exhibited in the Uphagen House at 12 Długa Street. This branch of the Museum reconstructs the interior and furnishings of a Gdańsk house from the 18th century, the time when Daniel Chodowiecki lived. The paintings can be seen in the small dining room on the upper floor of the tenement. The purchase of the paintings was co-financed by the Gdańsk company Mercor.

"Our company was founded in Gdańsk thirty-five years ago. We want our business activities to be connected with social needs. I am delighted that we can support a cultural institution that takes care of the heritage of our city. It is a great pleasure to be able to admire both portraits in person, and I hope that the residents will feel the same joy when they see them in the museum interior," says Krzysztof Krempeć, CEO of Mercor.

Out of love for art

Chodowiecki's family home was located on Świętego Ducha Street. As the son and grandson of prosperous merchants, young Daniel wanted to continue the family tradition, so around 1743 he left Gdańsk and went to Berlin for commerce apprenticeship. However, he abandoned his merchant ambitions there and dedicated himself to painting and drawing. He became famous as an illustrator of works by Diderot, Goethe, Schiller, and Voltaire, as well as encyclopedic editions. In 1797, he became the director of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Berlin.

This year marks the 250th anniversary of his visit to Gdańsk, which he visited after thirty years. He departed from Berlin on June 3, 1773. After a nine-day journey, on June 11, Daniel Chodowiecki arrived in his hometown, passing through Oliwa and Wrzeszcz.

There, he met with his mother, sisters, relatives, and friends. After a two-month stay by the Motława River, he returned to Berlin. He made daily notes about his journey and created one hundred and eight reportage-style drawings. Thanks to this, one of the most interesting accounts depicting Gdańsk in the second half of the 18th century was created.

Great friendship between the portrait painter and the painted

Anton Graff (1736-1813) was one of the most important painters of the German Enlightenment and permanently lived in Dresden. He is undoubtedly the author of the presented portraits of the Chodowiecki spouses.

Daniel Chodowiecki likely first encountered Anton Graff when he was accepted into the Royal Prussian Academy of Fine Arts in Berlin in 1764. In Daniel Chodowiecki's diaries, Graff's name first appears in 1770.

- Both artists maintained close contacts over the years, meeting in Berlin and Dresden. Evidence of this relationship includes preserved correspondence. In the spring of 1782, Anton Graff visited the Chodowiecki family in Berlin. - says Dr. Dariusz Kacprzak, art historian, curator, researcher of Chodowiecki family's paintings and history.

"Your image of her is now infinitely precious to me, it is so true."

The first portrait of Jeanne Chodowiecka was created. Daniel Chodowiecki was associated with the Berlin community of the French Reformed Church. It was within this circle that he found his life companion - Jeanne Marie Barez (1728 - 1785 Berlin), whom he married on July 13, 1755.

Graff painted her portrait between late spring 1782 and the summer of 1783. After Jeanne's death two years later, Daniel Chodowiecki, immersed in grief, wrote in a letter to Anton Graff: "Your image of her is now infinitely precious to me, it is so true."

Daniel Chodowiecki's portrait was painted much later, in 1800, shortly before his death. Although the image was created independently, the two portraits are perceived as twin works due to the same dimensions of both canvases and formal similarities (composition, framing, coloration).

- It cannot be excluded that Anton Graff, while creating the portrait of his widowed friend, deliberately referred to the earlier depiction of his wife in such a way that both representations visually formed a unique pair - suggests Dr. Dariusz Kacprzak.

Copy of parents' portraits for each of the children

After the death of Daniel Chodowiecki in 1801, his son Wilhelm Chodowiecki commissioned Anton Graff to make copies of the couple's portraits for each of their five living children. The original images are the depictions of Jeanne from 1782/1783 and Daniel from 1800. The remaining copies were made by Anton Graff himself after 1801.

- Without a doubt, one of these pairs of two portraits of the Chodowiecki spouses are now in Gdańsk. Other copies of the portraits can be found in the Neue Pinakothek in Munich and the Gemäldegalerie in Berlin - explains Dr. Dariusz Kacprzak. - What also seems valuable is the fact that before the artworks ended up in the Gdańsk Museum, they were held by the family, successive generations related to the famous citizen of Gdańsk - he adds.

According to inscriptions on the back of the paintings, both works belonged to the granddaughter of the Chodowieckis, Marianne Gretschel, and later to the artist's family relative, Pastor Eberhard Röhricht.

Soon the 300th anniversary of the birth of Daniel Chodowiecki will be celebrated.

Chodowiecki's artistic oeuvre includes pencil, sanguine and ink drawings, as well as about 4000 pastel works, over 2000 engravings, and an estimated 30 paintings. He gained fame as an illustrator of literary and scientific works in the 18th century, and as a chronicler, he recorded the civic life of Berlin and Prussia during the Age of Enlightenment.

The recognition of Daniel Chodowiecki's art among the artistic circles in Berlin is evident from his academic career. In 1764, he became an honorary member of the Royal Prussian Academy of Fine Arts in Berlin, and in 1797, he became its director. He held this position until his death in 1801. He carried out a reorganization of education and initiated a series of reforms at the academy, including admitting female members.

- Soon, in 2026, in Gdańsk, we will celebrate the 300th anniversary of Daniel Chodowiecki's birth. Thanks to acquiring these portraits for their collection, Museum of Gdańsk will be able to commemorate this occasion in a special way, presenting the images of the Chodowiecki spouses, created by the most important German portraitist of the Age of Reason - Waldemar Ossowski adds.

Photo credit: Agnieszka Grabowska / Museum of Gdańsk