And now it becomes clear why I decided to combine Gustav III and Stanisław August Poniatowski
Because whenever I thought of Gustav III I associated him with his cultural reforms
And when I found out what changed in Swedish culture thanks to him
Stanisław August Poniatowski came to my mind, what he did to Polish culture
-Sure, old thinking, the king was hopeless but amazing minister of culture
-Instead of focusing on some regime reforms, which where obviously important under Gustav III
and changed the country sufficiently, I wanted to mention those who seems maybe unobvious
or those who aimed to improve people's lives or on contrary, to dog them
Gustav abolished torture entirely and death punishment was restricted to king's decision
Besides, despite the opposition from Church of Sweden, he introduced the freedom of religion
only for immigrants at the beginning, but it was already a huge change
Gustav also allowed Jewish people to settle in Sweden, again, only in three cities, but it was also a great change
One of the failed reforms I can mention an attempt to monopolize the production of aquavit
About aquavit I wrote a text, to which I leave a link in the box below
-And now... -In Poland monopolization of alcohol was impossible
-Well yeah, a bit different culture of drinking -Yes, a bit different
-Stanisław August, after the attempt of assassination, wrote a text "Suum cuique"
which means "to each his own", he described the history of Poland, how the anarchy developed to it's present form
And so he wrote that under the reign of August II the country started to drink heavily
The greatest man of 18th century Lithuania, Karol Radziwiłł "My Dear Sir"
he was a professional alcoholic since the age of 8
-Okay, so is it worth to mention any of the reforms from the Poniatowski reign or maybe...
-Is it worth...
-Well I wouldn't mention...
"It wasn't worth it"
-Sure, so allowing Jews to settle in the country, taking care of the middle class, abolishing torture
they were issues proceeded in the Polish Parliament, but of course SAP couldn't act as quickly
as an absolute ruler of Sweden. In Poland the position of the king was definitely weaker
So SAP used the small steps method, gradually bringing enlightenment to the people
He established Corps of Cadets, Commission of National Education, institutions of enlightenment
for the people from the very young age of noblemen to start with
SAP constantly negotiated with Russian ambassadors about what he could gain for his country
-What was established in Stockholm thanks to Gustav III?
For sure I should mention the Royal Opera, created in the first years of Gustav's reign, where later he was assassinated
as well the Royal Ballet. 10 years later, in the 1780s, the Royal Theatre
Gustav tried to reform the Academy of Art, which was established already in the 1730s,
but now it gained the best benefactor in the person of the king with the change of the name into Royal Art Academy
Gustav supported as well the Swedish Academy. How was it with SAP?
-SAP also has his accomplishments in the cultural area. He valued the artists and art itself.
He created a big collection of paintings with around 2500 items in the moment of 3rd partition of Poland
In SAP's diaries he mentions that when he was on his Ground Tour, he bought his first painting
and then he felt "that a true treasure he acquired". Since then he has been developing his collection.
He constantly thought of establishing the Academy of Art
There was a project for it but never fullfiled
On the other hand, his first court painter, Marcello Bacciarelli, had a Painting Academy
where young painters were taught. -Here you mentioned that SAP started a collection
With Gustav it was pretty similar. In the 1780s he visited Italy. There he bought e.g.sculptures of Apollo and his Muses
And this whole collection became a base for the Nationalmuseum in Stockholm
-Was it similar with SAP? -Of course. He had some Italians
-Standard. -Yes.
-And he was constantly interested in the new trends in art and architecture
Thanks to him classicism is introduced in Poland, although SAP had a sentiment to baroque
which created something called the Stanislaus style in the architecture
so a joyfull transformation from baroque to classicism
-Alright, so as we speak about the artists, maybe we'll show some of their work?
I mentioned that Gustav visited Italy and in Rome worked a Swedish sculptor, Johan Tobias Sergel
Regarding the painters, my favourite is Alexander Roslin
And I really like the painting made by Roslin, where he portrayed Gustav and his brothers
So we have Gustav III in the golden mantle, Charles XIII and Fredrik Adolf
What can you show me from SAP?
-For SAP the main painter was Marcello Bacciarelli, mentioned before
Besides, Stanisław said that the recognised himself fully in Bacciarelli's painting
on which he was presented in the coronation costume
It's the most famous image of Stanisław August
Although it wasn't the first coronation portrait ordered by SAP
Before Bacciarelli settled in Poland, the king ordered his coronation portrait at the painter called Werner
Where he resembles a bit a garden gnome
So no wonder that he wanted another one from another painter
And Bacciarelli created numerous amount of king's portraits
From the artists which didn't work on SAP's court in Warsaw
We have a very interesting figure, Élisabeth Vigée-Lebrun
-A woman. -A woman.
Which emigrated to Petersburg and there she met Stanisław, who, after the 3rd partition, was a guest at tsar's court
She painted two images of the king, here is one in Henry IV inspired dress
And another one, located today in France
Élisabeth Vigée-Lebrun made a scene once, afterwards she apologised to the king
Cause she was working at her studio and she heard someone's coming
So she started to yell and scream that her peace was disturbed
She discovered that she was simply visited by SAP so later she was coming to him to apologise
And Stanisław, appreciating artists, knowing that they need peace and quiet -He forgave
-He did and didn't blame her.
Such a good man.
-Good man. It's interesting that you mention female artists, cause on Gustav's court we can find one
I have a problem with Ulrika, cause she mainly painted previous kings the way she thought they looked like and dressed
-Our Matejko. -Yes.
She tried to style kings in the previous fashion. -Jesus, it cannot be good.
So she made Johan III looking like renaissance, the same with Gustav Vasa
From Lorens, Ulrika's brother, who, in my opinion, is pretty decent, I can show this one, so yes, pretty decent
From funny things one can find in the national museums:
Portrait, ehh, a painting presenting SAP from the early 20th century
The king in Petersburg in despair over the faith of Poland looking at a painting of Łazienki
And you see that he is drying his tears looking at the Palace on the water
-We move on to the final segment of our video - to the women.
Gustav was destined to marry a Danish princess, Sofia Magdalena, famous of her beauty
They were coeval, both born in 1746, so both at the age of 20 got married
Fun fact, probably until 1778, the marriage was not consumed. It was said that Gustav simply did not know how to do it.
So a problem emerged. On Swedish court in the 1770s a nobelman appeared - Adolf Fredrik Munck.
Who was famous for his romances. He became a friend of the king and the queen.
So a suggestion came up - Munck will help the royal couple to conceive a baby.
There was even a caricature showing how it was done.
-Wow. -The man behind is Munck.
It a caricature from the 1790s.
According to a protocol from this... session, Munck touched both the queen and the king to help them.
This of course caused rumors that the heir to the throne is a son of Munck and Sofia Magdalena, not her and Gustav.
-How was it with SAP? In the end he did not marry Sofia Albertina or any other woman.
-He didn't, until the Great Sejm he deluded himself into getting marry a princess
-Lack of official wife caused lack of children?
-No. SAP often surrounded himself with women. The most famous romance of him is the one that put him on a throne
A romance with Catherine the Great, while she was still a wife of the heir to the Russian throne
-Something was born out of this?
-Yes, something was born. A girl, which unfortunately died at young age.
Emperor Paul also thought that SAP was his father, but it's impossible due to the time line.
Romance with Catherine was very passionate. She, educated woman from Germany
came to the Russian court with no companion to talk to
Her husband, as Catherine said herself, was a drinker and an impotent
so he couldn't satisfy her needs, so Stanisław, for couple of months, was the person to, hmm, keep up with everything
What more, it was a first sexual experience for Stanisław: "due to interesting turn of fortune, being 23 years old
I gave her what I haven't given to anyone before."
-Aww. That's romantic. Although it didn't have romantic happy end.
-Nope. Catherine was not the only love in Stanisław's life.
During his reign he met with many different women. The longest relationship he had with Elżbieta Grabowska.
This relationship resulted in offspring. Their children were still present on Polish political scene later on.
Their son, Michał Grabowski, was a soldier, who fought and died during Napoleonic Wars
Another son, Stanisław Grabowski, was a Minister of Education in the Congress Poland.
He replaced at the position of Minister of Education Stanisław Kostka Potocki, who was removed from the office
after the wrote a book "Journey to the Backwardness"
He is known as not too appealing person. In some diaries Stanisław Grabowski was described when
he rode on his horse to the University of Warsaw, gathered all students at the yard
and gave monologues lasting many hours about the need of education which were not too passionate.
-Ugh, it had to be an unpleasant experience.
-Probably. The student life is not east at all.
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