17th Photography Cabinet: Józef Czechowicz (1818-1888) - Photographer of Vilnius

Vilnius, in Lithuania today, becomes the subject of a Photography Cabinet show for the first time - Baroque architecture, green hills, and the Vilnia River as captured by Józef Czechowicz, the city’s first dedicated landscape photographer.

National Museum on the exhibition:

Vilnius will be the subject of a Photography Cabinet exhibition for the first time. We’ll look at views of the city from the 1870s, recorded through the attentive eye of Józef Czechowicz’s camera. The first landscape photographer of Vilnius, as Jan Bułhak called him, masterfully captured its Baroque architecture, its hills lush with greenery, and the picturesque Vilnia River. We’ll also trace the photographer’s little-known biography, whose creative path led from Kyiv through Vitebsk to Vilnius.

What to expect

The exhibition opens on 15 September and runs through 13 December 2026 in the Photography Cabinet (Gallery of 19th-Century Art, Main Building). You’ll see views of Vilnius from the 1870s - Baroque architecture, green hills, the Vilnia River - through the lens of Józef Czechowicz, called by Jan Bułhak the first landscape photographer of Vilnius. The show also traces the photographer’s little-known biography, which took him through Kyiv and Vitebsk before he settled in Vilnius.

Tickets and opening hours are on the National Museum’s website.

Museum profile: National Museum in Warsaw.