Collector. Ignacy Korwin-Milewski (1846-1926)

From 17 April to 13 September 2026 the National Museum’s Main Building in Warsaw showed the reassembled collection of Ignacy Korwin-Milewski, some 250 paintings before its dispersal, including Matejko’s Stańczyk and Chełmoński’s Indian Summer.

National Museum on the exhibition:

Matejko’s Stańczyk, Chełmoński’s Indian Summer, the Festival of Trumpets, or Aleksander Gierymski’s Jewess with Oranges - hard as it is to believe, these masterpieces of Polish painting once belonged to a single person. That person was Count Ignacy Korwin-Milewski - an unfulfilled artist, an eccentric, and above all a great collector and distinguished patron of Polish art.

The year 2026 marks the 180th anniversary of his birth and the 100th anniversary of his death, prompting a look back at his achievements. The exhibition sets out to present his reconstructed collection, which was dispersed after the count’s death and originally numbered around 250 paintings.

Korwin-Milewski built his collection with great connoisseurship over thirty years (1880-1910). He commissioned paintings from Polish artists trained at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Munich, the school where he himself had studied for five years. He kept up friendships with the artists he met there over the following years, acting as patron to some of them. A distinctive part of his collection was a set of portraits - mostly self-portraits - of the artists he most valued. The list was headed by a self-portrait by Jan Matejko.

The exhibition presents Korwin-Milewski’s collection, in which visitors will find both their favorite paintings and lesser-known works rarely on view in Polish museums, alongside the collector’s remarkable and controversial biography. We’ll tell the story of his travels and his passion for photography - showing photographs taken during one of Ignacy Korwin-Milewski’s voyages aboard his yacht LITWA. The colorful biography of this wealthy aristocrat, owner of an island in the Adriatic, traveler and political commentator with a legal education, is ultimately only the backdrop to the story of an outstanding painting collection built by an uncompromising visionary.

Korwin-Milewski’s choices reveal an extraordinary ability to judge artistic value. Time, which revises tastes and fashions, has only cemented the collection’s standing. Most of the paintings have permanently entered the canon of Polish painting’s masterpieces.

What to expect

The exhibition ran from 17 April to 13 September 2026 in the Main Building of the National Museum. It showed the reconstructed collection of Count Ignacy Korwin-Milewski - paintings commissioned over three decades (1880-1910) from Polish artists trained in Munich, including self-portraits by the artists he valued most, opening with one by Matejko. A separate thread covered photographs from Korwin-Milewski’s voyages aboard his yacht LITWA - the collector was also an enthusiastic photographer.

The exhibition description and audio guides remain on the National Museum’s website.

After the show

The accompanying catalogue, “Kolekcjoner. Ignacy Korwin-Milewski (1846-1926)”, edited by Renata Higersberger, was published by the National Museum in Warsaw (2026, 204 pages, hardback, ISBN 978-83-7100-510-7). It costs 140 PLN at the museum bookshop, Al. Jerozolimskie 3, and lists every painting from the collection known today, with illustrations.

The daily Rzeczpospolita (2 May 2026, Monika Kuc) described the show as a chance to see paintings that shaped Poland’s collective imagination brought together again. It reported 73 original paintings on view, 37 of them from the museum’s own holdings - rp.pl. The history portal dzieje.pl (15 April 2026, Polish Press Agency) noted that the curator traced 150 paintings from the original collection for the catalogue; another 37 appeared in the show as reproductions - dzieje.pl.

Still on at the National Museum in Warsaw:

• Adolph Menzel (1815-1905). The Tireless Observer - until 13 December 2026, the first monographic show in Poland of one of the leading German artists of the 19th century.
• Olga Boznańska at the Gallery of 19th-Century Art - until 3 January 2027, nearly thirty works by a painter of the same era in which Korwin-Milewski built his collection.

Other current shows in Warsaw on collectors and the painting of that period:

• Rubensiana. Collecting Fascinations in Poland, 17th-21st Centuries at Wilanów Palace - until 31 December 2026, on Rubens in Polish collections and the line between original, replica and copy.
• Images of Identity. The Collection of Berlin’s Pre-War Jewish Museum at the Jewish Historical Institute - until 30 November 2026, another dispersed collection of which only a part survived.
• The Nabis. Prophets of a New Art at Royal Łazienki - until 15 November 2026, more than 90 works by the French group active in 1888-1899, the years when Korwin-Milewski was buying.

Museum profile: National Museum in Warsaw.