Between the Workshop and Memory: The Road to Reconstructing a Portrait of Fryderyk Chopin - Tenth Pavilion, Warsaw Citadel

Over the period 18 September 2026 - 16 October 2026, the Museum of the Tenth Pavilion of the Warsaw Citadel showed in its Gallery of Historical Painting (Galeria Malarstwa Historycznego) copies of old paintings from the six years of study of Sylwia Regulska, a student of the Faculty of Conservation and Restoration of Works of Art, together with her reconstruction of a lost portrait of Fryderyk Chopin.

The Museum of the Tenth Pavilion on the exhibition:

The exhibition presents the results of several years of work by Sylwia Regulska, a student of the Faculty of Conservation and Restoration of Works of Art. We will see copies of paintings the artist made during her six years of study, as well as her final master’s project - a reconstruction of a lost portrait of Fryderyk Chopin.

The exhibition leads through the successive stages of working with old painting - from learning historical techniques and materials to independent painting. The paintings on display were made using technology that matches the technique and craft of the period in which the originals were created. The works are complemented by gilded frames made by the author herself.

What to expect

This was an exhibition about the painter’s craft, not about the history of the Citadel. It showed copies of paintings the author made over six years of study, and her master’s project: a reconstruction of a portrait of Chopin that has not survived. The copies were made with the technology of the period in which the originals were created, and the author made the gilded frames herself.

The exhibition led from learning old techniques and materials to independent painting.

It was for people interested in conservation and the techniques of old painting, and for Chopin lovers curious about how a painting that did not survive is reconstructed. Visitors who came to the Tenth Pavilion for the history of the investigative prison, or who were looking for period originals, could skip it, because it showed copies and a reconstruction.

The exhibition itself took about half an hour: it was a single temporary exhibition gallery with copies and one reconstructed portrait. The museum gave no number of works, so this is an editorial estimate.

The museum gave neither the number of paintings nor the author’s school. Nor did it say which lost portrait of Chopin was reconstructed and on what basis, or which originals the copies were made from.

The opening included a talk on historical workshop techniques and how they are reproduced today.

Context

The Gallery of Historical Painting is a temporary exhibition room inside the Museum of the Tenth Pavilion. Earlier shows in this gallery were devoted to the artist Walery Eljasz Radzikowski and to the January Uprising: the museum offers virtual walks through the exhibitions “Walery Eljasz Radzikowski - artysta i patriota” (Walery Eljasz Radzikowski - Artist and Patriot) and “Poszły wici po zaściankach. Insurekcja 1863 roku” (The Call to Arms Went Round the Gentry Villages. The 1863 Insurrection). In early September 2026 the gallery showed woodcuts from 1863 taken from the weeklies “L’Illustration. Journal Universel” and “Le Monde Illustre”. Against that background, an exhibition on the techniques of old painting was a change of pace.

The exhibition was co-financed by the Mazovian Regional Government (Samorząd Województwa Mazowieckiego) under its regional scholarship for students of art schools. The Museum of the Tenth Pavilion is a branch of the Museum of Independence (Muzeum Niepodległości).

Updates

• 2026-10-17 - the exhibition closed on 16 October 2026, as the museum had announced: its post on the opening still gives that date, the October programme lists the exhibition for 1-16 October, and the Tenth Pavilion’s news page carries no notice of an extension (sources, in Polish: museum’s post, October programme, Tenth Pavilion news).

See also

• Museum of the Tenth Pavilion of the Warsaw Citadel - the museum houses the gallery of paintings by Aleksander Sochaczewski: 118 paintings and sketches on the fate of convicts in Siberia, formerly in the collection of the National Museum in Lwów. These are paintings you can see at the Tenth Pavilion now that the exhibition of copies has closed.

After the show

At the Museum of the Tenth Pavilion now and coming soon:

• The Conquest of Space - a current exhibition in the Poster Gallery of the same branch: the history of the space race, from the first attempts to reach the stars to the flight of the first Pole into space, told through posters and graphic art.
• “Henryk Guterman (1913-1938) - zabity talent” (Henryk Guterman (1913-1938) - A Talent Killed) - in the Tenth Pavilion’s October programme, the museum has announced the opening of this exhibition for 30 October 2026.

Elsewhere in Warsaw, on the copy, the replica and the lost painting:

• Rubensiana. Collecting Fascinations in Poland, 17th-21st Centuries at Wilanów Palace - a current exhibition in the palace’s north wing on how the valuation of the triad “original - replica - copy” has changed over time. The museum points out that Rubens himself studied Titian’s works through numerous copies.
• Heliograms in the Solomon Room. In Search of Light at the Royal Łazienki Museum - a current exhibition in the Palace on the Isle: Nicolas Grospierre’s heliograms fill the empty fields left by Marcello Bacciarelli’s paintings destroyed during the Second World War. After expert debates, including on conservation, about reconstructing these paintings, the museum invited contemporary artists, so this is a different answer to the question of a lost painting than the reconstruction of the Chopin portrait.

Museum profile: Museum of the Tenth Pavilion of the Warsaw Citadel.