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

Copies of old paintings and a reconstruction of a lost portrait of Fryderyk Chopin, made by Sylwia Regulska, a student of the Faculty of Conservation and Restoration of Works of Art. The exhibition runs 18 September 2026 - 16 October 2026 in the Gallery of Historical Painting (Galeria Malarstwa Historycznego) at the Museum of the Tenth Pavilion of the Warsaw Citadel.

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 is an exhibition about the painter’s craft, not about the history of the Citadel. You will see 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 leads from learning old techniques and materials to independent painting, so it is best viewed in order, leaving the portrait for the end.

The museum gives neither the number of paintings nor the author’s school. Nor does 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. In the branch’s October programme, the museum announces no repeat of the talk and no other event connected with this exhibition.

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 is 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).

Tickets and time

• Where: the Gallery of Historical Painting in the Museum of the Tenth Pavilion building, on the grounds of the Warsaw Citadel. Directions are on the museum profile.
• Ticket: the museum lists no separate ticket for this exhibition. Its price list covers a single entry to the museum or a branch: standard ticket 20 PLN (about 5 EUR), reduced 10 PLN (about 2 EUR). Tickets are sold through the Museum of Independence ticketing system.
• Free day: free admission on Thursdays, with a free ticket. The museum gives this rule for the whole branch and names no exceptions for temporary exhibitions.
• Hours: the gallery keeps the branch’s hours: Tue-Sun: 10:00-17:00, Mon: closed.
• How long: plan on about half an hour for the exhibition itself. It is a single temporary exhibition gallery with copies and one reconstructed portrait; the museum does not give the number of works, so this is an estimate, not the museum’s figure. It is best combined with a visit to the Tenth Pavilion, which the same ticket admits you to.
• Who it’s for: people interested in conservation and the techniques of old painting, art students, and Chopin enthusiasts curious about how a painting that did not survive is reconstructed.
• Who can skip it: anyone who comes to the Tenth Pavilion for the history of the former tsarist investigative prison for political prisoners and its inmates, because this exhibition is about the painter’s craft. Also anyone looking for period originals: the paintings on show are copies and a reconstruction.

See also

• Museum of the Tenth Pavilion of the Warsaw Citadel - the same building 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. After the copies and the reconstruction, the originals in this collection are worth seeing.
• Bogusław Lustyk. The Memory of the Uprising - an exhibition in the Brama Bielańska Gallery, in the same branch, on until 25 October 2026.

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