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sollannaart · 3 years

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Józef Poniatowski’s depiction in movies

Part I. Films not related to Napoleon-Walewska story

Good day to you all, dear friends, and let me (while I am on vacation) pick as the topic of this week’s post not very serious one. Namely - to show you actors who played prince Poniatowski in movies.

About half of the movies where prince Józef appears are, however, dedicated to Napoleon’s love affair with Maria Walewska - to them I dedicated the next post. Today let us look to another half.

1. The first movie in my list will be a Polish movie from 1937 named „Ułan księcia Józefa” („The Uhlan of Prince Joseph”), also known as “Dziewczyna i ułan” (“The girl and the uhlan”).

Franciszek Brodniewicz as prince Józef in The Uhlan of prince Józef

And, frankly speaking, this is my favorite movie from those where Pepi appears. Why? At least because it’s not about the war, it’s about love (though the girl here chooses the uhlan over prince Józef).

Prince Józef at the ball, with ladies

And also I liked very much how Franciszek Brodniewicz played Pepi. (And can’t understand, at all, how the heroine could give her heart to an uhlan, when Poniatowski was courting her)))

Franciszek Brodniewicz with Jadwiga Smosarska, who played the main heroine, Kasia.

For those who became interested in this film I am giving the link on Youtube (but it is in Polish and doesn’t have any subtitles, sorry).

2. The second from my list of non “Napoleon-Walewska”-related movies will be “Popioły” („The Ashes”) - Andrzej Wajda’s adaptation of Stefan Żeromski’s novel of the the same title. And though prince Józef was a minor of the book he appeared in movie, played by Stanisław Zaczyk.

Prince Józef during the battle of Raszyn

What’s interesting is that 12 years after “The Ashes” were filmed Stanisław Zaczyk played Poniatowski one more time, that time in a docudrama “Raszyn. 1809” devoted to the battle itself. (Alas, I was able neither to watch this movie, nor to find any screen from it.)

Stanisław Zaczyk as prince Józef in “The Ashes”

However, what is also interesting about the movie is that there we can see a “casual” Pepi - receiving visitors in a dressing gown:

Screenshot from The Ashes

And for those, who are interested, there links to this film on TouTube:

Part I, Part II, Part III (in Polish, without subtitles again, sorry…)

3. The next position from my list is more actor’s choice, than the movie. But nevertheless, though the film under the name „Książę Józef Poniatowski” where the actor played Pepi did not survive, there are photos of the actor in make-up, so please meet Józef Węgrzyn as Józef Poniatowski:

(But, I have to admit, I am not sure whether this is a photo from the film, or from the play of the same title which was written and staged in 1917, just a year before the film)

Nor I know the plot of the movie. But, judging by the fact that its director had the same surname as the play’s author (a brother?) is might have been an adaptation of the play.

And this is definitely a photo from the play (because it’s from a book with it):

4. To finish this part I would also like with an actor. Who played… an actor playing prince Józef.

So please meet Marek Kondrat as “actor Marek playing Józef Poniatowski” in Juliusz Machulski’s film “V.I.P.”:

And one more screenshot, showing the “filming scene”:

The whole movie (in Polish) can be watched on YouTube, here (the time is set approximately to the beginning of the scene).

#józef poniatowski #poniatowski #józef poniatowski in cinema #ułan księcia józefa #franciszek brodniewicz #popioły #stanisław zaczyk #książę józef poniatowski #józef węgrzyn #v.i.p.#marek kondrat

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sollannaart · 3 years

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Why Józef Poniatowski never married

“A man with a reputation of a womanizer, with a couple of illegitimate children - and not married? Why so?” Knowing my interest in prince Poniatowski different people from time to time ask me these questions. So I decided to write this post to clarify the issue.

Prince Józef making a proposal, an engraving by F. Begat, 1821, from a French aquatint series illustrating Poniatowski’s life and death events - a completely imaginary, but the best illustration combining both the topics of “Poniatowski” and “marriage” I was able to find.

And to understand why Pepi remained a bachelor to the end of his days we need to have a look at his whole life, starting from the younger years.

Because when prince Poniatowski was in his twenties he did want to marry, to make his first love, the Austrian countess Karolina von Thun, his wedded wife.

Maria Carolina Anna von Thun, miniature brush by Anna Hochstädt (based on the original by Friedrich Heinrich Füger).

But, as I wrote in the post dedicated to prince Józef’s women, Pepi’s uncle, the Polish king, didn’t allow the nephew to associate himself with a girl of his choice. So, in the first case Poniatowski didn’t marry because he was prohibited to.

Furthermore, the king had his own ideas on which families it would have been convenient to become related with ordering prince Józef’s hands to their daughters. Among them there were a couple of cousins Czartoryskis (Maria and her younger sister, Zofia). Then Krystyna - the daughter of Ignacy Potocki. And one more girl - from Rzewuski family etc. (But all these projects remained on paper, and I am not even sure whether Józef knew about them.)

Anyway, the pressing of necessity to obey his uncle-king in matrimonial matters remained with prince Józef at least until Stanisław’s August abdication in 1795 (if not till 1798, when the latter died). And Pepi was finally “free” his first love wasn’t free anymore.

Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun, portrait of Lady Gillford, nee Marie Caroline von Thun, ci. 1792-95.

Yes, in 1793 the countess von Thun became the wife of a British diplomat, lord Gillford.

And approximately at the same time in Pepi’s life there appeared another lady, a Frenchwoman named Henriette de Vauban.

Felicja Pichor-Śliwicka as Henriette de Vauban and Józef Węgrzyn as Józef Poniatowski in Jan Adolf Hertz’s play “Prince Jozef Poniatowski”

First she accompanied prince Józef and his sister during their travel around Europe. And later, when in 1798 Poniatowski settled down in Warsaw, Madame de Vauban not only moved together with him into his famous palace “Pod Blachą” but quickly took on herself responsibilities of the “hostess”.

An unknown painter, a miniature portrait of Henriette de Vauban, ci. 1789

And the presence of Henriette in prince Józef’s life is thought by French (and even some Polish) historians to be a reason of Poniatowski’s indisposition to “tie the knot”.

Yes, being from 1798 to 1806 a Prussian subject and a private person Poniatowski theoretically could propose whoever he wanted. But Madame de Vauban was, from one hand, already married. And, from the other hand, she was giving prince Józef enough comfort not to seek consolation in a marriage with another woman.

The feast arranged on occasion of prince Jozef’s birthday in the former royal library at the castle in Warsaw, Zygmunt Vogel, 1808

So it may be stated that prince Józef didn’t marry Madame de Vauban because she wasn’t eligible, and didn’t choose any other woman because he didn’t want to.

Ok, you may ask, and what about Zofia Czosnowska, the woman who gave birth to Poniatowski’s second son?

An unknown painter, a miniature portrait of Zofia Czosnowska

Considering this lady we first need to keep in mind that she herself was also married. (And though she separated from her first husband even before she became Pepi’s mistress, their formal divorce happened much after Poniatowski’s death, she during the time of his life Zofia Czosnowska wasn’t free either.)

An aside I couldn’t help but write: with all Pepi’s feelings towards beautiful Zofia, her appearance in his life didn’t change prince Józef’s lifestyle. As if nothing had happened Henriette de Vauban continued to live in Poniatowski’s house, prince Józef mentioned her in his will of 1812, and even shortly before his death he is recalled to say that “When it comes to dying ... to the afterlife I will take with me the unearthly smile of Henrietta ...”. All this IMHO eloquently says whom he really was attached to.

Poniatowski’s will

And there is one more thing we should take into account when looking at prince Józef’s later years. Namely - the creation in 1807 the Duchy of Warsaw.

Napoleon issuing the Constitution of the Duchy of Warsaw by Marcello Bacciarelli (1811)

Because this event, definitely positive for prince Józef’s motherland, simultaneously turned him from a private person to a public one, with all the consequences. And though Napoleonic code, from one hand, allowed divorces, the emperor, on the other hand, preferred to arrange marriages to his people by himself. Which means that had prince Józef acquired a desire to marry a woman he liked he first should have persuaded Napoleon to approve such a choice. And this again put Poniatowski in a kinda gloomy state like it had been years ago when he was dependent on the wishes of his monarch. And this fact may in my opinion served an explanation if to ask why Pepi didn’t divorce one of his mistresses from her husband and marry her...

And the last but not the least. Yes, by many people prince Józef is thought to have be a womanizer, but the more I learn about him the am I becoming convinced, that this might been a kind of “exaggeration”.

Antoni Uniechowski, prince Józef Poniatowski in Jabłonna, 1975

Because many a diarists recall that “he liked women, and women liked him”, but precise names are rarely mentioned, and if to count the ones of Poniatowski’s proven “love interests” the number is in fact not very high (especially to compare with such known “ladies' man” from the epoch like Napoleon, Talleyrand, Murat etc..)

#Poniatowski #józef poniatowski #józef poniatowski’s women #henriette de vauban #zofia czosnowska #karolina von thun

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