André Mniszech

Count André Mniszech was born to the Polish nobleman Count Karol Philip Mniszech (1794-1846). He grew up at his family estate in Wisniowiec in Poland (now part of Ukraine).

Mniszech married Anna Elżbieta Potocka (1827-1885); they moved to Paris in 1854. He took with him the paintings that he had inherited from his family. Together with his wife and their son Leon (1849-1901) he lived in a house at 16 Rue Daru, which was his wife’s property. He also lived at 22 Rue Boissière. After his wife’s death, a large part of his art collection and the mansion at Rue Daru passed to his son. He married Isabelle Marrier de Lagatinerie (1840-1910) in 1886.

Mniszech learned how to paint with his brother and pursued his training as an artist in Paris under the tutelage of Jean Gigoux and Leon Cogniet. Mniszech painted mainly portraits. He was a friend of Abraham Willet (1825-1888), a Dutch art collector from Amsterdam, of whom he executed a life-size portrait in the style of Dutch seventeenth century masters, complete with a period costume.

His collection consisted mainly of Dutch and Flemish art. He owned several Frans Hals paintings, one of which, Portrait de Michel Middleboeven, pasteur de Voorschoten (Schloss German no. 81/ French no. 96), entered the collection of Adolphe Schloss in 1908. Mniszech also owned the pendant portrait of van Middelhoven’s wife, Sara Andriesdr. Hessix, which art collector August de Ridder (1837-1911) acquired. Another painting that Adolphe Schloss owned from the Mniszech collection was a portrait of a young woman, _Jeune fille en blanc _by Dirck van Santvoort (Schloss German no. 194/ French no.233), which Schloss purchased at the 1910 sale of the Dowager Countess Mniszech, just a few months before his death.

Mnsizech’s broad interest in art extended to French Rococo and contemporary works. Over time, he accumulated more than 500 paintings. He also collected ceramics, Japanese prints – of which he owned 1,500 – and other Asian art objects. Mniszech also amassed a collection of European drawings and prints including 229 Rembrandt etchings. The Count died in 1905 at home, on 22 Rue Boissière. His collection was dispersed in 1902 after the death of his son, Leon, and in 1910 when the rest of the collection was auctioned.

For more information see: Rosset, Tomasz Feliks de. André comte Mniszech (1823/24-1905), un collectionneur, et la critique artistique française au XIXe siècle. Torun, 1994 (unpublished, in the library of Fondation Custodia, Paris).  http://www.marquesdecollections.fr/detail.cfm/marque/12303
 Accessed on 4 June 2021