Dainius Junevičius. Czechowicz's Predecessors. First Photographic Views of Vilnius

Translated by Daiva Racevičienė

Edited by Steven F.Joseph

When photography appeared in Lithuania, photographers began to develop their skills as solely portrait photographers. The genre of photographic portraiture flourished to such an extent that in the middle of the l9th century, a great many painters-portraitists lost their clients. As a result, Romer's studio was closed, whereas a promising painter, Strauss, turned to photography.

Of a huge number of portrait photographers, only several artists who took photos of landscape stand out. At that time, there was a great demand among people for views depicting historically interesting places or beautiful landscape. This demand was partly satisfied by lithographic images, which were distributed as separate prints or in albums, as well as in the form of woodengravings printed in periodicals. Many pictures have survived, which have been well documented and described.

Photographs are no less valuable than painted works as they prove to be more accurate in depicting images of the past. When the art of photography was perfected, in about 1850, the images of cities were put into albums. Soon albums with photographs depicting London, Paris, Cracow, and Warsaw appeared. The largest and most diverse collection of 19th century Vilnius photographs was presented by a famous photographer, Joseph Czechowicz (Juozapas Čechavičius in Lithuanian). The present work focuses on Czechowicz's predecessors who took pictures of Vilnius. Most of them are less known or entirely lost from our memory.

The first photographer to record Vilnius, was Abdon Korzon. Though little is known about his background, Korzon was a nobleman by descent, and also an ardent patriot. The latter feature had much influence on the art of photography he practised and, incidentally, on his fate. His studio is first mentioned in August 1860. However, in June 1863 it was closed. During that time Korzon took many pictures of Vilnius. He had obtained a camera to make stereoviews and he produced photographs by the wet-plate process typical of that time.

By September 1860, Korzon had photographed the Castle of Trakai and other places that were of great interest to society at that time: track laying works between St. Petersburg and Warsaw, the construction of the Paneriai tunnel, and a provisional wooden railway bridge in Rokantiškės. Such photographs were supposedly ordered or encouraged by the German engineers who built the railway. Regrettably, the pictures of the Rokantiškės Bridge have not survived. There is a copy print of the photograph, depicting the construction of the tunnel, kept in the Central Library of the Academy of Sciences; this photograph and the photograph of the Trakai Castle would have been the first open-air picture produced in Lithuania.

Korzon's studio was situated in Adomavičius' house, in Didžioji Street, close to the Town Hall Square, in so-called Imbarai. The collodion process entailed carrying the whole portable laboratory, therefore the first pictures taken by Korzon depicted only nearby places.

By June 1861, stereoviews of Town Hall Square and parts of Didžioji Street had been produced. Korzon had also photographed several buildings:

St. Stanislaus' Cathedral and the pearl of gothic architecture, St. Ann's Church. Moreover the photographer had recorded some landscapes: Castle Hill with the old Botanical garden at the foot of it, Bekes's Hill and the Hill of Three Crosses, as well as the whole panorama of Antakalnis suburb and the Church of SS. Peter and Paul from Stalas (Table) Hill. These photographs marked the birth of the album of Vilnius. A relatively cheap book of pictures made by Korzon was to include historical monuments of Vilnius, buildings, temples and environs of the city. Admittedly, such views had to inspire patriotic feelings in Lithuanians, who were under Russian domination. By the end of his career, Korzon had taken photographs of many churches: Missionaries', St. Stephen’s, St. Cross (Bonifrares), SS. Peter and Paul's. He had also photographed many other views: the woods of Žvėrynas from the hills of the Vingis Park with the Lukiškės suburb in the background, City panorama from Bokšto Street and a nicely arranged picture of the Castle Hill from the right bank of the river Neris.

A correspondent for a Vilnius newspaper, Przybylski, wrote about Korzon' works and paid homage to the quality and high artistic value of the photographs.

However, there is little information about the educational background that Abdon Korzon had. It would appear he was an independent artist, who cherished his sincere love of the city and embodied it in his works.

Long-lasting and thorough searches for the remaining photographs have not been successful. We know the location of only seven photos. All of them are kept in the Warsaw National Museum. They were forwarded to the Museum in 1927, as a legacy of Smolikowski, who was in some way related to the editors of the Tygodnik Ilustrowany.

The photographs, the largest being 13 by 18.3 cm, the smallest 11.3 by 14.8 cm, were printed on albumen paper and mounted on cardboard of nearly the same size. They are intaglio stamped, which leaves no doubt about Korzon’s authorship.

The photographs differ in quality. Close-ups of Castle Hill and SS. Paul and Peter's Church are technically better than some panoramic views, which are poorly exposed. The peculiarities of other photographs can be traced in woodengravings that were made on the basis of them. In 1861-64, these woodengravings were printed in the periodical, Tygodnik Ilustrowany, in Warsaw. Some of the close-ups were rather successful, whereas panoramic views were rather dull, inexpressive, and poorly exposed. Seeing that, the woodengraver in one instance based his work only on a fragment of the whole photograph, the view of St.Raphael's Church, but the final piece is very far from reality.

After counting all the photographs that survive and woodengravings printed in periodicals I presume that Korzon made about 20 photographs of Vilnius. It is a pity that we know nothing about his stereoviews. It would be extremely interesting to see a stereoview of that time.

In 1863, Abdon Korzon was engaged in an uprising. Soon he was arrested and exiled from Vilnius. His studio was closed. Landscape photographs found during the inspection of the studio were first seized and then destroyed.

Finally, I would like to mention one unique aspect of Korzon's career as an artist. A photograph of Madam du Lawrence, taken at his studio, has the background of Bernardine Monastery, several towers, Gediminas' Castle Hill. The silhouette of the woman obstructs the view of the Holy Virgin Mary Church of the Orthodox. Such a backdrop, presumably painted from life, is unique in Vilnius. However, other backdrops used for photographs are standard, with a blurred view of a palace on the hill, a balustrade, or a hedgerow, etc. These were usually imported from abroad.

The second open-air photographer was a foreigner, a Prussian citizen, Albert Swieykowski. His studio was located in Šiška’s house (formerly Mueller’s), in Vokiečių Street. By May 1861, he had a camera for producing landscape photographs by the dry-plate process. His pictures must have appeared after the summer of 1861. Przybylski wrote at that time about Korzon's works but he did not mention Swieykowski. In June 1863, Swieykowski’s studio was temporarily closed. Shortly after that he presented a security of 300 roubles and opened it again. The photographer worked in Vilnius up to July 1866. In autumn 1865, Swieykowski announced that he decided to sell the studio for family reasons. It was indicated in the same advertisement that an album containing 32 photographs of Vilnius was on sale in Swieykowski’s studio. Today almost thirty photos of the album are kept in the Library of the Academy of Sciences and National History Museum in Vilnius.

Swieykowski’s photographs are a little bit larger that those of Korzon (the smallest photos are 16 by 21 and the largest 16,5 by 23,3 cm). The photographs were mounted on to the cardboard measuring 23 by 31, at the bottom margin of which an intalgio stamp in the Russian language "Sveikovski Vilna" was imprinted. The mounts of some photographs kept in the Library of the Academy of Science are trimmed and the stamp is not visible so the photos had been ascribed erroneously to Korzon for a long time.

Swieykowski, being a foreigner, looked at Vilnius differently for Korzon, a patriot. Swieykowski had photographed the governor-general’s Palace and railway station besides Vilnius Cathedral, SS.Peter and Paul Church, Vilnius Town Hall and Chapel of the Gates of Dawn. It is interesting that some vantage points (Žvėrynas pinewood, view of Antakalnis district) are almost identical to those in Korzon’s views. Comparing these photos, it seems that both photographers used the same lenses.

Swieykowski turned his attention to the charm of Vilnius suburbs. His photos of suburbs taken from picturesque points leave a great impression. In fact these pictures make up the majority in his album. Swieykowski not burdened with the portable laboratory required by the wet-collodion process could travel farther and for longer periods taking dry collodion plates prepared in advance. Itineraries of his travels included Verkiai, Vingis, Belmontas.

After closer observation of scattered photos in Swieykowski's Vilnius album, they have been divided into three pairs from which it is possible to make more complete panoramic views. They are: Rasų suburb's panoramic view seen looking from the end of Subačius street, a view of the left bank of the river Neris from Tilto street to Lukiškių suburb seen from Šnipiškės as well as a view of Vilnelė riverside at Paplauja. Such panoramic pictures were rather rare. A panoramic view of 360 degrees of Warsaw city in 1857 is known. It was taken by famous Warsaw photographer Karol Beyer. Swieykowski may consciously not have joined views together in his album. However, today the joined views are remarkably impressive and interesting documents of the historic views and look as they had been taken in such a way deliberately to be presented as panoramas.

The quality of the pictures undoubtedly is better than those by Korzon. We see more details, foreshortening are chosen more successfully, view composition is irreproachable. Some photographs in which small objects disappear into the distance, do not make an impression, are full of needless details. However, most of them are taken in an almost faultless manner..

Swieykowski's taste was not bad but he was emotionally less connected with Lithuanian history, and therefore did not feel enmity for tsarism. We do not know where Swieykowski gained knowledge of photography but no doubt he represented the German photographic school.

In 1866, a photographer in the Vilnius Astronomy Observatory Wilhelm Zacharczyk began to prepare an album of Vilnius views. He was invited from Petersburg to Vilnius by the observatory director M.Gusev to work with a heliographer of Vilnius Astronomy Observatory. Observations of sunspots were conducted with this heliographer in 1866-1868 when the observatory burnt down. Probably Zacharczyk's album was finished at the beginning of 1867 because at that time he presented some copies to the governor-general of Vilnius and the tsar’s family members. It seems that at present one copy of the album is in some museum or archives of Saint Petersburg as employees of Lithuanian museums have seen it there. I have heard that one complete copy is in Vilnius. However, efforts to determine its present location and ownership have proved fruitless.

There are six original photos from V.Zacharczyk's album in Vilnius - five different views in the Library of the Academy of Sciences and photocopies of two photos (in a private collection and at the Monuments Restoration Institute). The size of the images is 12,5 by 17 cm, and they are mounted on cardboard measuring 22,8 by 15,4 cm. There are captionsVilenskij albom and Fot. V.Zacharczyk printed as well as a view name in Russian on the mount. The use of such printed mounts indicates that the photographer had planned to add more pieces. Some pictures are intaglio stamped.

The surviving original photos of the album are exclusively images of Vilnius countryside on albumen paper: Rasų and Bernardinų cemeteries, Užupio view from Missionary garden, Paplaujos street, Subačiaus street. The views are not very expressive. Views of Lukiškių suburb with St. Raphael's church and disused cemetery in the foreground and a view of the Botanical Garden from Bekes's hill are more interesting.

It is difficult to decide on the content of the whole album from the surviving photos. It would be very interesting to find the complete collection and to see what in Vilnius was fixed by V.Zacharczyk's lens. Maybe he used the unique possibilities given by his workplace's unique perspective and made photos of Vilnius from the observatory tower from which wonderful sights could be seen. The indications mentioned above concerning unknown albums are promising.

The photo albums described had to convey the beauty of the finest Lithuanian town and its countryside for our contemporaries. It is interesting that photos of Vilnius landscape views make up a large part of photos in these albums. They saved for us a view of Vilnius in the middle of the l9th century from oblivion. This view is hardly recognisable in some pictures.

Judging from known contemporaries' comments, even photos of the Vilnius' countryside were not widespread in Lithuania and did not leave a significant influence on society's consciousness. Even in 1878 after J.Czechowicz's photos were made and first albums of N.Orda's pictures were published in the form of lithographs, new splendid albums by Wilczynski began to be issued. Tygodnik Ilustrowany noticed that there were a few pictures of Vilnius though no other town except Vilnius had such countryside worthy of pencil or pen.