On the photographs of Count Henrikas Benediktas Tiškevičius – XIX century. Life in European nobility and travel times around the world

When in 1866. 23 August The richest Lithuanian magnate, Count Benediktas Emanuelis Tiškevičius, died in Paris, and his fourteen-year-old grandson, Benediktas Henrikas Tiškevičius, became one of the richest people in all of Europe. Born in 1852. December 9 In Nemėžis, near Vilnius, the young heir was orphaned at an early age: his father, Mykolas Tiškevičius, a descendant of the Tiškevičiai family living in Ukraine, collapsed when his son was only a few months old. and his mother, Marija Vanda Sofija. Tiškevičiūtė, one of the three Benedik the same diseases died when his son was seven years old.

The greatest passion is traveling

By becoming the owner of large estates with constant income, the young earl was able to afford to live without much trouble. I loved to have fun, to hunt, to travel.

1874 Count Benedict Henry sailed on a yacht to the United States and returned in 1875. He returned after marrying Clara Elizabeth Bancroft (1857–1883). Seeing the most modern yachts in America, he wanted to have the best yacht in the world and asked for one at the Havre Jacques Augustine Normand Shipyard. By the time the Count joined the French Geographical Society in 1876, he had already visited most of North and Central America, Panama, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and the Algerian Sahara, and planned to sail around the world with the new yacht.

1875 in 1880 a young family had a son, Benedict Jan, and in 1880 the second son, Edward Rejnold, was born. The wealthy heir, like his grandfather, lived in Paris but spent a lot of time in Nice: he was a member of the Nice Regatta Committee (Comité régates de Nice) and the Nice Mediterranean Society (Cercle de la Méditerranée (Nice)).

To protect himself from the frenzied persecution of his family, around 1882, he settled on the island of Madeira. Here in 1882. Elisabeth Marie Tyszkiewicz’s daughter was born at the end of But soon the count’s wife, Clara Elizabeth, dies and the 31-year-old has three children as a widow.

The children grew up and their father took over the Raudondvaris and Viala mansions that they left in their home countries. For him, Raudondvaris was of special importance, his family’s nest, to which the remains of his grandfather Benedict Emanuel and his wife Clara Elizabeth were transported. No less attractive was grandfather’s favorite Viala, located about 100 km southeast of Vilnius.

As before, the earl allowed himself to hunt and travel. He did not marry a second time, but a woman appeared in his life to accompany him: it is Isabelle Féraud, whom we see in many of BH Tiškevičius in the 19th century. in the late twentieth century photos taken at the beginning.

After the war, BH Tiškevičius no longer traveled. He died at the age of 83, in 1935. May 13 Buried in Nice, in the family grave with his mother.

For both the family album and the shows

When was Count Tiškevičius interested in photography? It is known that in the nineteenth century. At the end of the 19th century, he was already a member of the Société française de Photographie and the prestigious Photo-club de Paris, and was actively participating in the European photographers movement. Visitors to many art photography salons enjoyed the Count’s work.

1891–1898 The photos testify that the count traveled a lot with children in France, Italy, Switzerland, Austria, he liked to walk in the mountains, ride a bicycle. He visited Poland and Lithuania, their mansions and relatives. Already in the twentieth century. At the beginning of the 19th century he made long trips around the world: he was in China, Ceylon, Singapore, Japan, Palestine, Egypt, he traveled to Uganda.

In one of the photos, the count captured the luxurious interiors of the palace, the surroundings of the mansions, the life and entertainment of aristocrats, travel, and photographed his relatives and close people. In others, he admired the nature of the Nalibok Forest, investigated the types and ways of life of the people of Zakopane and Lithuania, and created artistic scenes in nature and in his own photo studio. And although some of the photos were to remain in family albums, while others were for exhibitions and magazines, all are interesting to the modern viewer as witnesses of the past.

The collector’s works were returned to Lithuania by the collector.

During the First World War, BH Tiškevičius lived in the town of Saint-Nazaire at the mouth of the Loire. The town where the count lived caught fire during the bombardment. Therefore, it was long thought that most of the negatives and prints of the Count’s photos were lost during this fire. His work was judged only by the few originals and press publications of his time. Perhaps that is why BH Tiškevičius as a photographer in the 20th century. He was little known in Europe and was only remembered at the turn of the century, when the Nicephore Niepce Museum was inaugurated in 1993. He bought around 80 originals of his photos.

Therefore, it can be considered a miracle that a unique collection of more than five hundred photographs by BH Tiškevičius returned to Lithuania thanks to the Lithuanian collector Gediminas Petraitis (1956-2021).

The photos in this collection are also published in the Return book. “Between Lithuania and France: Two Worlds of Count Benediktas Henrikas Tiškevičius (1852-1935) in his 19th century. final photos. “They were made in 1891-1899. In France and other Western European countries, as well as in Poland, Lithuania and near the Nalibok forest in the old Viala mansion on the territory of present-day Belarus.

The book was prepared by an international team: the 19th century. Lithuanian photographic historian Dainius Junevičius, author of several books on French pictorialism, professor at Sorbonne University, long-time president of the French Photographic Society, editor of Etudes Photographiques Michelis Poivert and Polish photographic historian, editor-in-chief of Dagerotyp magazine, Royal Museum Lazien Małgorzata Grąbczewska.