Prince Witold Kazimierz Czartoryski of the Vytis/Pogoń Coat of Arms and Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis

Abstract

Based on the contents of Sofija Čiurlionienė’s thank-you note sent in May 1910 to Prince Witold Kazimierz Czartoryski, which has not been discussed or published to date in Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis’s studies, the article aims to clarify the main benefactor of the artist’s treatment at the Czerwony Dwór clinic. Since Czartoryski is a new name in Čiurlionis’s biography, the article introduces his life, activities and personality. It raises the question of whether the prince was the only member of the historical elite who paid for the artist’s medical care, or whether several aristocrats sent funds. After Čiurlionis’s brother Stasys published his memoirs in 1935 and 1938, the claim that the artist’s medical care was funded by Prince Lubomirski from Brussels, was established. Czartoryski’s secretary, whom Čiurlionienė contacted first, lived in this city. The article also seeks to clarify who mediated this financial support, whether there are more documents related to the matter, etc. Although Čiurlionis and Czartoryski came from different social backgrounds, they were contemporaries, emerged from the same cultural region. This fact called for a comparative analysis, which revealed the common cultural trends characteristic of the period in which they lived.