A prison cell in Daugavpils Fortress

Alfred Izydor Römer (1832–1897), a member of the Römer dynasty of painters in Vilnius, was put under house arrest on 2 February 1864 for supporting the 1863 uprising. On 14 February, he was taken from his home and incarcerated in Daugavpils Fortress. He was only released on 24 August 1865. He made a lot of drawings in prison. The sketchbook from his Daugavpils period is now held in the National Museum of Warsaw, and the manuscript of his memoirs is in the National Warsaw Library. Extracts from these memoirs were published in the Warsaw weekly Tygodnik Illustrowany in 1912, and illustrated with reproductions of his drawings. This drawing was one of them, entitled The Nicholas casemate in Daugavpils Fortress, published on page 603 of issue 29. At that time, the drawing belonged to the artist’s daughter Helena Romer-Ochenkowska. Izydor Römer’s prison cell was in a casemate in the gates of the fortress, below a rampart and next to a moat. The artist described the damp and gloomy place in his diary: ‘There was a stinking wooden barrel in the corner, and I had to wash over it … on the other side stood an iron military bed without any bedding or hay.’ The depressing surroundings in the prison are presented in documentary detail, as a testimony to the everyday life of the prisoners.

Text author Rūta Janonienė

Source: Law firm Valiunas Ellex art album RES PUBLICA (2018). Compiler and author Rūta Janonienė

Alfred Izydor Römer (1832–1897), a member of the Römer dynasty of painters in Vilnius, was put under house arrest on 2 February 1864 for supporting the 1863 uprising. On 14 February, he was taken from his home and incarcerated in Daugavpils Fortress. He was only released on 24 August 1865. He made a lot of drawings in prison. The sketchbook from his Daugavpils period is now held in the National Museum of Warsaw, and the manuscript of his memoirs is in the National Warsaw Library. Extracts from these memoirs were published in the Warsaw weekly Tygodnik Illustrowany in 1912, and illustrated with reproductions of his drawings. This drawing was one of them, entitled The Nicholas casemate in Daugavpils Fortress, published on page 603 of issue 29. At that time, the drawing belonged to the artist’s daughter Helena Romer-Ochenkowska. Izydor Römer’s prison cell was in a casemate in the gates of the fortress, below a rampart and next to a moat. The artist described the damp and gloomy place in his diary: ‘There was a stinking wooden barrel in the corner, and I had to wash over it … on the other side stood an iron military bed without any bedding or hay.’ The depressing surroundings in the prison are presented in documentary detail, as a testimony to the everyday life of the prisoners.

Text author Rūta Janonienė

Source: Law firm Valiunas Ellex art album RES PUBLICA (2018). Compiler and author Rūta Janonienė