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G.A. MIROLIUBOVA, T.A. PETROVA The Hermitage collection of Russian photographs A significant proportion of the photographs are portraits. Around 80 daguerreotypes are especially valuable. No less interesting are the paper photographs taken by I. Veninger, S.L. Levitsky and H. Denier, who were among the first to open their widely successful photographic studios in St Petersburg. Their contemporary Karl Bergamasco mostly captured the world of arts and the court. Striving to achieve a high quality of images, he asked painters to help with the retouching of his negative and positive prints. These photographs look very much like original paintings. In the 1860s, photo cards brought about the custom of exchanging photos and keeping photo albums. A significant number of images in the Hermitage collection form part of decorative albums which were carefully preserved by their owners. Landscapes became popular with many St Petersburg photographers from the start. Images by one of the pioneers of this art, G. Bianchi, taken in the 1860s and 70s, are exhibited in the Hermitage. When taking photos of the environs of St Petersburg, Bianki had a remarkably refined way of capturing the picturesque park ensembles and their harmonious blending with architecture. His contemporaries A. Lorens, A. Felish and K. Schultz have preserved a visible memory of old St Petersburg streets and squares, and captured many views which were soon lost or changed forever. Karl Bulla was a famous St Petersburg landscape photographer of the turn of the 20th century. The Hermitage has an extensive collection of his originals. Bulla's works are characterized by their combination of reporter-like precision and a unique artistic vision. In the second half of the 19th century, many state rooms in aristocratic mansions and more modest houses were also photographed in St Petersburg. Photographs of the Imperial Hermitage interiors taken at the end of the 19th century and images of the former living quarters of the Winter Palace made in the summer of 1917 are important historical witnesses. From the middle of the 19th century onwards, more and more photographs of Russian towns and countryside views were being produced. The Hermitage has photographs of towns and cities on the Volga and Don, in the Ukraine and the Crimea. Remarkable examples of genre photography capture street workshops and street peddlers, domestic servants and junior officials. The photographs of Russian industrial enterprises and their products, as well as the large-scale railway construction in late 19th century Russia, are of great historical and artistic value. The events of the Russo-Turkish, Russo-Japanese wars, World War I and the two Russian revolutions of 1917 brought forth the art of political reporting photography and military portrait. Many shots were taken in field conditions, in the army camps, conscript centres, hospital trains and large military hospitals in the capitals. They capture the harsh reality of life in wartime. Portraits preserve the faces of military leaders and ordinary soldiers who wanted to be formally photographed with all their medals and regalia. On the whole, the collection reflects the art of 19th-early 20th century photographers and the most important milestones of pre-revolutionary Russian photographic art.
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Copyright
© 2011 State Hermitage Museum |
