The Days of the Hemitage Museum - 2012
A Sentimental Journey. Wedgwood In Russia
7 December 2012 - 31 March 2013
Blue Bedroom, Winter Palace

On December, 07, 2012 In the Blue Bedroom of the Winter Palace an Exhibition "A Sentimental Journey. Wedgwood In Russia" was opened, which was timed to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the Exhibition of Wedgwood Ceramics In the Imperial Academy of Arts, one of Its supervisers was the first Director of the State Hermitage Museum - Sergey Nikolaevich Troynitsky (1882-1948).

Besides the exhibits which were shown to the public In 1912, the Hermitage 2012-2013 demonstrates the unknown and previously not demonstrated exhibits from the Museum’s storerooms. The Exposition features 97 masterpieces of the world famous company which give a possibility not only to assess the high artistic level of the Hermitage collection but also give an Idea of the main aspects of the educational mission of Josiah Wedgwood.

The life of Josiah Wedgwood (1730-1795) Is a bright portrait of the Enlightenment epoch and the Industrial revolution In Britain. The great Josiah Wedgwood was the youngest and the thirteenth child of the owner of a small pottery workshop. Having strated the Independent business when aged 29, at 36 Josiah already became the “Potter of Her Majesty", at 39 - established the famous factory "Etruria" where the decorative vessels resembling the antique vases were produced. The romantic manifestation was the hand-made production by the master of "The Vases of "Etruria" First Days" during the ceremony of the factory opening. The front of the vessels was decorated with the Images simulating the red-figure Greek vase painting. The contemporaries regarded Wedgwood products as an example of high artistic taste, a visible embodiment of the antique harmony.

Wedgwood showed Interest to the technological research since his youth . In the Initial period of his business he Improved the composition of the green glazes used at that time, thus giving the shining emerald coloring (this technique was used to decorate the jar as a pineapple In the early 1760s). Wedgwood Is also credited for the Improvment of the recipes of traditional English "cream-colored" faience (items from "The Service with the Farming Emblems"). The new ceramic composition was called the Faience of the Queen and was notable for Its light coloring and greater flexibility. The Wedgwood Inventions Include - the recipe of the famous black basalt masses reminiscent both of the ancient bronze and of Greek black varnished vessels, and, of course jasperated masses particularly popular with the contemporaries. The latter enabled to easily reproduce the antique cameos with the white relief on a coloured background and produce elegant plaques for the decoration of the neoclassic Interiors (for example, "A Dancing Nymph" or "Sacrifice to Flora").

The 18th century - a century of fictional journeys on which the Intellectuals set without leaving their desks. The other thing are people of practice. The construction of a new factory was also approached by Wedgwood as a fascinating journey Into the distant past and there Is no doubting In the sentimentality of Wedgwood - potter, entrepreneur and "traveler". Josiah Wedgwood had positioned himself as a creator of the new cultural utopia, oriented at the myths of antiquity, but developed In the modern practical sense. The company products were manufactured based on the samples of the best antiques, while one Item combined antique plastic and graphic motives and realities of different epochs.

Not coincidentally the Russian fascination with the English culture Is traditionally associated with the Interest to the Wedgwood works. The Wedgwood pottery hepled the Russian to feel themselves as the residents of Britain, Id est to make "a sentimental journey" to Its shores.

Since the time of Catherine II the comforable and civilized life out  In the country was associated In Russia with the British cultural tradition.  It was by the Empress order that Wedgwood created his famous "Green Frog Service" In 1773-1774: 944 Items decorated with 1222 non repeating views of Britain. The ensemble was Intended for roadside palace In Kekerekeksinen (Finnish "frog swamp"). Some of the service Items, held at the beginning of the 20th century In the English Palace In Peterhof, was exhibited at the jubilee exhibition of Wedgwood pottery In London In 1909. These 34 Items - travellers present the world famous ceramic ensemble at a real exhibition. "Green Frog Service" Initially Intended for review and not utilitarian use, has shown to the Russians not only the British landscapes, but also the British cultural values, and at the exhibition of 1909 was regarded as the symbol of Russian Involvement In the European cultural tradition.

The exhibits of the Hermitage exposition allow to express a pronounced  Interest of the Russian culture bohth to the phenomenon of English taste and to the Idea of English comfort (e.g. supplies purchased for the Tsarskoselskaya Palace farm). These works hepled to Identify the contribution of the Wedgwood company Into the history of the ancient heritage Interpretation. The fictional travel of the Russians to Britain and the Wedgwood "sentimental journey" to the antique world are two equal plotlines of exposition.

For the exhibition the scientific Illustrated catalogue (the Hermitage Publishing House) was Issued with the article of Introduction and catalogue annotation of the exhibition curator - Lidia Vladimirovna Lyakhova, senior researcher of the Department of Western European Applied Art.