Peter the Great through the eyes of children
22 September 2001 - December 2001

The exhibition features drawings by young artists from the Arts Studio of the State Hermitage's Schools Centre that has for many years been run by Boris Kravchunas.

The artists involved are between 5 and 11 years old. The drawings they produced on the theme of Peter the Great illustrate the immediacy of a child's view of history. The children obtained their information about the time of Russia's first emperor and the history of St Petersburg on excursions to the Winter Palace of Peter the Great, at exhibitions of the Hermitage's Department of the History of Russian Culture, in the Menshikov Palace and, of course, at school and at home. Their drawings show the young Peter and Peter the mighty ruler, Peter the sailor and Peter the soldier, as well as Peter the builder of a new capital for the Russian state. The exhibition gives us an idea how children comprehend the history of
St Petersburg and the personality of its founder.

Peter and Menshikov
Yegor Bogomolov
age 9
Larger view