Educated Fancy. The Collection of Nikolai Borisovich Yusupov
8 February, 2002 - 26 May, 2002

The 8 February 2002 saw the opening of an exhibition organized by the State Hermitage in conjunction with the State Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts and the Arkhangelskoye Estate Museum, both in Moscow.
The display acquaints visitors with one of the largest collections created in Russia of Western European painting and decorative and applied art of the 18th and 19th centuries. It was assembled by Prince Nikolai Borisovich Yusupov (1750/51-1831), a statesman and diplomat, director of the Hermitage and the Armoury Chamber, a connoisseur and patron of art. This is the first documentary reconstruction of the celebrated collection whose make-up reflects the leading stylistic tendencies of the period when it formed and the heyday of European Noe-Classicism and early Romanticism. The exhibition features more than 150 items, including paintings and graphic art, sculpture and works of decorative and applied art, as well as volumes of the unique 1827-29 catalogue of the Yusupov collection.
On display are Dutch and Flemish paintings of the 16th and 17th centuries. It was in the Netherlands that the young Yusupov acquired his first books, drawings and paintings. Among the masterpieces of the Prince's collection are the Hermitage's Shepherd and Shepherdess by David Teniers the Younger. The collection of French 17th-century painting includes works by Classical artists, such as Claude Lorrain's Battle on the Bridge (Pushkin Museum). Exceptional completeness and variety characterize the collection of the French 18th century. The Prince's personal tastes found reflection in the selection of Boucher's paintings that includes the Pushkin Museum's masterpiece Hercules and Omphale. The fÚte galante is represented by some superb works from Nicholas Lancret. When abroad the Prince would visit the studios of noted artists. Among the masterpieces of Yusupov's collection are landscapes by Joseph Vernet and Hubert Robert. He actually commissioned David's Sappho and Phaon and Robert's Fire, both now in the Hermitage.
Among the masterpieces of the collection of Italian paintings that numbered over 200 items in its time are a Female Portrait by Correggio (Hermitage). Among works representing various schools, those of the 18th-century Venetian school are outstanding. The high standard of many of them is evidence of the owner's interested involvement in the formation of a collection. The core comprises paintings by Giovanni Battista and Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo, Pietro Rotari, Jacopo Amigoni and Sebastiano Ricci. Among the masterpiece's is the last's Childhood of Romulus and Remus (Hermitage).
The display also includes a marble statue of Cupid by the outstanding late-18th-century Italian sculptor Antonio Canova. It now belongs to the Hermitage which also possesses his Cupid and Psyche.
Among the works of decorative and applied art that Yusupov acquired during his frequent travels around Europe, one can find examples of porcelain from the celebrated Sévres factory: vases and part of a unique service in the ''Chinese style'', a cup in the form of a vase with figured handles and a lid and a dish bearing Nikolai Yusupov's portrait and his coat-of-arms (Hermitage).
Of special interest among the works of French bronze-smiths is the mantle clock called The Oath to Cupid (Hermitage) that was produced by Pierre-Philippe Thomire from a model by P.-L. Roland.
Yusupov's interests as a collector also extended to the art of the Far East. A true masterpiece of the collection is a bronze sculpture of a Bodhisattva (16th-17th century) from the Hermitage.
Following 18th-century fashion the Prince also acquired snuff-boxes and walking-sticks for his collection. The elegant little snuff-boxes are made of gold, silver, minerals, glass and ivory, covered with lacquer and mother of pearl and decorated with diamonds, translucent enamels and applied medallions. The stick that Yusupov chose to match his outfits were embellished with tortoiseshell and mother of pearl. The heads were carved from ivory and antler, rock crystal and agate.
Prince Nikolai Yusupov's collection of tapestries was the most significant in private hands in Russia. The display includes tapestries that belonged to the series The Story of Meleager and The Story of Titus and Vespasian (Hermitage).
Yusupov's collection of ancient and Western European carved gems was considered one of the sights of St Petersburg.
Other ''pearls'' of the Prince's collection are the works of carved ivory now kept in the Hermitage. Figures of Venus and Mercury, The Chariot of Bacchus, and the composition Cupid and Psyche once adorned the Cupid Room or Psyche's Salon in the palace at Arkhangelskoye.
Visitors' attention is also drawn to the drawings from Yusupov's collection that include works by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo and Rembrandt, as well as rarities from the Prince's library, the largest private repository of books in early-19th-century St Petersburg. On display is a rare edition of Cicero's letters, one of the first books that the young Prince purchased abroad. Of interest too is a publication of the private letters of Johann von Winckelmann, the scholar, philosopher and noted connoisseur of art who formulated the ideas of Neo-Classicism.

Portrait of Prince Nikolai Yusupov
Johann Baptist Lampi
Larger view

Sappho and Phaon
Jacques - Louis David
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The Oath to Cupid mantel clock
Pierre-Philippe Thomire
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Chariot with Bacchus group
Simon Troger
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Lidded cup and saucer with a portrait of Prince Yusupov
F. Ya. Gardner
Factory (?)
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Figure of a bodhisattva
China
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Items from a chinoiserie service
Sèvres Porcelain Factory
Larger view