Hermitage Collections in the 19th Century

The Imperial Hermitage - One of the First Museums of Europe
Alexander II followed the guidelines that directed the policy of his highly esteemed father, Emperor Nicholas I, regarding the Hermitage and was concerned that there be exemplary order in the Museum. The first director of the Hermitage was Sergei Gedeonov.

In 1861 the Hermitage's department of antiquities was greatly enriched by the acquisition in Italy of the collection amassed by the Marquis of Campana, an amateur archaeologist. Gedeonov selected from this collection some very interesting Etruscan works of art, Italic and Attic vases (the famous "Queen of Vases" among them), bronzes, antique sculptural portraits, statues of the nine muses and a marble relief depicting the death of Niobe’s children produced by the workshop of Phidias. Besides these antiquities, the Hermitage also acquired frescoes by Raphael that originally decorated the Villa Spada on the Palatine in Rome.

In 1865 the Museum purchased a masterpiece of world significance - Madonna and Child by Leonardo da Vinci - from the collection of the Duke of Litta in Milan. In 1870 Raphael's Madonna and Child arrived in St Petersburg from Florence, where it was purchased from Count Conestabile. The painting became the property of Empress Maria Alexandrovna. In 1880, together with St John the Theologian by Domenichino, it was bequeathed to the Hermitage. These acquisitions were acclaimed both abroad and in Russia.

During the reign of Alexander III the Hermitage led an independent existence. In his residence at the Anichkov Palace, the Emperor enthusiastically added to the private collection that he started while still the heir to the throne. This collection eventually provided the Hermitage with the Head of Cupid by Greuze and Pool in a Harem by Jean Gerôme. However, the Imperial Museum at the time did not have enough money to purchase works of art, as the new director of the Hermitage Prince Alexander Vasilchikov put in his report to the Minister of the Imperial Household. The only painting acquired abroad from now to the Revolution of 1917 was the fresco by Fra Angelico Madonna and Child with Sts Dominic and Thomas Aquinas, purchased in 1885.

However, the initiative and resourcefulness of Prince Alexander Vasilchikov helped him find ways to enlarge the Hermitage collections. From the Monplaisir Palace in Peterhof he rescued 22 canvases by the Dutch masters that suffered there from dampness. One of them was David and Jonathan by Rembrandt. From the palace in Gatchina he returned a number of canvases including Tiepolo's Maecenas Presenting the Liberal Arts to Augustus and two paintings by Boucher, The Pastoral and The Landscape.

This was a period of increased interest in the applied arts and objects from the palace interiors acquired high artistic value in the eyes of experts. A museum of the royal stables was created and both carriages and tapestries were placed on display. On the second floor of the Winter Palace, porcelain and silver from the palace stockrooms were put on exhibition.

In the spring of 1885 an event of extreme significance for the history of the Museum took place in Paris. On the eve of an auction that antiques dealers and connoisseurs of art in Paris awaited with great interest, the collection of Russian diplomat Basilewski was purchased for the Imperial Hermitage. With an annual budget of only 5,000 rubles, the Hermitage, of course, could not buy this expensive collection on its own. Emperor Alexander III, who had seen this collection in Paris when he was there as heir to the throne, bought it with his personal funds. In this way the Hermitage came to possess superb articles from metal crafted in the 11th-16th centuries, including Limoges enamels, carved ivories from the 9th-11th centuries, furniture of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, carved wooden pieces, tapestries, fabrics and embroidered articles, Spanish-Moorish faiences, Italian majolica and Venetian glass. This acquisition made it possible to open a new department in the Museum which brought in as well the collection of armour and weapons from the Armoury at Tsarskoye Selo and some valuable objects of 18th-century applied arts from the Golitsyn Museum in Moscow. From the latter collection the Hermitage also received the Triptych by Perugino and the Annunciation by Cima da Conegliano, sculptural portraits of Emperors Antoninus Pius and Caracalla, antique vases, bronzes, books with engravings and manuscripts.

In 1884 the Russian envoy in Greece Saburov transferred to the Hermitage 233 terracotta statuettes which he bought in the 1870s when treasure hunters had plundered the necropolis of ancient Tanagra (Boeotia).

In the late 19th century the Museum became so popular in Russia and Europe that Russian patrons of art considered it an honour to offer their treasures to it as a gift. Thus in 1911-12 the Stroganov family bequeathed to the Museum some works by Italian masters, including a reliquary by Fra Angelico and a wing of a diptych Madonna of the Annunciation by Simone Martini, as well as masterpieces of Sassanid silver. In the same year the Hermitage received a gallery of beautiful 18th-century English portraits which were bequeathed by Alexei Khitrovo.

The senior curator of the picture gallery Ernest Liphart managed to induce the owners of some pictures which were important for the Museum to donate them. Thus the Hermitage acquired The Rape of the Sabine Women by Tiepolo (the Campanari collection) and Sts Peter and Paul by El Greco (the Durnovo collection). The well-known ethnologist Semionov-Tien-Shansky offered the Museum his collection of 700 canvases by Dutch and Flemish artists. He held it in his possession during his lifetime, but after his death it was purchased by the Hermitage for half the sum Western European companies offered for it.

In 1914 The Benois Madonna, which Liphart attributed to Leonardo da Vinci, arrived in the Hermitage.

During the reign of Nicholas II, the Emperor Alexander III Russian Museum opened in St Petersburg, and paintings by Russian artists were sent there. The Hermitage's rooms of Russian art were closed.

The tradition of collecting works of art which began during the reign of Catherine the Great became the state policy of her grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Her "solitary little place", or "hermitage", turned into a wonderful public museum, one of the best in Europe.

Madonna and Child
(The Litta Madonna)
Leonardo da Vinci
Larger view

Madonna and Child (The Madonna Conestabile)
Raphael
Larger view

Madonna and Child (The Benois Madonna)
Leonardo da Vinci
Larger view

The Annunciation
Giovanni Battista Cima da Conegliano
Larger view

Lady in Blue
Thomas Gainsborough
Larger view

Sts Peter and Paul
El Greco
Larger view

Leaf of theConsul Areobindus's Diptych
Byzantium
Larger view