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Presentation of the New Acquisitions of the
State Hermitage On 30 December 2006, in keeping with tradition, an exhibition intended to acquaint the public with some of the most interesting acquisitions made during the year gone by was presented in the Apollo Room of the Winter Palace. During 2006, one such work was The Fire in the Winter Palace by the French painter Pierre Marie Joseph Vernet (Russia, 1838; paper, water color, gouache, tempera). Pierre Marie Joseph Vernet (1797-1873) bears the surname of an artistic dynasty. Beginning in 1835/6, he lived and worked in Russia. Vernet received commissions from Grand Duke Alexander Nikolaevich (the future Emperor Alexander II). In the 1840s - 1860s, he participated in exhibitions of the Academy of Arts. He painted battle scenes, paintings on themes of court life, portraits, animalist drawings. The State Russian Museum has his Portrait of I.M. Tolstoy with his Wife in the Riding School, done in 1844. This is a masterfully painted equestrian family portrait which is clearly signed 'P. Vernet,' in a manner close to that on the work which the Hermitage has acquired. The Fire in the Winter Palace was painted a year after the event it depicts, in December 1838, and was likely created by the artist using sketches from nature. It is documentary evidence of an eye-witness to the fire. The work is distinguished by Vernet's undoubted painterly mastership and his ability to construct large-scale compositions. Prior to its acquiring this unique work, which has significant historical value and possesses high artistic merit, the Hermitage did not have any works by Pierre Marie Joseph Vernet. The second item displayed in the exhibition is (David's) Psalms, which once was owned by the Hermitage and now was purchased at auction and returned to the museum by E.Ya. Satanovsky. This book published in Copenhagen in 1764 includes watercolor miniatures entitled King David, King David and Virsavia, a portrait of the Princess Dagmar with the inscription 'Pr. Dagmar', and an engraving illuminated by watercolor as well as engraved vignettes. The publication in period leather binding with silver fastenings and inserts done in the Protestant style belonged to Princess Marie Sophia Frederika Dagmar, daughter of Danish King Christian IX, who later became Empress Maria Fedorovna (1847-1928). It was kept in the library of her husband, Emperor Alexander III. |
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Copyright
© 2011 State Hermitage Museum |
