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Collecting at the Russian court in the 18th
century In the middle of the 18th century, in the reign of Empress Elizabeth, 115 paintings were purchased in Prague and Bohemia for the Picture Hall of the Tsarskoye Selo palace that still exists today. A bright page in the history of the creation of the art gallery was written in the 1760s, when Catherine II became Russian empress. Collecting became one of the significant elements in a set of measures undertaken by the Empress with the aim of showing the whole of Europe that Russia had entered a new era marked by flourishing culture. The start of the gallery came with the acquisition of 225 Flemish and Dutch paintings from the Berlin merchant Johann Ernst Gotzkowsky. Gotzkowsky's suggestion that she acquire the collection of works that he had assembled for King Frederick II of Prussia, whose treasury had by that time been drained by the Seven Years' War, accorded perfectly with the political aims of the Russian Empress. It was followed by other, even larger groups of paintings (sometimes whole galleries), picked up at auctions in Western Europe. In the 1770s the Empress successfully acquired several highly significant European collections, thanks to both the efforts of her intermediaries and the strength of her own passion for collecting. One can say that Catherine regarded collecting as a matter of state importance, recognizing that the possession of considerable collections of art strengthened and raised the authority and international prestige of her empire. In putting together her collections the Empress relied not only on her own taste, but also on the advice of well-informed people such as Diderot, Baron Melchior Grimm and the Russian ambassador to Paris (later to The Hague), Prince Golitsyn. The Empress invited a host of artists to St Petersburg. What European collectors accumulated over centuries, Russia gained by a single skilful manoeuvre that combined the authority, generosity and bold-dealing of the Russian ruler with the competence and sober calculation of her artistic agents. While Gotzkowksy had put together the collection specially for Frederick the Great in a limited span of time, many other European collection had been assembled long and systematically over several generations. In 1768 in Brussels Catherine bought the collections of Count Karl Cobenzl and Prince Charles de Ligne. Then in 1769, in Dresden, she acquired the collection of Count Heinrich von Bruhl. It was a similar story with the collection of the Genevan art-lover Francois Tronchin, bought with the aid od Goltisyn and Diderot in 1770. One of Catherine's greatest successes was the acquisition in 1779 of the celebrated Houghton Hall collection that had belonged to the former British prime minister Robert Walpole. By 1774, when the Green Frog Service arrived in St Petersburg, the Hermitage buildings and the Winter Palace already contained 2,080 paintings, including works by Raphael, Giorgione, Rembrandt, Rubens and Poussin. Under Catherine II interest in the collecting of English art grew. Relations with Britain advanced in the spheres of diplomacy, politics and economics and affected social, philosophical and ethical thinking, literature and lifestyles. It was in this period that the most significant works of English art were acquired - both paintings and unique pieces of applied art; the foundations of a print collection were laid; architectural ensembles were created by British architects, mainly of Scottish extraction and English landscape parks laid out. Britain, as a country with a distinctive culture began to attract the gaze of Russians in the second half of the 18th century. Thus it is not surprising that in the 1770-90s an interest developed in Russia in English painting that had hitherto been almost unknown even to the narrow circle of collectors. The acquisition of works by English artists occupied a special place in the Empress's intense collecting activities. They entered directly into the Hermitage stocks or were commissioned to adorn suburban palaces. In 1773, on Catherine's instructions, a painting of a forge was bought from Joseph Wright of Derby, one of the most original of artists and one of the most "English" in his views and interests, who was still almost unknown on the continent. In 1774 portraits of King George III and Queen Charlotte Sophia by Nathaniel Dance arrived in the Chesme palace, followed by a portrait of George, Prince of Wales, and his brother Frederick, later Duke of York. This was a copy of the portrait painted in 1777 for Buckingham House commissioned by King George from Benjamin West as a gift for Catherine II. This painting was also hung in the Chesme Palace. Undoubtedly, besides purely aesthetic and educational goals, the Russian Empress was also pursuing political ones through her collecting. For example, for the Chesme Palace the Empress commissioned Richard Brompton to paint a programmatic depiction of her grandsons, Alexander and Konstantin. The painting, made between the two Russo-Turkish wars was intended to show the unswerving nature of Russian policy. The portrait, of which Brompton produced several replicas, is full of details that have profound allegorical meaning relating to Catherine's policy in the east and victories over the Turks. In 1791, when relations between Russia and Britain reached a low point over the second Russo-Turkish War, Catherine acquired for the Hermitage a sculptural portrait of Charles James Fox by Joseph Nollekens. This was an expression of gratitude to the famous English statesman who spoke out in the British parliament and helped the Empress avoid a conflict with the kingdom. In the last quarter of the 18th century not only paintings were bought for the Hermitage and the suburban palaces, but also numerous works of applied art - furniture and articles made of gold, silver and precious stones. Catherine's greatest collecting passion became carved gems. Between 1786 and 1796 Catherine significantly enriched her collection of cameos and intaglios with 200 works by the contemporary British craftsmen William and Charles Brown. By that time English silver was already known in Russia. A striking proof of that are the ambassadorial gifts dating from the 16th and 17th centuries. Many items were acquired later, though, in the 1730s-60s. They include some magnificent wine-coolers, services and other palace utensils made by famous craftsmen resident in Britain, including Philippe Rollos, Paul de Lamerie, Charles Kandler, Simon Pantin, William Cripps, Samuel Courtauld and Nicolas Sprimont. Thus, the Green Frog Service was no mere chance acquisition - it should be viewed in the context of a wider ideological campaign. But it was undoubtedly the largest single commission that Wedgwood ever received. The amount that Catherine paid was 16,406 roubles 43 kopecks, the equivalent of 2,700 pounds sterling. The cost of the service without painting came to only ?51 8s. 4d. In ordering a service made not of costly porcelain, but of inexpensive creamware, Catherine not only initiated the appearance of a unique world-ranking work of art, but also became the trend-setter of a new fashion that increased Wedgwood's authority still more. The service arrived in Russia in the autumn of 1774. The expense accounts drawn up by Bentley indicate that the service was packed in 22 crates. Catherine expressed her gratitude to Wedgwood and Bentley through the Russian consul and ambassador in London, Alexei Semionovich Musin-Pushkin.
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 Andrei Martynov The Cameron Gallery 1810 Larger view |
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