Restoration of the Corner Room

In 2005 a full range of repair and restoration work was carried out in the Corner Room (248), which was designed by Leo von Klenze in the mid-1840s. The paintings were done under the guidance of Johann Drollinger and David Iensenn in a size-tempera technique, while the interior decoration of panels, pillars and pilasters in artificial marble was directed by Joseph German. The last restoration work was performed here after the Second World War.

During the course of the work, the ornamental painting over the metal ceiling was strengthened, additions made at various times were removed and conservation work was done in some places.

A new system of lighting attached to the ceiling beams was installed in the room. The lights were mounted using holes left from earlier existing systems in the metal structures of the suspended ceiling dating from the mid-19th century. The windows, doors and fittings were restored, the missing elements were reproduced using the surviving details as samples. In the doors leading to the passageway to the Small Hermitage, the original 19th-century glass was restored. The parquet floors of geometric pattern recreated in the 1960s were restored: the missing and worn fragments were replaced using kinds of wood as beech, ash-tree and palisander.

During restoration a trial clearing was performed on the western wall of the room, in the section between the window and the door. This confirmed the presence of ornamental wall paintings in a size-tempera technique in keeping with a sketch by Leo von Klenze for the interior decoration of this room. The paintings were made under the direction of the artists Johann Drollinger and David Iensenn. They were completed in 1850, but then the decision was taken to use the room "not for making copies of large paintings", as was originally planned, but to exhibit the painting collection instead. As archival documents show, in this room, just as in other rooms intended for displaying paintings, panels covered with crimson wallpaper were fastened to the walls. This is how the room looked in the famous 1860 watercolour by Luigi Premazzi. Documents which have come down to us do not make mention of the date when the wall paintings were covered over with a new layer of paint. Very likely this happened when the panels with wallpaper were removed during repairs made in 1912. After the Second World War, the walls were repainted in a grey-green colour which remained until the recent repairs. In 2005 the walls in this room were returned to their historical red colour and the fragments with ornamental paintings discovered in the course of the restoration remain exposed.

The work was carried out by restorers from the Special Scientific Restoration Workshops of the State Hermitage under the direction of the Chief Architect of the State Hermitage Valery Lukin and senior researcher of the Department of the History and Restoration of Architectural Monuments Marina Ilyina. All restoration work was accompanied by technical and technological investigations carried out by the staff of the Department of Scientific and Technical Examination (director Alexander Kosolapov).

The Corner Room
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The ceiling of the room after restoration. Detail: loss of the paint layer and ground down to the metal base
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Revealing the original painting on the room's walls
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Process of cleaning the painting
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Detail of the ceiling. Before and after restoration
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The ceiling of the room after restoration
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