British Art Treasures from Russian Imperial Collections in the Hermitage - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0300069464 ISBN 13: 9780300069464

Publisher: Paul Mellon Centre, 1996

Synopsis

More than two hundred years ago, Russian Empress Catherine the Great and some of her courtiers developed a taste for British art and collected some spectacular items including paintings, drawings, sculpture, silver, and Wedgwood ceramics. This sumptuously illustrated book tells the story of the acquisition of these treasures and of the cultural relations between Britain and Russia in the eighteenth century.

Distinguished critic John Russell provides the introduction for this book, and eminent British and Russian scholars offer chapters on such topics as British gardeners and the vogue of the English Garden, the Houghton sale, British architects in Russia, and English porcelain and the Russian court. The book includes color illustrations of 164 items from the Hermitage collections of British art, including such highlights as full-length portraits by Van Dyck painted in England, assorted pieces of the celebrated Green Frog dinner service commissioned from Josiah Wedgwood for the Chesmensky Palace, Charles Kandler's huge Rococo silver "Jerningham" wine cooler, other silver items by Augustine Courtauld and Paul de Lamerie, and some furniture and important architectural drawings by Charles Cameron. The collection also includes sculpture, jewelry, watches, clocks, medals, cameos, and gems.

Published for the Yale Center for British Art, The Toledo Museum of Art, The Saint Louis Art Museum,

About this title

About the Author

Brian Allen is director of studies at the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art in London and adjunct professor of history of art at Yale University.

Reviews

An exhibition catalog, this book also serves as a scholarly examination of the various British arts and artists represented in the Hermitage collections. It surveys a specialized area of British art?art commissioned by a foreign court?illuminating a little-known aspect of production and collecting. The essays, all written by specialists, concentrate on such topics as Sir Joshua Reynolds, English silver, engraved gems, Scottish architects in imperial Russia, and more. The essays form a new subsection of British art and will long be consulted; the bibliography too will be particularly useful to scholars, though the lack of an index is a drawback. The catalog section is arranged by medium. The photographs are handsomely and precisely reproduced, giving a wealth of detail. Each object is fully described, with a complete list of the literature on each. For all scholarly art libraries.?Martin Chasin, Adult Inst., Bridgeport, Ct.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Paul Mellon Centre
• Publication date: 1996
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0300069464
• ISBN 13: 9780300069464
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 328
• Editor: Allen Brian, Dukelskaya Larissa