An empress, twice over - Catherine II by Vigilius Eriksen, circa 1762

This has long been one of my favorite portraits and certainly my favorite portrait of the Empress - even though I'd never seen a decent image of it. It always looked quite dirty, with big patches of very yellowed varnish. It was unfortunate - and seemed rather odd - that such an important painting would be languishing in so poor a state. But now that it's been properly cleaned and restored, Eriksen's compositional and painterly skill can finally be fully appreciated.

The artist painted the Empress on several occasions, and this is considered one of the most satisfying portraits of the oft-portrayed subject. (It's also thought to be one of the painter's most successful pieces.) Eriksen used a very successful approach to the composition, allowing him to show Catherine both full-face and in profile. Intentionally or merely fortuitously, in doing so he manages to capture the contrasting aspects of the Empress' complicated character: the profile is severe, commanding, befitting the ruler of a vast empire - an image fit for a coin - while the face turned to the viewer is that of a charming, intelligent, and very cultured woman.

For the record, this is how you paint diamonds.

The Empress was portrayed shortly after she came to the throne in 1762, and is depicted wearing the sash, star and badge of the Order of St. Andrew as well as the Small Imperial Crown. On the cushions in front of the mirror are the remainder of the imperial regalia: the Large Imperial Crown, created by the Swiss jeweler Jérémie Pauzié especially for the coronation, the sceptre and the orb. The earliest mentions of the portrait date from 1762–63. In the 19th century, the painting hung in the Romanov Gallery of the Small Hermitage among other portraits of members of the House of Romanov.

Before restoration - though it might already have had some cleaning.

From the Hermitage website:

The restoration project included the following work: strengthen of the primer and paint layer across the entire surface; removal of superficial soiling; test removals of varnish and overpaintings; thinning and smoothing of the old varnish layer across the entire surface of the painting; removal of old restoration modifications of colour; second restoration of varnish; new coating of varnish; making good losses of paint.

In the middle of restoration, with old restorations and overpaintings removed.

After restoration.

The Orlov brothers - two equestrian portraits by Vigilius Eriksen, circa 1766

Count Grigori Grigorievich Orlov. The two paintings measure more than thirteen by eleven and a half feet.

These portraits by the Danish painter Vigilius Eriksen are of the two most celebrated of the five Orlov brothers. Count Grigori Grigorievich Orlov (1734–1783), pictured above in Roman costume, was a lover of the Empress Catherine the Great and one of her closest advisors; he fathered her illegitimate son, Alexei, born the same year as the coup d'état which deposed Catherine's husband and secured her place as sole ruler of Russia. Virtually her co-ruler for some years, he was supplanted by Grigori Potemkin in 1774.

Count Alexei Grigorievich Orlov.

Count Alexei Grigorievich Orlov (1737–1808), depicted in Turkish dress, was one of Catherine’s most important military and diplomatic leaders. The ablest of the Orlov brothers, he was integral to Catherine's plot to take power in 1762; some sources claim he participated in the resulting death of Peter III, that he conveyed the Emperor to Ropsha Palace and even participated in his murder, though the circumstances of Peter's death are much disputed.

In 1766, Catherine the Great ordered the first Russian "carousel," an exhibition of horseback riding, swordsmanship, and shooting then popular in all the great courts of Europe. While the event was repeated in subsequent years, no later celebration inspired as much artistic and literary creativity as the first; there are references to the event in the works of Casanova, Voltaire, and others, as well as numerous paintings and other works of art. These large equestrian portraits commemorate the prominent participation of the Orlov brothers, still the most influential figures at court. Eriksen was Catherine's court painter in the early years of her reign and is responsible for many of the best known images of the Empress.

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The portraits hung in the Winter Palace until the death of the Empress in 1796. Paul I began his reign by clearing away any reference to his mother's long succession of lovers, and these paintings were shut up in warehouses for many years. Sent to the Court Stable Chancellery in 1827, during the reign of Nicholas I, they found their way to the Gatchina Palace six years later. During World War II, in advance of the Nazi occupation, there was a mass evacuation of the art treasures resident in the suburban palace-museums outside of St. Petersburg; it is likely these were part of that exodus. After the war, they were returned to the repository of art and furnishings held at the Pavlovsk Palace Museum and, in 1958, handed off to the Hermitage and stored in the Central Warehouse of Museum Holdings.

The two paintings in the early stages of restoration.

These paintings were stored in rolls for decades. This type of storage - where the painting is taken from the frame and then detached from its stretcher - is generally used as only a temporary, emergency measure, and is the result of a number of reasons, among which is the need to transport overly large paintings, or where there is the lack of space or the proper conditions for storing such works of art in any other manner. One way or another, these canvases had been languishing in this state probably since World War II. Previously only known from black and white reproductions - to the public and museum curators alike - they were finally unrolled less than a decade ago and have now been restored.

Twelve miniature portraits of the Zubov / Suvorov family, unknown artists, late eighteenth - early nineteenth centuries

The various artists are unknown.

These twelve miniatures represent various members of the family of Count Nikolai Zubov (1763-1805) and his wife, Natalia Zubova, née Suvorova (1775-1844). Alexander Suvorov was one of the greatest military leaders in Russian history; Nikolai Zubov served under him and married his only daughter, Natalia. Both families benefited when, at only twenty-two, Nikolai's younger brother Platon became the final favorite of Catherine the Great and, contrary to expectation, instead of being a passing fancy of the aged monarch, soon found himself the most powerful man in Russia; he was made a prince, and his brothers, counts. Catherine's death in 1796 meant exile for both Platon and Nikolai. Platon would die in exile, but Nikolai returned to Russia five years later as one of the conspirators in the murder of Emperor Paul. He survived the tsar by just four years, dying at the age of only forty-two.

General Alexander Suvorov (1730-1800) and his wife, Varvara Suvorova, née Prozorovskaia (1750-1806), parents of Natalia Zubova.

Presumably Avdotya Suvorova, née Manukova (?-circa 1740), and Vasily Suvorov (1705-1775), parents of Alexander Suvorov.

Arkady Suvorov (1780-1811), son of Alexander Suvorov, brother of Natalia Zubova.
Count Nikolai Zubov (1763-1805), husband of Natalia Zubova, née Suvorova.

Natalia Zubova, née Suvorova (1775-1844), daughter of Alexander Suvorov, wife of Count Nikolai Zubov, sister of Arkady Suvorov.
Prince Platon Zubov (1767-1822), brother of Count Nikolai Zubov and - famously - the last favourite of Catherine II.

Presumably the sons of Count Nikolai Zubov and Natalia Zubova: Alexander (1797-1875), Platon (1798-1855)... 

... And Valerian (1804-1857). Count Alexander Zubov (1727-1795), father of Nikolai and Platon Zubov.

The counts Bobrinsky - and other lofty Russian gentlemen in Daguerreotypes and portraits

Count Alexei Alexeievich Bobrinsky, 1842.

Count Alexei Alexeievich Bobrinsky (8 January 1800 – 4 October 1868), Russian nobleman, the son of Count Alexei Grigorievich Bobrinsky who was the illegitimate offspring of Empress Catherine II and her lover Count Grigori Orlov. The second Count Bobrinsky married Sophia Alexandrovna Samoilova (1797-1866) in 1821; the couple would have three sons together: Alexander (May 17, 1823 – February 24, 1903), Vladimir (2 October 1824 – 28 May 1898), and Lev (8 November 1831 – 23 March 1915).

1842.

1844.

Portrait by Winterhalter, 1844.

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Count Alexander Alexeievich Bobrinsky, 1850.

1842.

Circa 1840s.

Portrait by Franz Krüger, 1850.

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Count Vladimir Alexeievich Bobrinsky, 1845.

Circa 1846.

1844.

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Count Pavel Sergeievich Stroganov, circa 1850s.

Prince Nikolai Borisovich Yussupov, circa 1850s

Grand Dukes Nikolai Nikolaievich, Konstantin Nikolaievich, and Mikhail Nikolaievich, circa late 1840s-early 1850s.

Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaievich, by Sergei Zaryanko, 1853.

Grand Duke Mikhail Nikolaievich, by Richard Lauchert, 1857.

Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolaievich, unknown artist, circa late 1840s-early 1850s.

Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolaievich, circa late 1840s-early 1850s.

And when they had gone - Autochromes of the Alexander Palace, by Andrei Zeest, 1917.

The Palisander Drawing Room.

The Alexander (Alexandrovsky) Palace - generally considered the favorite home of the last Imperial family of Russia, and where they spent the first five months of their captivity after the start of the Revolution - was commissioned by Catherine the Great for her favorite grandson, the future Alexander I, on the occasion of his marriage. It was built to the design of Giacomo Quarenghi and constructed between 1792 and 1796. After his accession in 1801, Alexander chose to reside in the nearby - and larger - Catherine Palace and gave the Alexander Palace to his brother, the future Nicholas I, for summer usage. From that time it was the summer residence of the heir to the throne; even after coming to the throne, Nicholas I was very attached to the building, though his successors less so. Several members of the family would die while in residence, and the future Nicholas II was born there in 1868.

Another view of the Palisander Drawing Room.

The Imperial bedroom.

Another view of the Imperial bedroom.

It was Nicholas and his wife, the Empress Alexandra, who would make the biggest impact on the palace, and the home life they established there has become an enduring part of their legend. With a growing, close-knit family, the Empress devoted much energy to the redecoration of the private rooms. Designed in a mix of late Victorian, Art Nouveau, and an Edwardian neoclassicism, the rooms were always filled with flowers, the tables and shelves laden with art objects and framed photographs. Though the renovations would be much criticized by the Empress' detractors for being middle class and insufficiently "Imperial", the rooms as they were then had a feminine charm and, most importantly for her and her family, were pretty, cozy, and practical.

The Mauve Study, aka "the Mauve Boudoir", "the Lilac Study".

Another view of the Mauve Study. Although these rooms still seem quite full by modern standards, many items have already been removed.

The Maple Drawing Room.

Another view of the Maple Drawing Room. The plants have yet to be removed from the room.

Soon after the Imperial family was transported to Siberia in August of 1917 the palace was turned into a museum; it continued as such until the beginning of the Second World War. Tsarskoe Selo was occupied during the war, and the palace was used as headquarters for the German military command. In the German's retreat, when so many other Imperial residences were burned - including the adjacent Catherine Palace - the Alexander Palace, though looted and heavily damaged, was spared destruction. The real destruction came after the war, when most of the historic interiors vanished, the rooms altered to make up plain exhibition halls for a proposed museum to Pushkin. When that plan came to nothing, the building was turned over to the use of the Soviet Navy. At the end of the twentieth century, with Perestroika, the fall of the Soviet Empire, and an increasing interest in Russia's last Imperial family, the Navy was finally induced to vacate. A museum dedicated to the family was soon instituted and important restoration work began immediately - the structure was in a precarious state - and continues to this day. In 2015 the museum was closed to the public for a major renovation, a multi-year project to include, among other things, the recreation of the private rooms of the Nicholas and Alexandra.

The Empress' Formal Reception Room.
The large portrait at center is a tapestry copy of Vigée Lebrun's celebrated group of Marie Antoinette and her children, a gift
from the French government. Rather an unfortunate choice, considering the similarly unpleasant fate of the two women....

The Small Library/Dining Room. (I believe this image has been reversed.)

The Portrait Hall.

The Marble/Billiard Hall.

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A series of Autochromes, 140 in total, were made in 1917 by the military photographer Andrei Zeest, who had been commissioned by the art historian George Loukomski, Head of the Tsarskoe Selo Inventory Commission. The views of the Catherine Palace were taken in June-July of 1917, and the Alexander Palace interiors were photographed in August-September, soon after the Tsar's family was sent into exile. Now that a comprehensive restoration of the palace is under way, the detail-rich Autochromes have become one of the most important resources for the museum workers, restorers, and historians. The larger number of the Autochrome plates were taken out of Russia when Loukomski emigrated in 1918. About 40 Autochromes featuring the palaces were added to the Tsarskoe Selo collection in the 1960s, received from Andrei Zeest's widow.

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Click to expand.

The Alexander Palace in 1840.