History and Culture: A unique collection of color photos-autochromes is presented in the Museum-Reserve "The Breakthrough of the Siege of Leningrad"

The exhibition hall of the Museum-Reserve "Breakthrough of the Siege of Leningrad" (the Leningrad region) presents the exhibition "The Past Tsarskoye Selo", which is on display until July 29, 2017. This exposition, which presents copies of autochromes from the collection of the Tsarskoye Selo Museum-Preserve (Pushkin), which give an idea of ​​the interiors of the Catherine and Alexandrovsky palaces, the history of the grand imperial summer residence in the XIX and early XX centuries.

This is unique collection of color photos-autochromes, made in the early XX century. It includes some of the first color images that appeared in the art of photography, the so-called autochromes. The artist-architect G. K. Lukomsky in May 1917 petitioned the commissar of the Provisional Government with the request to capture the interiors and individual elements of the decoration of the royal palaces. It was these Tsarskoye Selo autochromes that were executed by photographer Andrey Zeist in a new technique for that time invented by French photographers by the Lumiere brothers.

The further destiny of a unique collection is also interesting. It is known that in November 1918, 843 photographs from black and white negatives and 83 color transparencies, G. K. Lukomsky, who was responsible for the acceptance of the property of the former palace administration, transferred “Kopeika” to the publishing house for publication in a publication that never appeared. The pictures were supposed to be removed from the publishing house and transferred for storage to the Detskoye Selo Department of the Artistic Property of the Republic of the Northern District. This was not possible - apparently, most of the autochromes in 1918 Lukomsky took with him abroad. They returned to their homeland already in Soviet times through auctions and gifts of A. Zeist's heirs. 

The exhibited collection consists of 45 images and was formed already in the postwar years. Autochromes allow us to judge the extremely high artistic level of the work performed. With great skill, colored interiors of the Catherine and Alexandrovsky palaces were reproduced, with authentic pieces of furniture that were in the halls before the occupation by the fascist German invaders of Pushkin in the autumn of 1941. The halls of palaces are being restored to the present day, and pre-war color images are an invaluable help in the work of restorers.