Memorable dates of Russia: “Two Emperors” exhibition marking the 200th anniversary of victory in the Patriotic War of 1812 takes place in Moscow

February 15 to March 15, 2012 the All-Russian Museum of Decorative & Applied and Folk Art (Moscow) hosts the “Two Emperors” exhibition in honor of the 200th anniversary of victory in the Patriotic War of 1812. The exposition is one of the first in our country in a series of jubilee historical events of 2012, declared the Year of the Russian History.

The exposition was formed in an unusual perspective: the relationship between the two Emperors - Alexander I and Napoleon I. Thematically, the exhibition corresponds to certain historical periods and features the exhibits from major private collection of Alexander Vihrov that he has been developing for more than 30 years, supplemented by a number of objects from the All-Russian Museum of Decorative & Applied and Folk Art and other collections.

Visitors to the exhibition will see a mosaic of numerous articles and works of art of the French, Italian, German and Russian origin, which were created in the period from the end of the 18th century to this day. Paintings and drawings, medals and coins, statues made of ivory, bronze, bisque and classic porcelain, rare folios, finally, things of memorial nature, including the autograph of Napoleon Bonaparte.

The central idea of the exposition is the story of the personal acquaintance of the two emperors, their friendship and enmity, history of untapped opportunities for the development of the future of Europe. The objects related to Tilsit reveals that the idea most clearly: one of the oldest exhibits - the first edition of a book about Napoleon in Russian ("Napoleon - French Emperor," 1806) dates to that period. And immediately after Tilsit an artifact, which could be a symbol of the exhibition, a unique bronze medallion with enamel image of two rulers, was created.

The events of the war of 1812 are presented at the exhibition in a special way. War subjects, echoes of the war, were manifested in the art of France and Russia, even a hundred years after those events.