Memorable dates of Russia: Exhibitions marking the 200th anniversary of the Russian Patriotic War of 1812 at Museum-Preserve “Tsarskoye Selo”

May 16 to September 16, 2012, the second floor halls of the Alexander Palace (Tsarskoye Selo) will house two exhibitions marking the 200th anniversary of the Russian Patriotic War of 1812.

The exhibition “Alexander I and Napoleon: Peace before War” will show items from the Tsarskoye Selo collections related to the calm years in French-Russian relations between 1805 and 1809 and, for the first time in 70 years, the painting “Napoleon’s Army entering Munich on 24 October 1805” by François Dubois (1790–1871), which disappeared from Tsarskoye Selo during World War II.

The exhibition “Year 1812 in works from private collections of Moscow and St Petersburg”, curated by the collector and art historian Sergei Podstanitsky, will present over 300 works of painting and applied decorative arts from nine private collections of Moscow and St Petersburg.

The exhibitions will run May 16 through September 16, 2012.