History and culture: Presentation of the publishing project “Geniuses of the war, the good and the beauty” in Moscow

February 5, 2013 at the State Tretyakov Gallery (Moscow) took place the presentation of the publishing project “Geniuses of the war, the good and the beauty”.

In the year of the bicentenary of the victory in the Patriotic War of 1812 in Russia is carried out the international research project – the publication of the first monograph about British artist George Dawe (1781–1829). A brilliant engraver, author of book illustrations, historical and literary compositions, writer and theorist, excellent portrait painter, Dawe left a unique series of more than 500 portraits of his contemporaries, “geniuses of the war, the good and the beauty” -  military and government officials, scholars, thinkers, poets, beautiful women. George Dawe created portraits of literary geniuses – Goethe, Coleridge, Pushkin, generals – Barclay de Tolly, Duke of Wellington, Kutuzov, generals-members of military campaigns of 1812–1814, the canonical image of Alexander I, coronation portraits of Nicholas I and Alexandra Feodorovna, portraits of prominent educator statesman N. P. Rumyantsev, collector of Egyptian antiquities F. A. Tolstoy and many others.

On the pages of an exclusive edition are collected works from fifty museums, royal and private collections of Britain, Belgium, Germany, the USA, New Zealand and Russia. The project is implemented under the auspices of the Russian Committee of the International Council of Museums (ICOM Russia), with the assistance of the Minister of Culture of the Russian Federation (2008-2012). A. A. Avdeev, the Russian Cultural Fund, the State Tretyakov Gallery, the State Hermitage Museum, the Lomonosov Moscow State University, the Center of Paul Mellon on British Art,  the British Council, universities of Cambridge (Great Britain), Yale (the USA), Wellington (New Zealand).

The English version of the edition was presented at the National Portrait Gallery in London in November 2012. With the support of philanthropists the edition was sent to foreign museums, largest libraries, universities and international organizations, supported projects in the field of culture and art. The Russian edition will supplement the national assembly and libraries, it will be sent to National Committees of the International Council of Museums of neighboring countries.