Exhibitions: The exposition “Portrait in Russia of the XVIII-early XX century” in Veliky Novgorod

June 14, 2013 in the exhibition halls of the Museum of Fine Arts of the Novgorod Museum Reserve opens the exhibition “Introduction to the collection. Portrait in Russia of the XVIII-early XX century. Painting, drawing, sculpture”, which represents more than two hundred works from the collection of the portrait genre paintings, drawings and sculptures of the Novgorod Museum Reserve.

Along with the works of professional artists a rightful place at the exhibition took portraits of artists of the provincial circle - after all, they both objectively reflect their historical era.

Portraits of emperors and members of the imperial family is the most important and large part of the exhibition. The collection of the Novgorod museum contains extensive iconography of Catherine II. The exhibition includes some graphic portraits of the Empress, among which the most interesting is a miniature of the unknown author from the original of the Swedish artist V. Erickson “Portrait of Empress Catherine II in Shugai and headdress”. A rare iconography distinguishes the executed by an unknown artist “Portrait of Emperor Alexander I”, on which he is presented with the Russian and the Polish crowns.

A large group of portraits is represented by the works of the original and printed drawing, among which are distinguished miniature portraits of the XVIII-XIX centuries, including the acquired to the collection of the Novgorod Museum from the collection of Countess A. A. Orlova-Chesmenskaya.

A large part of works is exhibited for the first time.

The large-scale exhibition had been prepared for several years of oil painting restorers who performed a difficult and complex work on the restoration of almost all works of art. At the same time there was conducted research work on the attribution of works, which defined character images, information about the authors, and the refined dating of works.

At the exhibition space works of art complement complexes of objects from the collections of furniture and metal, the fund of rare book and research library that allows creating a historical “framing” of portraits.