Russian Museums: Arkhangelskoe Estate State Museum Presents the French Paintings from its Own Collection

The Arkhangelskoe Estate State Museum presents an exhibition of French paintings from the museum collection.

The exhibition shows more than 50 paintings from XVII to the first third of the XIX  centuries. The impression from the French artistic culture complemented by the decorative art works, along with rare editions of the books on studying and art collecting of these times.

In the Arkhangelskoe Estate museum is a home for one of most significant, numbering to 100 paintings, French collections in Russia. No coincidence that prepared by the museum in 2011 scientific catalog is dedicated to the French school precisely. A core of collection of French artists is the paintings purchased by the famous estate’s owner Prince Yusupov, one of the largest Russian collector and patron of art in the late XVIII - first half of XIX century.

The collection presents the main stages in the maturity of the French art: the XVII century’s classicism, rococo, the XVIII century’s academic painting, neoclassicism. A real museum’s pride is 10 paintings of the main eighteenth century’s landscape painter Hubert Robert, among which are two decorative ensembles (each consisting of four large panels), dated 1779 and 1801 years.

The Arkhangelskoe Estate keeps the superb collection of French portrait, including works by Jean-Laurent Monnier and Louise Elisabeth Vigee-Lebrun. Of particular interest are the works of Nicolas de Courteille, whose creative way for several years has been tightly connected with the Arkhangelskoe.

Along with a newly published catalog, the exhibition introduces the research findings of recent decades.