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The Presidential Library: New acquisitions
The Presidential Library collection photos of St. Petersburg of 1852-1855 by I. K. Bianchi provided by a private collector.
The first photographer of Petersburg, Ivan Karlovic Bianchi (Giovanni Bianchi) was born in Varese, Austria-Hungary (now the territory of Italy). In the early 1820s, his family arrived in Russia, the first time he lived in Moscow, where he studied at the Moscow School of Painting and Sculpture, but in 1839 moved from Russia to Europe. Photographic career of Bianchi began in the late 1840s - early 1850s, in Paris. From 1853 Bianchi began shooting the sights of St. Petersburg.
The first photos of that period were: an image of St. Isaac's Cathedral under construction; Blagoveshchensky Bridge with a chapel of St. Nicholas; Circus Theatre on the Theater Square, Chain Panteleymonovsky Bridge. It was then that Ivan Karlovich made the only known to date picture of Peter and Paul Cathedral (1853) before the reconstruction of the spire. Bianchi photographed the Palace and English Embankments, the Senate Square, the Spit of Vasilievsky Island, the Anichkov Palace, the City Duma, the Smolny Cathedral, etc. There are series of photographs by Ivan Bianchi depicting the suburbs of St. Petersburg - Tsarskoe Selo, Peterhof and others. In addition, the photographer was engaged in reportage photography.
The library’s website features 20 photographs by I. Bianchi:
— Saint-Petersburg
View of Peter and Paul Fortress and Peter and Paul Cathedral designed by architect Domenico Trezzini in 1712-1732 [photo]. 1853. View of Peter and Paul Fortress from the Winter Palace.
Alexander Column on the Palace Square [photo]. 1850-s (before 1855). View from the Arc of the General Staff Building.
Alexander Column on the Palace Square [photo]. 1850-s (before 1855). View against the background of the Admiralty.
View of the embankment from the Petrogradskaya Side [photo]. 1853. On the foreground, on the right there is the bastion of the Peter and Paul Fortress. In the center of the embankment – the Marble Palace, designed by Antonio Rinaldi in 1768-1785.
Palace dock with lions near the eastern pavilion of the Admiralty [photo]. 1854, 6/18 January.
View of the Senate Square [photo]. 1850-s (before 1855).
Monument to Peter I [photo]. 1853.
View from the Nevsky Prospect at the Kazan Cathedral [photo]. 1853.
Chain (Panteleymonovsky) Bridge over Fontanka near the Summer Garden [photo]. 1853.
Moscow Triumphal Gate [photo]. 1854.
Villa of Sergey Stepanovich Lanskoy (1787-1862) [photo]. 1853; Back elevation of the villa of S. S. Lanskoy [photo]. 1853.
— Tsarskoye Selo
Tsarskoye Selo. Turkish Bath pavilion [photo]. 1852; Tsarskoye Selo. Turkish Bath pavilion, view from the lake [photo]. 1852.
Pavilion "Turkish Bath" was built in 1850-1852. The author of the project was an architect I. A. Monighetti. The model for the design of the pavilion, which was conceived as a memorial to the Russian-Turkish war of 1828-1829, was a Turkish mosque.
[Tsarskoye Selo. Turkish Bath and Chesme Column in the background] [photo]. 1852. На заднем плане видна Чесменская колонна, воздвигнутая в 1774–1778 гг. по проекту А. Ринальди в честь морских побед русского оружия в Русско-турецкой войне 1768–1774 гг.
In the background there is the Chesme Column erected in 1774-1778. It was designed by A. Rinaldi in honor of naval victories of Russian arms in the Russian-Turkish war of 1768-1774.
— Peterhof
Peterhof. Palace Church of Saint apostles Peter and Paul [photo]. 1854. Palace Church of Saint apostles Peter and Paul in Peterhof was designed by architect Rastrelli in 1747-1751.
Preparation of new materials for the collection continues.