The St Michael’s Castle

Foreign Artists in Russia (18th – First Half of the 19th Centuries)

The exposition on the second floor of St Michael’s Castle includes about 400 works from the Russian Museum funds, many of them have never been exhibited before. The collection features paintings, sculptures, engravings, drawings, numismatics and works of decorative and applied art, thus creating a broad context of foreign art, the representatives of which worked in Russia. The works by G.-Ch. and J.-Ch. Grooth, L.-J. Lagrenee, E.-L. Vigee Lebrun, P. A. de Conte Rotari, G. Valeriani, S. Torelli, G. Dawe, Ch. Robertson and many other remarkable artists demonstrate preciosity and representationism of the ceremonial portrait of that time. Sculptural works by A. Triscorni, L.-M. Guichard and J.-D. Rachette are naturally blended into the picturesque panorama of the exhibition.

Among the exhibits there are watercolours by G. Quarenghi, P. Gonzago, E. Westerling, A.-J. Lebrun, as well as works made at the Imperial Porcelain Factory.