An Imperial Collection: Women Artists from the State Hermitage Museum

An Imperial Collection explores how women as patrons, painters, and subjects contributed to the cultural history of Russia. Eminent families formed collections and created artistic commissions that brought women artists to Russia and extended the influence of western European art to the royal court of the czars. Some women artists were allowed into the inner circles of the aristocracy, providing an "insider" view into the private side of court life.Artists whose works are explored in the book include Elisabeth Louise Vigee-Lebrun, who from 1795 to 1801 found refuge in St. Petersburg after the French Revolution forced her to flee her own country; French sculptor Marie-Anne Collot, who was commissioned by Catherine to produce a sculpture of Peter the Great, now one of the great landmarks of St. Petersburg; Scotswoman Christina Robertson, whose prestigious commissions to paint the women of the court give a refreshing perspective on the personal relationships of the Imperial family; and Angelica Kauffman, one of the few eighteenth-century women painters to tackle the challenging field of history painting, often with a heightened sensitivity to female roles. Works by these and many other women artists are explored in depth, alongside a ground-breaking study of the importance of the Academy of Arts, the bastion of the artistic establishment since it was founded by Empress Elizabeth in the mid-eighteenth century.This book will appeal to anyone interested in eighteenth-and nineteenth-century women artists, the history of Russian patronage of the arts, and Russian imperial history and culture.