From 26 June 2019, the exhibition “A Forgotten Russian Patron. The Collection of Count Pavel Sergeevich Stroganov” will be running in the Nicholas Hall of the Winter Palace.

In recent decades, several exhibitions have been held in Russia and abroad devoted to the artistic treasures of the Counts Stroganov, with the focus of attention being Count Alexander Sergeevich Stroganov, the President of the Academy of Arts, who assembled the core of the family’s collection.

The collection that Count Pavel Sergeevich Stroganov (1823–1911) formed in the middle and third quarter of the 19th century was undeservedly overlooked, although it not only reflected the tastes of that period, but also gave the Hermitage a number of remarkable works of painting and sculpture.

His collection, kept in a mansion on Sergievskaya Street (now Tchaikovsky Street) in St Petersburg, was recorded in a series of watercolours by Jules Mayblum. Later, some of the paintings came into the Tambov Regional Art Gallery by way of the Stroganovs’ country estate. In 1919, the remaining works were removed to the Stroganov Palace on Nevsky Prospekt and their origin was all but forgotten. Thus, the present exhibition might be said to mark the 100th anniversary of the transfer of the collection to the Stroganov Palace.

The Count’s collection contained priceless examples of European (including Italian Renaissance) and Russian painting, sculpture and applied art, Chinese ceramics and a unique assemblage of books (part of which was donated to the Hermitage during the owner’s lifetime). With time, items from his collection came to enrich the stocks of some of the country’s major museums, while others found their way abroad.

The present exhibition is a modest attempt to recreate the appearance of that collection, to gather together in a single display space works from the State Hermitage, the Tambov Regional Art Gallery, the State Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts and other museums. In all, it presents more than 70 paintings, around 40 pieces of sculpture and applied art, some 30 watercolours and photographs.

The exhibition curator is Fyodor Sergeevich Svetlakov, junior researcher in the State Hermitage’s Department of Western European Fine Art.

The State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg