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Russian Imperial Collections: Decorating for Home and Empire (lecture)

Date: Sunday, May 7, 2006
Time: 4:00 p.m.
Location: Getty Center, Harold M. Williams Auditorium
Admission: Free; reservations required.

Before the Revolution of 1917, Russia had a great tradition of collecting works of art. Peter the Great, Catherine II, and their successors collected paintings, furniture, and objets d'art to demonstrate their power and unlimited wealth, to furnish their numerous residences, and to assemble a public museum—the imperial Hermitage.

Today we can still wander freely through the Winter Palace and the summer residences at Peterhof, Tsarskoye Selo, Pavlovsk, and Gatchina thanks to watercolor renderings commissioned by czars Nicholas I and Alexander II and to early photographs preserved in Russian museums. These fascinating images reveal the personal interests of the members of the Romanov family and paint a historically acurate picture of the evolution of taste in interior decor in Russia from the late 18th to the early 20th centuries.

About Emmanuel Ducamp
Emmanuel Ducamp is an art historian and former editor at Alain de Gourcuff in Paris. He has edited and co-authored several books on Russian decorative arts, including Great Private Collections of Imperial Russia, The Winter Palace, and Imperial Palaces in the Vicinity of St. Petersburg: Tsarskoye Selo Watercolors, Paintings, and Engravings from the 18th and 19th Centuries.

Tsarskoye Selo Palace in St. Petersburg



How to Get Here
The Getty Center is located at 1200 Getty Center Drive in Los Angeles, California, approximately 12 miles northwest of downtown Los Angeles. See Hours, Directions, Parking for maps and driving directions.