The Russian art collector Mikhail Karisalov donated to Tsarskoe Selo ten artefacts of the eighteenth-nineteenth centuries, totalling his generous donations of recent years to 222.
Mr Karisalov's latest additions to our collection include a painting, a rococo revival clock, two mirrors, three stools, a table and a half cabinet. All of the objects will grace our palace interiors and temporary exhibitions.
The painting of 1844 by Charles de Steuben (a.k.a. Carl von Steuben) is titled The Farewell to Grand Duchess Alexandra Nikolaevna of Russia and therefore directly related to Tsarskoe Selo, where the youngest daughter of Emperor Nicholas I lived and died at the Alexander Palace. Painted soon after the grand duchess' premature death, the painting depicts a young girl in a red sarafan (Russian long jumper dress) kneeling mournfully beside a tombstone covered by an ermine-edged brocade mantle with the embroidered monogram AN under the imperial crown. The scene is set inside the Peter and Paul Cathedral of St Petersburg, where the farewell ceremony for Adini, as Alexandra was affectionately nicknamed in the family, took place and where she was buried in August 1844. Some art researchers see the painting as an allegory of Russia mourning the emperor's daughter.
The rococo revival clock has a massive body of gypsum mastic with matte and glossy gilding — a rare technique featured in our collection for the first time — and decorated with stylized plant shoots, curls and a shell, as well as a putto holding a torch at the top.
The two oval mirrors in gilded carved frames are decorated in a style reminiscent of Ince and Mayhew, an 18th-19th century London partnership of furniture designers and cabinetmakers run by William Ince (1737–1804) and John Mayhew (1736–1811). The frames are rare examples of 18th-century Russian works based on British prototypes.
The table and half cabinet are great examples of Russian 1820-1830s furniture. They rest on paw-shaped legs and are decorated with gilded carvings and precious wood veneers.
Two wooden stools with gilded bamboo-shaped legs in the style of Napoleon III chinoiserie were probably made in post-1860s France.
One small stool in the "Japanese-Chinese style" of the French furniture maker Gabriel Viardot (1830-1904) is a great addition to our collection of oriental and chinoiserie objects.
