Two nineteenth-century paintings and a World War One photo album lost from our palaces in the 1930s–40s, return to Tsarskoe Selo thanks to the efforts and generosity of the Russian art collector Mikhail Karisalov.

A longtime friend of our Museum, Mikhail Karisalov purchased the three artefacts at auctions abroad and donated to Tsarskoe Selo, bringing the number of objects that are either his donations or obtained with his support for our collections in recent years, up to two hundred and twenty six.  Earlier donations by Mikhail Karisalov

The two mid nineteenth-century oil on canvas paintings are Sappers of the Life-Guards Sapper Battalion digging earth fortifications and Patrol of Her Majesty's Chevalier Guard regiment halted near camp by Carl Friedrich Schulz (1796–1866). Painted during the German artist's work in St Petersburg where he was invited by Tsar Nicholas I, the canvases belonged to Alexander II's collection and still bear corresponding red numbers on their reverse sides. They were on display in the Catherine Palace until 1941 and later included in the Summary Catalogue of the Cultural Valuables Stolen and Lost During World War Two. Their X-ray, infrared and other examinations confirm the attribution and time period.

The photo album The Russian Campaign. March to August 1915 was made by Jonson & Sons in London and belonged to Tsesarevich Alexei. A museum label on the binder confirms its provenance from Alexei's Classroom in the Alexander Palace. The 168 shots for the album were taken by British photographer George H. Mewes who worked for the newspapers and magazines The Daily Mirror, The Timer History of the War, Field Notes from the Russian Front and The Russian Campaign. Such albums were gifts to Tsesarevich and, like many other objects, they were possibly removed from the palace during the massive sales by the Soviet government in the 1930s. An inscription in white on the flyleaf reads, It has been the aim of the correspondent to illustrate for the British public the heroic part performed by their Russian Allies in the Great War.

The fourth object donated by Mikhail Karisalov is a 1903 plate of the Raphael Service, a famous porcelain set with the Raphael Rooms-inspired ornaments unique on each piece. Specially commissioned by Alexander III for Tsarskoe Selo in 1883, the set was produced at St Petersburg's Imperial Porcelain Manufactory over twenty years in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries but has not appeared at Tsarskoe Selo until the Museum started to purchase and receive its pieces as donations a few years ago. Now the number of Raphael Service pieces in our collection totals twelve.  Raphael Service pieces earlier donated by Mikhail Karisalov