From 18 July to 15 September 2024, the Upper Bathhouse in the Catherine Park offers the Detskoe Selo: Over a Cup of Tea exhibition covering the work of artists and writers who lived and worked in the town of Tsarskoe (then Detskoe) Selo during the post-Revolution decades of the 1920s and 1930s when the former imperial residence was turned a museum.

With its own special genius loci, Tsarskoe Selo of that time was a cultural phenomenon and "town of muses", a place where many people of creative professions lived and worked and often gathered over tea. Among those was Vsevolod Yakovlev, the first curator of the palace museums in Detskoe Selo and Pavlovsk; Erich F. Hollerbach, an art historian, bibliographer and graphic artist; painters Alexander Golovin and Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin; the family, friends and pupils of artist Dmitry Kardovsky and painter Olga Della-Vos-Kardovskaya; and many other talented artists, illustrators and stage designers.

The exhibition showcase over fifty objects from our museum's and private collections, including porcelains of the 1920-30s, pieces from our Rare Books collection, watercolours and graphics by Yury Velikanov, Zinaida Serebryakova, Dmitri Kardovsky and others.

Hours: 11am to 6pm, daily except Monday and Wednesday
Free admission (with park tickets)