The Northern Sun exhibition project of Tsarskoe Selo and the Kargopol Museum, which sparkled in the State Rooms of the Catherine Palace earlier this year, is now on a tour, thanks to the Ministry of Culture's support.
The first stop is the city of Nizhny Novgorod at the confluence of the Oka and the Volga rivers in Central Russia. The country's sixth-largest city will house the exhibition until 30 August and then see it off to Arkhangelsk by the northern White Sea.
On display at the Nizhny Novgorod Art Museum there are sixty-seven exhibits from Tsarskoe Selo, Kargolol and two local museums. The original exhibition's concept by St Petersburg theatre designer Yury Suchkov is retained, with boats carried by the river of time that connects eras, cities, capital nobles and peasant craftswomen through the art of goldwork embroidery.
The Kargopol Museum showcases nineteenth-century traditional Russian scarves and headpieces, such as kokoshniks and sorokas, embroidered with gold and pearls by craftswomen from the Kargopol and Vologda regions of the Russian Empire.
The collection of Tsarskoe Selo is represented by imperial court uniforms and gowns of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The dresses of Empress Alexandra Fёdorovna and Grand Duchess Xenia, Nicholas II's wife and sister, respectively, were produced by St Petersburg's Olga Bulbenkova Workshop specialized in formal female wear for official occasions. Xenia's light velvet dress with silver embroidery was featured in the Russian weekly magazine World Illustrated #1331 in 1894, in an article about the grand duchess' dowry on display at the Winter Palace.
Local goldwork is featured on a traditional sarafan (sleeveless overdress) and dushegreya (sleeveless warm bodice) from the Nizhny Novgorog Museum and Heritage Site, and on the embroidered girls' headbands and women's headscarves from the Nizhny Novgorod Art Museum.
As Director Olga Taratynova of Tsarskoe Selo said at the opening ceremony, This exhibition is a reflection on ever-flowing time and our shared heritage. When we saw the gold embroidery in the Kargopol collection, we knew we had to bring these objects to St Petersburg and beyond. The sophistication of gold embroidery patterns on women of the Russian North rivaled that on ladies of the imperial court, and of course, they matched each other in their pursuit of beauty. The exhibition at Tsarskoe Selo generated enormous interest. We are delighted its journey across the country begins in Nizhny Novgorod!
A specially developed education programme for the exhibition includes interactive tours, inclusive classes and workshops for kids and adults, as well as lectures by art experts from Moscow and St Petersburg.
