ALBRECHT ADAM PAINTING IN THE ALEXANDER PALACE

[riccardopapi]

i AM NEW TO THE FORUM.
I AM DOING A RESEARCH ON ALBRECHT ADAM. A BAVARIAN MILITARY PAINTER WHO DID WORK FOR MAXIMILIAN OF LEUCHTENBERG AND WHOSE WORKS ARE IN THE HERMITAGE, THE PUSHKIN MUSEUM AND THE KREMLIN.
IN A BOOK ON THE HERMITAGE SERIE OF PAINTINGS I READ THAT A PAINTING "CROSSING THE DNIEPR" WAS IN THE ALEXANDER PALACE.
AS IT IS A PIECE I HAVE BEEN TRYING TO LOCATE.DOES ANYBODY KNOW WHERE IT IT OR IT MIGHT BE.
THANK YOU

[Joanna]

There may be information on the painting 'Crossing the Dnieper' in the book "NAPOLEON'S ARMY IN RUSSIA : The Illustrated Memoirs of Albrecht Adam, 1812" by Jonathan North, ISBN 1844151611. If the painting was in the Alexander Palace, it will be listed in Yakolev's book that we are in the midst of translating. Has anyone come across a notation in the Russian edition yet?

Joanna

[riccardopapi]

thank you joanna
In the book by Jonathan North you can find prints coloured. They are single pages from the "Voyage pictoresque...." coloured with fantasy colour.
In fact there is a lithography in the "Voyage pictoresque..." about the crossing of the Dnieper. Also there is a watercolour that is in a collection in Germany and then there is small painting taken from the "Russian Album" in the hermitage.
I am looking for a big painting that was made for Maximilian of Leuchtenberg about 1843 and that belongs to the LeuchtenbergZyklus. I have found 12 of them but the 13th and last (at the moment unknown) could very well be the painting that was in the Alexander Palace and called "crossing of the Dniepr"
Thank you, anyway, for the interest.
R

[Joanna]

R., Can you post a picture of this painting? There are a number of paintings in the Alexander Palace today especially in the corridor that may be the one you are looking for. I can check my own photographs of this corridor and rooms to see it there is a match.

Joanna

[Joanna]

R., I did a quick look through my copy of the Russian edition of Yakolev's Alexander Palace and found so far one Albrecht Adam painting located in the right wing of the main floor in room #54:

Альбрехт, Адам
Кавалеристы на бивуаке
(Cavalryman on Bivuack)

Joanna

[riccardopapi]

Hello Joanna,
It is not the cavalry bivouac. We do not have a picture of this painting but I have a picture of a watercolour that could possibly be the preparatory work for the painting and could possibly be very similar..http://hermitagemuseum.org/tmplobs/R4E53C8OKL0W_23ZEF6.jpg
thank you for the help
Riccardo

[Joanna]

Riccardo, What is the actual provenance of this painting? Did the reference you read state Leuchtenberg then Alexander Palace relating to c1800s? Is there more information i.e. Leuchtenberg, Tsar AII possibly, Tsarskoe Selo, - to narrow down the search criteria. If it relates to Tsarskoe Selo, then it could possibly have been displayed in the Catherine Palace i.e. AI rooms, Zubov wing. I have searched the Yakolev descriptions and with a limited understanding of Russian have been only able to find the one painting by Albrecht that was still in the Alexander Palace after the revolution. If the painting was in the AP prior to 1917 but moved subsequently for whatever reason by NII, did it survive the evacuation in 1941 and now in Pavlovsk for example.

Joanna

[riccardopapi]

Dear Joanna,
Unfortunately I cannot speak Russian and I had a text translated for me from Russian.  I enclose a copy of the page that relates to this particular painting.  It is part of a book on an exhibition in St.Petersburg in 1990 on the work by Albrecht Adam in possesion of the Hermitage.
That is were I heard for the first time of this painting, and that it was a big painting.
The translation I have reads: 

"In his book Adam writes of six paintings done for Nikolaus I°.  For example in 1843 in the Alexandra Palace in Tsarkoie Selo (now Pushkin) was found "Crossing of the French of the river Dniepr" that being a composition with several figures needed big space."

Now, As I was looking for the 13th missing painting from a serie of 13 made by ADAM for MAXIMILIAN of Leuchtenberg married to the daugther of the Tzar Nicolas I° Maria Nicolaievna and being that one of the titles could have been "Crossing of the Dniepr" I WAS VERY INTERESTED TO
KNOW WHERE THIS PAINTING IS. I am looking for the Leuchtenber Zyklus of painting because I am writing a book on the subject. 

I am trying to contact Mr. Boris Asvarich in the Hermitage, curator for Central European painting, but it is not easy as very often they do not answer, in fact till today I have not heard from him.

Anyway thank you very much.
Riccardo

[Joanna]

Riccardo, If Albrecht Adam completed a series of 13 paintings for Leuchtenberg in 1843 then Crossing the Dnieper painted for Nikolai I would not necessarily be the missing 13th unless he gifted it to his daughter. The timeframe of the 1840s appears too short for the movement between Imperial family of paintings when the artist is still producing canvases beyond that period.

In the book "Imperial Palaces in the vicinity of St. Petersburg - Tsarskoe Selo" - Alain de Gourcuff, the painting by Hau c1845 of the Study of Nicholas I in the Alexander Palace has 18 paintings of the style of Adam and others. This is a partial count as the watercolor shows only a section of the room. If Crossing the Dnieper was a very large painting it may have been placed in the library or corridor.

In the Russian Exhibition Catalogue of Alexander II, 2000, there is one Albrecht Adam painting that was completed in 1859. The study of Alexander II in the Zubov wing has a similar style of military paintings like his father's study in the Alexander Palace.

Have you searched through these two books on the Mariinsky Dvorets:
Belyakova Z.I. Mariinsky dvorets. SPb, 1996.
Petrov G.F. Dvorets u Sinego mosta: Mariinsky dvorets v Sankt-Petersburge. SPb, 2001
There is also an English edition by Zoia Belyakova:
Grand Duchess Maria Nikolayevna and Her Palace in St.Petersburg
ISBN-10: 1874371547
ISBN-13: 978-1874371540

Joanna

[riccardopapi]

Hello Joanna,
Sorry to be answering late but till this morning I had problems with Internet. Now it is over.
Thank you very much for your help.
In fact I bought the book by Belyakova but you cannot see, in the few photos of the old palace, any of the paintings by A.Adam.
Anyway the measurements should have been  cm. 125x180 which is a middle size painting.
I think that I must keep blasting the Hermitage Painting Curator and hope to get an answer from him on this painting, I think he knows if the painting is still in Russia or disappeared.
Ciao
Riccardo

[Joanna]

Riccardo, Have you been in contact with the Russian Academy of Arts? Their collections include watercolors by Hau, Premazzi, Ukhtomsky, etc. which were of the interiors of the palaces c1840s-60s. They may have of the Mariinsky Palace which would help with a visual identification of Adam's paintings.

Joanna

[Forum Admin]

Do bear in mind that a painting that was in the Alexander Palace in the 1840s could have been moved almost anywhere in the area: Pavlovsk, Gatchina, not just the Winter Palace/Hermitage.  It may have even ended up in one of the national collections in Moscow by this time.

[pastpalacelife]

Joanna,  I would like to see your pictures of the AP corridor!  I know there are some pic's posted, but none of them seem very clear.  I am assuming the corrider is made of the original(or at least NII time) walls.  Also, is the unique door to the maple room the original or a copy?  Thanks, hope I don't get in trouble for off topic   Tracy

[Joanna]

Riccardo, have you seen these references that quotes various catalogues, i.e. J.D. Passavant:

Disbursement of Duke of Leuchtenberg's collection:
http://books.google.at/books?id=WjmT1wP-9jwC&pg=PA33&lpg=PA33&dq=Duke+of+Leuchtenberg+Paintings+St.+Petersberg&source=bl&ots=hLVQeouH1n&sig=JUbSNHs3AV4JfwNZ9LHes5umb0c&hl=de&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=5&ct=result

J. Beavington Atkinson:
http://www.archive.org/details/arttourtonorther00atkiuoft

Leuchtenberg Gallery c1852:
http://www.archive.org/details/leuchtenberggall00beaurich

Joanna

[riccardopapi]

Johanna,
I have not found what I was looking for, but I got more informations on other paintings especially on the one that shows the Leuchtenberg Collection.  Two of those paintings are now in the Pushkin State Museum in Moscow.
Thank you very very very much indeed.
Riccardo