Great Private Collections of Imperial Russia

[chatelaa]

I was upstairs in the library stacks, where I work, and came across a new book that was recently purchased.  It's amazing and I couldn't wait to tell you about it:

GREAT PRIVATE COLLECTIONS OF IMPERIAL RUSSIA
by Oleg Yakovlevich Neverov
Vendome Press-New York (co published with...)
State Hermitage Museum-St. Petersburg
c2004

It's a gorgeous book.  Lots of photos of paintings, of course, but also some photos I've never seen, of interiors:  like Mikhail Ryabushinsky's residence in Moscow.

Here are the Chapter headings:
(1) PRIVATE COLLECTIONS; THE ORIGIN OF MUSEUMS
(2)  FAMILY COLLECTING
(3)  PRIVATE GALLERIES AS A PUBLIC SERVICE
(4) EMERGENCE OF PRIVATE COLLECTIONS IN RUSSIA; PETER THE GREAT AND HIS INNER CIRCLE
(5) COLLECTORS FROM THE ARISTOCRACY, OLD AND NEW (Second half ot the 18th Century, the Stroganovs, the Galitzins, Vorontsovs, Potemkin, Bezborodko, Sheremetevs, Yussupovs).
(6) SERVANTS OF THE STATE AND RUSSIAN COLLECTORS ABROAD
(7) MERCHANT PRINCES OF THE MOSCOW RESIDENCE (1850-1914)
(Vasily Kokorev, The Tretyakov Brothers, Ivan Tsvetkov, Savva Mamontov and Talashkino, the Morozovs, the Shchukin Brothers, the Ryabushinskys, Pavel Kharitonenko and Elena Olive)

It's an amazing book and for artists like myself, the color repros of the paintings are just amazing (almost all photos in the 256 pages of the book, are in color).

Enjoy!
Adele

[Eurohistory]

It is indeed quite a lovely book.  I got a copy as an advance Xmas present and enjoyed it thoroughly!

Arturo Beéche

[Antonio_P.Caballer]

Hi Adele and Arturo

This book seemed wonderful but i must say i was disapointed when finally received it. The photos are lovely but i found there were too many chapters and pretty little information about each collector. I hoped it would be a deeper study of this subject. The author even comitted some mistakes when writting about Polovtsov dacha and it he refers to Polotsov senior instead of his son...

[chatelaa]

Hi Adele and Arturo

This book seemed wonderful but i must say i was disapointed when finally received it. The photos are lovely but i found there were too many chapters and pretty little information about each collector. I hoped it would be a deeper study of this subject. The author even comitted some mistakes when writting about Polovtsov dacha and it he refers to Polotsov senior instead of his son...

Hi!
    I was simply amazed at the photos of the paintings!  And since it was only slightly over 250 pages, I wasn't expecting too much depth.  That would be for a future book! One that didn't concentrate on photos of the paintings.  
      Maybe YOU could write it?
     However, if you did find an error in the text , I'd contact the publisher.  If there's a 2nd edition, they need to fix it.  I'm sure they would appreciate it, greatly!

Warm regards,
Adele

[Antonio_P.Caballer]

Hi Adele!

Thanks so much for your kind words

Last time i tried to give advice to someone was about a miniature for sale on ebay. The seller said it was the Empress, but it was cristal clear that the lady was Ella. I wrote to him and got no answer. Of course, he/she corrected the description, adding  that "after searching on the web" he had come to that conclusion!

So no more time to waste....

Best wishes to you Adele!!

[AGRBear]

This is what I call a "WOW! book.

The photographs of various important paintings are full page and splendid.

True, more information could have been given but then all the pictures would have gotten less space, so, it depends what you want from a book.


AGRBear

[BobG]

I bought this wonderful book when I went to Newark to the Alexander Palace Exhibit and absolutely love it.
Its bibliography lists a book titled:
The Yusupov Palace, Mansions of the Aristocracy, History of a Noble Line, an Estate and a Collection.
published in St Petersburg, 1999.
Has anyone ever seen this book?  I am assuming it is in Russian, but would love to know where I might find a copy of it.
Thanks.
Bob