Russian Academic Painting of the Second Half of the 18th – First Half of the 19th Centuries

The exhibition Russian Academic Painting of the Late 18th – First Half of the 19th Centuries is held in the former rooms of Grand Duke Constantine Pavlovich in St Michael’s (Engineers’) Castle. It is aimed at presenting works from the Academy Rooms of the Mikhailovsky Palace, which were transferred to the castle for the duration of the anniversary exhibition Karl the Great. 225th Anniversary of the Artist’s Birth. Visitors to the castle can enjoy renowned masterpieces by Grigory Ugryumov, Vladimir Borovikovsky, Sylvester Shchedrin, Fidelio Bruni, Orest Kiprensky, Alexander Ivanov and other prominent masters of Russian art.

The second half of the 18th – first half of the 19th centuries became the “golden age” of Russian academic art education. During this period, famous masters, who worked in the genres of history painting, portrait and landscape, studied and taught at the Academy of Arts. It was they who were destined to bring Russian painting to a completely new level and to make it an integral part of the world artistic process. The names of Orest Kiprensky, Alexander Ivanov, Fidelio Bruni became well-known far beyond Russia.

The Russian Museum owns a brilliant collection of Russian academic art, including Grigory Ugryumov’s Testing the Strength of Jan Usmar (1796–1797), Vladimir Borovikovsky’s Portrait of Prince Alexander Kurakin (1799), Orest Kiprensky’s Portrait of Evgraf Davydov (1809), Fidelio Bruni’s Death of Camellia, Sister of Horatius (1824), Alexander Ivanov’s Christ’s Appearance to St Mary Magdalene (1835). These and other gems of academic art of the second half of the 18th – first half of the 19th centuries are exhibited in St Michael’s Castle.