Alexander Erzhemsky as the First Photographer of the Russian Museum

March 19, 2023 marks 125 years since the opening of the Russian Museum – the first state collection of Russian art. The museum’s history is inseparable from the selfless work done by several generations of its creative teams and staff members. One such dedicated individual was Alexander Erzhemsky (1845–1905), the museum’s first photographer, and founder and first director of the “In-House Photography Studio of the Russian Museum of Emperor Alexander III”.

Erzhemsky was a memorable, enterprising man and a recognized master of and authority on photography, having participated in and won prizes in many different Russian and international exhibitions. He also gave lectures and published manuals, brochures, books, articles and research papers on photography. Erzhemsky was the head of Section 5 of the Imperial Russian Technical Society (photography and its applications), the co-owner of the St Petersburg Studio for Study Aids and Games, and worked with numerous periodicals and publishing houses.

From 1897 onward, this talented photographer’s career path was closely intertwined with the Russian Museum, which currently holds many of his works: glass negatives, author’s prints, photogravures, postcards, and art reproductions printed from his photographs. This collection of photographic material, dating from the 1890s to the early 1900s, is unique in its composition, quality, and volume, painting a rather comprehensive picture of Erzhemsky’s body of work: photographic reproductions of artworks, buildings and interiors, landscapes and cityscapes. His masterfully executed art reproductions and his technically and compositionally sophisticated creative photography impressed many of his fellow photographers and artists, including Alexandre Benois. The bulk of Erzhemsky’s work for the Russian Museum consisted in photographing the artworks that came into the museum’s possession. But his job duties also included documentary photography of the museum’s exhibitions, buildings and events.

This exhibition marks the first time that the carefully researched and collated biography and legacy of Alexander Erzhemsky is being presented to photography professionals and the public at large. Various photographic works are joined by archival documents, books and magazines from the Russian Museum holdings associated with the life and work of the master photographer.

The exhibition is timed to coincide with the 125th anniversary of the Russian Museum and its photography studio and the 100th anniversary of the museum’s photography archive (currently the images archive section), which holds a voluminous and representative collection of historical photographs, including works by the Russian Museum’s first photographer, Alexander Erzhemsky.