Military Parades: Porcelain and Watercolour

The exhibition is dedicated to a hundred-year-old tradition of producing decorative “military plates” depicting imperial army uniforms. The tradition began at the Imperial Porcelain Factory in the 1810s, during the reign of Emperor Alexander I, and continued until the 1910s. Emperor Nicholas I, who of fond of parades and military uniforms, and his son Alexander II, who shared his father’s interests, paid special attention to “military plates”. The plates were manufactured in series, grouped together by common theme and design. According to the colour and decoration of the sides of the plates the series were called “red”, “turquoise”, “lilac”, “gold”... The plates were painted by the leading artists of the factory: Vasily Elashevsky, Mikhail Kryukov, Vasily Midin, Alexander Mironov, Vasily Stoletov, N. Yakovlev and others.

 The viewers will see porcelain as well as graphic “parades” since besides plates, the exhibition includes drawings and lithographs that served as sources or preliminary studies for paintings by such famous artists of the “uniform” genre as Lev Belousov, Alexander Sauerweid, Wiktor Mazurowski, Karl Piratsky, Adolf Charlemagne... The State Russian Museum has preserved complete sets of watercolour studies for two series of “military plates”: “the lilac” and “the golden” series.

Paintings depicting military parades and sculptural portraits of emperors in military uniforms supplement the exhibition.

Age limit: 0+

The exhibition is supported by Severstal, Dobrotasevera,  Power Machines.