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| Keywords: Alexander I by S.Shchukin (1806, priv.coll).jpg STEPAN SEMIONOVICH SHCHUKIN 1758-1828 signed in Latin m l and dated 1806 oil on canvas PROVENANCE Acquired in 1807 for the first Earl of Malmesbury by his secretary James Tyrrell Ross White while employed in Lord Granville's Embassy at St Petersburg Private English Collection since 1987 LITERATURE AND REFERENCES Antoine Cheneviere Russian Furniture The Golden Age 1780-1840 Weidenfeld and Nicholson 1988 ill p 177 CATALOGUE NOTE This grand yet intimate cabinet portrait depicts Emperor Alexander I standing at ease in full army uniform of the Imperial Preobrazhensky Regiment In the background is Kammenostrovsky Island Palace built for the Tsar while he was still a boy to be his future St Petersburg residence His pose directly recalls the famous portrait of his father Emperor Paul I painted ten years previously by Shchukin see fig 1 The offered lot is said to be one of several similar versions one being in the State Hermitage Museum St Petersburg and another in the Queen ™s collection England Stepan Shchukin was an orphan who learned to draw while living in a hospice for homeless children in Moscow in the mid 1760s Despite these humble beginnings a combination of talent and effort earned him a place at the Imperial Academy of Arts in St Petersburg where he studied portraiture under Dmitri Levitsky There he won a scholarship to continue his studies in Paris from 1782-6 where he received further instruction from the court painter Alexander Roslin He returned to Russia in 1786 and within two years took over from his former tutor as head of the portraiture department at the Academy In 1797 he became a full member for his portrait of Paul I fig 1 From 1804-1812 he worked together with his contemporary Borovikovsky on the interior decoration of the Kazan Cathedral in St Petersburg He is considered to be after Levitsky and Borovikovsky one of the best portraitists in Russia of his time and fostered a new generation in his wake including Vasili Tropinin and Orest Kiprensky Kamennostrovsky Palace was designed by the architect Georg Friedrich Velten 1730-1801 one among many foreign architects who were summoned to the capital by Catherine the Great in the 18th century see fig 2 Velten had re-designed the interiors of the Peterhof Palace for Catherine the Great in the 1770s and with the conclusion of Russo-Turkish war in 1774 he was commissioned to build a palace commemorating the Russian naval victory over the Turks at Chesme Bay in 1770 The offered painting belonged to the distinguished English diplomatist Sir James Harris the first Earl of Malmesbury It was his period of service in Russia that established him as a diplomat of the highest distinction after he successfully navigated the diplomatic storms of the Northern Accord a costly campaign aggressively pursued in particular by one of Catherine the Great ™s advisors Count Nikita Panin whose career was eventually brought down as a consequence Emperor Alexander I visited Sir James Harris at his residence in Henley during a trip to England in 1814 http //www sothebys com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2005/the-russian-sale-l05110/lot 1 html 1806 STEPAN SEMIONOVICH SHCHUKIN Alexander I of Russia by Shchukin Alexander I in bicorne Files uploaded by Shakko from various sources Private collections of Russian art Images from Sotheby's PD-old-100 | ||||
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