By Jessica Davis, JTNews Correspondent
From the grand halls of the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia, an exhibition of women artists from across Europe, whose work caught the eye of the Russian court and aristocracy, has landed in Seattle. For many years, the paintings have been part of Russia’s official collection at the State Hermitage Museum.
The Frye Art Museum, which brought the 16th-19th century art from Russia, is the only west coast site for the exhibition, “An Imperial Collection: Women Artists from the State Hermitage Museum,” which runs through Nov. 30.
The collection started as part of Peter the Great’s commitment to pull Russia out of the Dark Ages and connect to Europe. In 1764, Catherine the Great continued his vision when she purchased a large collection of Western European paintings that became the core of the Hermitage collection, which opened to the public in 1922. Among the thousands of paintings and sculptures in the permanent collection are many noteworthy works by women artists.
The exhibition explores how women artists, such as Marie-Anne Collot and Marie Louise Elisabeth Vigee-Lebrun from France, and Christina Robertson from Scotland benefited from their Russian experiences, adapted to St. Petersburg life and offered distinctive responses to their adopted home. The exhibition also coincides with the 300th anniversary of the founding of St. Petersburg.
Other artists whose work is presented in the exhibition never lived in Russia, but the nobility traveling abroad discovered their work and offered them commissions. These include 18th-century Swiss artist Angelica Kauffman and Anna Dorothea Therbusch-Lisiewska, a native of Berlin who worked in Paris and was singled out by Catherine the Great’s envoy to Paris as an artist to commission.
The Frye exhibition explores how women contributed to the cultural history of Russia as patrons, painters and subjects. The Russian imperial and aristocratic families were often more supportive of women artists than other European courts. A selection of 49 works by 15 Western European women artists is on display. Some of the exhibition’s paintings, sculptures and watercolors have not been on public display in many decades.
“We feel very privileged to have them,” said the museum’s Mark Bryant.
As a companion to the Hermitage exhibition, works by Del Gish, a local artist and student of the acclaimed Russian-American realist painter Sergei Bongart are also exhibited in “Quiet Places, Reflective Moments: The Art of Del Gish” through Nov. 9. Gish traveled to Russia, where he taught art at the Tver Art College. His oil portraits, still lifes and landscapes, which are painted with subtle warm and cool grays, are associated with Impressionist style, suggest the changing of seasons and passing of time.
Born in rural Oklahoma, Gish received his Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Idaho. He was elected to membership in the American Watercolor Society in 1975 and, in 2000, received its top award. His work is in public and private collections including the Seattle Art Museum, the Frye Art Museum and the Safeco collection.
Also complementing the Hermitage exhibit, the Ladies Musical Club will perform at the Frye on Nov. 2 at 2 p.m. in “A Journey through the Musical Heritage of Russia,” a concert of works by Sergei Rachmaninoff, Dmitri Shostakovich and Anatoly Liadov. The concert will also highlight works by several women composers, including Maria Szymanowska, court pianist to the Czar in St. Petersburg in 1822.
A Russian poetry reading by Pieter Zilinsky and others will also take place, in English and Russian, on Nov. 6 at 7 p.m. and Nov. 15 at 2 p.m. Finally, Dr. Susan P. Casteras will give a lecture on Angelica Kauffmann and Elizabeth Vigee Le Brun, at 2 p.m. on Nov. 8.
All events take place at the Frye. Passes are available one hour prior to showtime.
“An Imperial Collection: Women Artists from the State Hermitage Museum” was organized by the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, D.C. in association with the State Hermitage Museum. The exhibit runs through Nov. 30 at the Frye Art Museum, 704 Terry Ave., Seattle. Admission is free. Call 206-622-9250 or visit www.fryeart.org.