Waterways of the Tsars: St Petersburg: General Staff Building (10/17/2019)

Thursday, October 17, 2019

Большой Обуховский мост/Big Obukhov Bridge (2004, twin bridge 2007)
is part of the St Petersburg Ring Road/Beltway, always had creeping traffic

We arrived in St Petersburg, a city we visited on the Viking Baltic cruise, Viking Homelands in September 2018. Since we had "recently" been to the Hermitage Museum, we skipped that included shore excursion in order to visit the General Staff Building.

Viking Truvor

A floating fish building on the Neva River, said to be for
a restaurant., but still not open

General Staff Building (1819-1829, by Carlo Rossi in Empire-style);
the near eastern wing houses some of the Hermitage collections

The Impressionist collection of the Hermitage was moved in 2014 to the renovated General Staff Building, partially to provide it with a more modern setting. We were lucky to learn that today was a free day at the museum!

Grand Entrance Staircase (2011) in a former,
and now covered, courtyard (KSS)

We went directly to the top (third/fourth) floor that includes works of the Impressionists and Post Impressionists. The breadth and depth of the collection is unbelievably immense. Apparently the majority of works were seized from territories occupied by the Russian Red Army during and after World War II. They sat in the vaults of the Hermitage until acknowledged in 1995.
Room 402 had French pastels of the 19-20C.

Absinthe (1901, by Pablo Picasso) was formerly in
 the collection of Otto Krebs, and was
"transferred" to Russia after World War II

Room 403 was a large hall full of paintings by Claude Monet, showing the progression of his style.

Woman in the Garden, Sainte Adresse (1867, by Claude Monet)
was painted seven years before the "first Impressionist" exhibition in 1874

Corner of the Garden in Montgeron (1876, by Claude Monet)
belonged to collector Ivan Morozov, a Russian businessman;
the collection was nationalized after the Bolshevik Revolution

Waterloo Bridge, Effect of Fog (1903, by Claude Monet)
was inspired by the view from his London Savoy Hotel room, and with
most of his fog scenes, was completed in a studio and not in plein-air

Room 404: Edgar Degas.

The Dancer (c 1874 by Edgar Degas), formerly
in the collection of Otto Krebs, Holzdorf, DE

Count Lepic and His Daughters Crossing the Place de la Concorde
(1876, by Edgar Degas), formerly in the collection
of Otto Gerstenberg, Berlin, DE (KSS)

Room 405: Camille Pissarro.

The Fair in Dieppe, Sunny Morning (1901, by Camille Pissarro),
formerly in the collection of Otto Krebs

Rooms 406 and 407: Pierre-Auguste Renoir, sometimes considered the Father of Impressionism.

In the Garden (1885, by Pierre-Auguste Renoir),
formerly in the collection of Otto Gerstenberg

Lady in Black (1876, by Pierre-Auguste Renoir), formerly
in the collection of Sergei Shchukin, another
Russian businessman and art collector, whose home
became the Moscow State Museum of New Western Art
(after the Bolshevik Revolution) to house his
collection and that of Ivan Morozov

Man on a Stair and Woman on a Stair (1876, by
Pierre-Auguste Renoir), formerly in the collection of
Otto Gerstenberg, depicts Parisian publisher Georges
Charpentier and his wife, Marguerite, who hosted
a salon of the artistic elite

Boy with a Whip (1885, by Pierre-Auguste Renoir),
formerly in the collection of Ivan Morozov; the painting
of Étienne Goujon is unusual because the face is rendered
in great detail while the rest is impressionistic

Rooms 445-448: French Salon Painting and The Barbizon School.

Neapolitan Siesta (1837, by Franz Xavier Winterhalter),
formerly in the collection of Empress Alexandra, wife of Nicholas I

Portrait of Duchess Dora Leuchtenberg (1896,
by François Flameng), formerly in the
collection of Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich

View of the Champs-Elysees from the Place de l'Etoile in Paris
(1878, by Edmond Georges Grandjean) (KSS)

Let the little children come unto me (1838,
by Honoré Daumier), formerly in the
collection of the Konstantine branch of the Romanovs

Emperor Maximilian of the Mexico before the Execution (1882,
by Jean-Paul Laurens), formerly in the collection of Sergei Tretyakov
of the Tretyakov brothers who began the Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow

View from the General Staff Building over Palace Square with
the Admiralty on the L and the Winter Palace on the R; also the
Alexander Column in the center of the square (KSS)

Rooms 408 and 410: Paul Cézanne, et al.

Lady in Blue (c 1900, by Paul Cézanne),
formerly in the collection of Sergei Shchukin

Mont Sainte-Victoire (c 1896-1898, by Paul Cézanne),
formerly in the collection of Ivan Morozov

The Large Pine, Saint-Tropez (1893, by Paul Signac),
formerly in the collection of Otto Krebs

View of Fort Samson, Grandcamp (1885, by Georges-Pierre Seurat),
formerly in the collection of Bernhard Koehler, Berlin

Room 411: Vincent van Gogh, showing his progression from the influence of Impressionism to his own Post-Impressionist style.

Memory of the Garden at Etten (1888, by Vincent van Gogh),
formerly in the collection of Sergei Shchukin;
shows the influence of Paul Gauguin (KSS)

Thatched Cottages (1890, by Vincent van Gogh),
formerly in the collection of Ivan Morozov

White House at Night (1890, by Vincent van Gogh),
formerly in the collection of Otto Krebs; the painting was
completed just six weeks before the death of van Gogh

Room 412: Paul Gauguin, from his visit to Tahiti.

Woman Holding a Fruit; Where Are You Going?
(1893, by Paul Gauguin), formerly in
the collection of Ivan Morozov (KSS)

Be Be/Nativity (1896, by Paul Gauguin), formerly
in the collection of Sergei Shchukin (KSS)

Room 452: Auguste Rodin.

Eternal Spring (c 1884, by Auguste Rodin),
formerly in the collection of S Eliseyev

Room 416: Nabis Group members Ker Xavier Roussel and Pierre Bonnard.

Triumph of Bacchus (1911-1913, by Ker Xavier Roussel),
formerly in the collection of Ivan Morozov

The Mediterranean Triptych (1911, by Pierre Bonnard),
commissioned by Ivan Morozov

Morning in Paris (1911, by Pierre Bonnard),
formerly in the collection of Ivan Morozov (KSS)

Evening in Paris (1911, by Pierre Bonnard),
formerly in the collection of Ivan Morozov (KSS)

The above two paintings show the importance of cityscapes in Post-Impressionist art.

View over another covered courtyard (2014) (KSS)

Room 425: Rockwell Kent.

Seal Hunter: North Greenland (1935-1937, by Rockwell Kent);
this was a gift from the artist (KSS)

Room 427: Max Liebermann.

Cottage (1905, by Max Liebermann), formerly
in the collection of Otto Krebs

Rooms 431, 433-435: Pablo Picasso.

Absinthe Drinker (1901, by Pablo Picasso),
formerly in the collection of Sergei Shchukin,
combines two-dimension feel of Gauguin and
the emotional expressiveness of van Gogh (KSS)

Two Sisters (1902, by Pablo Picasso), formerly
in the collection of Sergei Shchukin; depicts
sisters who were a nun and a prostitute; Blue Period

Three Women (1908, by Pablo Picasso), formerly
in the collection of Sergei Shchukin; a Cubist masterpiece

Still Life (1913, by Diego Rivera)

Rooms 436, 438, and 440: Henri Matisse.

Fruit, Flowers, and Panel "Dance" (1909, by Henri Matisse),
formerly in the collection of Ivan Morozov;
in Fauvist colors with undulating lines presaging abstract art

Conversations (1909-1912, by Henri Matisse), formerly
in the collection of Sergei Shchukin

Dance (1910, by Henri Matisse), formerly in the
collection of Sergei Shchukin; one of two panel paintings
showing Matisse's fascination with primitive art (KSS)

Girl with Tulips (1910, by Henri Matisse),
formerly in the collection of Sergei Shchukin

Bouquet of Flowers, Calla Lilies (1912, by
Henri Matisse), formerly in the
collection of Sergei Shchukin (KSS)

Zorah Standing (1912, by Henri Matisse), formerly
in the collection of Sergei Shchukin; from
Matisse's time in Morocco

Arab Café (1913, by Henri Matisse),
formerly in the collection of Sergei Shchukin; also from Morocco

Room 444: Newer acquisitions.

In the Fish Shop (1951, by Bernard Buffet) was a 1991
gift from the Maurice Garnier Gallery in Paris

Room 443: Wassily Kandinsky.

Winter Landscape (1909, by Wassily Kandinsky), said to
have been received from the artist in 1921

Landscape with Red Roof (1911, by Alexei von
Jawlensky), acquired in 1997 from private collection

We did not have time for two more floors of this vast museum.

Signage in the General Staff Building was very clear

Next: Nevsky Avenue.