Catherine the Greats audacious power grab in 1762 marked a watershed in imperial Russian history. During a momentous 34-year reign, her rapacious vision and intellectual curiosity led to vast territorial expansion, cultural advancement, and civic, educational and social reform. In this pioneering book, Rosalind Blakesley reveals the remarkable role women artists played in her pursuit of these ambitions. With challenging commissions for an elite cast of Russian patrons, their work underscores the extent to which cultural enrichment co-existed with the empresss imperial designs.
Catherines acquisitions propelled renowned artists to new heights. The history paintings that she purchased from Angelica Kauffman brought the Swiss artist to the attention of keen new patrons, while Elisabeth Louise Vigee Le Brun found in Russia safe refuge from the horrors of revolutionary France. Just as important were Catherines relationships with lesser-known artists. The young sculptor Marie-Anne Collot made the arduous journey from Paris to St Petersburg to assist on the equestrian monument to Peter the Great and enthralled Russian society with her portrait busts, while Grand Duchess Maria Fedorovna, wife of Catherines troubled son Paul, sculpted cameos which the empress sent to distinguished correspondents abroad. With stories of extraordinary artistic endeavour intertwined with the intrigue of Catherines personal life, Women Artists in the Reign of Catherine the Great uncovers the impact of these and other artists at one of Europes most elaborate courts.
Rosalind P. Blakesley, a prize-winning writer and academic, is Professor of Russian and European Art and a Fellow of Pembroke College at the University of Cambridge. A Trustee of the V&A and Syndic of the Fitzwilliam Museum, she has authored books including The Russian Canvas (Yale University Press, 2016) and The Arts and Crafts Movement (Phaidon Press, 2006), and curated exhibitions at the National Portrait Gallery, London, and the National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington DC.
Conventions and Abbreviations; Introduction; Chapter 1: Inscribing a Future Empress; Chapter 2: Catherine Enthroned; Chapter 3: The Academy and the Hermitage; Chapter 4: A Parisian Find; Chapter 5: The Chisel and the Mallet; Chapter 6: Unexpected Treasures; Chapter 7: The Doyenne of Rome; Chapter 8: An Artist in the Family; Chapter 9: The Triumphant Refugee; Epilogue; Acknowledgements; List of Illustrations; Bibliography; Index
The first ever account of women artists under Europe’s most resolute empress, Catherine the Great.
Revelatory discussion of the Russian patrons and connections of celebrated as well as overlooked artists, illuminating what it meant to be a woman painter or sculptor not only in 18th-century Russia, but in Europe as a whole.
