An exhibition of portraits from the collection of Count Pyotr Sheremetev is opened at the estate-museum "Kuskovo"

MOSCOW. A unique exhibition of portraits has opened in the Large Stone Orangery of the Kuskovo estate. For the first time since 1814, when the building that housed the portrait gallery was demolished, a collection of portraits from a collection owned by Count Sheremetev was made available to visitors to the estate.

Visitors could see some of the canvases included in this collection in the Kuskovsky Palace, however, most of them were stored in the vaults of the estate museum. Museum connoisseurs call “Kuskovo” a real treasury, where many values and rarities are stored.

Peter Sheremetev, the owner of the estate, was a man with an impeccable taste for art, complemented by the excitement of a true collector. He collected a considerable number of remarkable collections, but the portrait gallery, which combines paintings with images of representatives of two generations of a noble family, is among them in a special place.

Peter Sheremetev’s approach to collecting portraits is even more interesting. He had no desire to create a family gallery. The collection contains only the parents of the collector, all other portraits are “glorious faces”, whose names are included in Russian history. His father, Boris Sheremetev, was also a famous historical figure of the era of Peter the Great.

When creating the collection, the count ordered artists new portraits, copies of works by famous artists, acquired paintings at auctions. As a result, Sheremetev assembled a collection consisting of 128 portraits. There are 118 works in Kuskovo now. Two more portraits are kept in the Ostankino estate. The fate of the remaining eight is still unknown. The employees of the Kuskovo Museum are doing everything possible to present all the canvases collected by Pyotr Sheremetev in one place.

Ludmila Trautmane © Gallerix.ru