An exhibition dedicated to Catherine II opened in Scotland

This year 250 years have passed since the coup d’etat, which brought Catherine the Great to the throne of Russia. This event is dedicated to the exhibition in the National Museum of Scotland (Catherine the Great: Enlightened Empress) (Catherine the Great: An Enlightened Empress). Such a large collection of Russian treasures has never been seen in the UK before.

The exhibition presents things from different periods of the Empress’s life: the childhood of the German Princess Sophia, the years of the ill-fated marriage with the heir Peter and the ensuing coup, the time of the reign of the Russian Empire.

An impressive portrait of Catherine, made for her coronation, shows that she used art as a projection of power and wealth from the very beginning of her reign. By the time of the death of Catherine in 1796, Russia had become a truly world power, with expanded borders, a huge military-industrial potential and a brilliant imperial court, which Europe envied. It was Catherine the Second who laid the foundation for that collection of objects of art, which served as the basis for the creation of the State Hermitage in St. Petersburg.

At the exhibition, you can see sketches of Rubens, canvases by 17th-century French artists Claude Lorrain, Sebastian Bourdon, Eustache Le Sueur, one of the founders of the French Academy. In addition to paintings, sculpture, jewelry, porcelain from Russia and Europe, a total of more than 600 priceless artifacts from the collection of the State Hermitage, memoirs of Catherine, the diaries of her contemporaries are presented.

This is the third exhibition organized by the National Museum of Scotland in partnership with the State Hermitage Museum. Mikhail Piotrovsky, director of the Hermitage Museum, said: “We are very pleased to bring the treasures of Russian museums to Scotland. The story of Catherine the Great is a very important part of the history of Russia. ”

The exposition "Catherine the Great: Enlightened Empress" will be held from July 13 to October 21

Anna Sidorova