Portrait of Grand Duke Peter Fedorovich and Grand Duchess Ekaterina Alekseevna

The artist is a thunder


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At the court of Elizabeth Petrovna, the most famous portraiters of France, Italy and Germany constantly worked. The empress considered the creation of a gallery of portrait images of the first persons of Russia a matter of state importance, and therefore personally led the selection of staff. Among foreign artists, awarded the highest attention was the eldest of the Brothers of the Groot, Georg. At the exhibition, one could see the pair portrait of Grand Duke Peter Fedorovich and Grand Duchess Ekaterina Alekseevna created by him.

There are few works of the thunder. The artist lived only thirty -three years and managed to work in Russia for only six years. Its portraits are distinguished by amazing picturesque skill, a great external resemblance to the original and a subtle psychological insight, a delicate understanding of the inner world of high -ranking models. Among the twelve portraits of the brush of George Groot stored in the Russian Museum, eight are images of Tsarevich Peter Fedorovich and his wife Grand Duchess Ekaterina Alekseevna.

Particularly interesting is a pair portrait of the young Grand Duke – one of the earliest portraits of Peter Fedorovich and Ekaterina Alekseevna. Most likely, it was made in 1745, immediately before the marriage. The thunder captured two young people in the picture, by the standards of our time – teenagers. An elegant Tsesarevich with a blue ribbon of St. Andrew the First -Called over his shoulder with his left hand delicately hugs his young spouse behind the waist, while gently supporting the right handle of his lady, as if imagining it to the audience. The artist masterfully wrote out beautiful elegant costumes according to the last French fashion of that time. However, the most remarkable persons of models are. The Grand Duke on the portrait is calm, slightly mocking, confident in himself, and Catherine, on the contrary, looks wary, anxiously and even gloomy. In her elongated, although thoroughbred, but ugly face, there is no hint of an amazing charm that distinguished Catherine II. In the portrait, the future great empress is captured at that period of life, when she is only a small German princess, thanks to the game of the chance, he suddenly became the bride of her unsubstantiscious ecstatic second cousin. It seems that in the wary face the question was as if frozen: what awaits her ahead in this mysterious, but such alluring Russia? Love or alienation? Tsarist throne or monastery cell? Everything is so vague and almost equally!

After seventeen years, history and fate will put everything in its place – the little princess Fica, on June 28, 1762, will overthrow from the throne of his spouse and ascend to the throne in order to become the greatest Russian empress.

E.AT.Amphilokhiev, e.AT.Stankevich and N.AND.Fedorova. Materials for a virtual tour of the exhibition "Diaghilev. Start". 2009

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Peter III (Karl Peter Ulrich Golstein-Gottorpsky; February 21, 1728, keel − July 6/17, 1762, Ropsha) − The son of the Duke of Golstein-Gottorp Carl Frederick and daughter of Peter I Anna Petrovna. In 1742 he was brought to Petersburg as the heir to the throne. Having accepted Orthodoxy, he received the name of Peter Fedorovich. In 1745 he married Sofia Frederica Augustus Angalt Tserbst, future Catherine II. Since 1761, the Russian emperor, the first representative of the Holstein-Gottorp (Oldenburg) branch of the Romanovs in Russian throne. After a half -year reign, it was overthrown as a result of the palace coup (1762), who elevated his wife to the throne, Catherine II. He died in the Ropshinsky Palace under unclear circumstances.

Reigned from December 25, 1761 / January 5, 1762 to June 28 / July 9, 1762.

The 400th anniversary of the Romanov house. SPb, 2013. With. 112.

Grand Duke Peter Fedorovich (1728–1762)-German Prince Karl Petr Ulrich, son of the Duke of Golstein-Gottorp Carl Frederick and daughter of Peter I Anna Petrovna, from 1761-Russian emperor Peter III. It was overthrown from the throne as a result of the palace coup 1762 and killed in the Ropshinsky Palace near St. Petersburg.

Ekaterina II Great (Sofia Augusta Frederick Anhalt-Tserbstskaya, Ekaterina Alekseevna, April 21 / May 2, 1729, Stettin −November 6/17, 1796, St. Petersburg) − The daughter of Prince Christian Augusta Cerbact Dornburg and Johanna Elizabeth, Princess Golstein-Gottorp. From 1742 the wife of Grand Duke Peter Fedorovich. Came to power in 1762 as a result of the palace coup. Reigned from June 28 / July 9, 1762 to 6/17 November, 1796. The 400th anniversary of the Romanov house. SPb, 2013.

Grand Duchess Ekaterina Alekseevna (1729–1796)-German Princess Sofia Augustus Frederick Angalt-cord, from 1762-Russian Empress Catherine II. Pyotr Fedorovich is depicted in the official uniform of the Life-Dagun regiment of the Holstein troops with the Order of St. Andrew the First -Called (tape and star). Ekaterina Alekseevna – with the Order of St. Catherine of the Big Cross (tape, cross and star). Stylistic features, as well as the lack of archival documents on the creation of a double portrait, make them doubt the authorship of the artist. In August 1745, the marriage of Peter Fedorovich and Ekaterina Alekseevna took place. It is likely that the pair portrait was written this year as a portrait of the bride and groom. Their son, future emperor Paul I, was born on September 20 (October 1) 1754.

The first Russian portraits, including family ones, were written by foreign masters and Russian painters invited to work in Russia who have trained from them or abroad. The desire to imagine, through a portrait of themselves and their households, was evidence of welfare, modernity, assimilation of the European way of life. Lyubov Shakirova. Family album of the Russian Museum // Portrait of Family. SPb, 2014. With. 6).

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