March 21, 1 9 1 8 
Land & Water 
17 
French Art in Russia : By G. C. Williamson 
UNTIL recently there was more French silver in 
the Winter Palace and the Anitchkoff Palace, in 
Petrograd, than there was in the whole of France ; 
and M. Paul Eudel, writing in 1884 respecting 
French silver work, draws a piteous account of 
the want of fine examples of the periods of Louis XIV.. 
Louis XV., and Louis XVL, in the country which had pro- 
duced them. He pointed out that owing to the Revolution 
and the Terror of 1793, France had been robbed of almost all 
the fine examples of chased silver work executed during' 
certain periods of her supremacy, and remarked, in a phrase 
full of pathos, that one had to go to Russia to see the works 
of Germain, the Roettiers, Claude Vallin, Biennais, and 
Odiot. He added, moreover, as if to augment the pain to be 
felt by his readers, that a journey to Russia for many of them 
would be practically fruitless, as these choice examples of 
French art were hid- 
den away in the pri- 
vate apartments of the 
Emperor, or in other 
sections of the palaces, 
to which the ordinarv 
visitor was not allowed 
access, and which it 
was often difficult 
even for the student 
to reach. He spoke 
truly. It is to Russia 
one has to go — or, 
rather, it was to 
Russia one had to go 
—to see the finest 
work of the Roettiers, 
of the great master 
silversmith, Robert J. 
Auguste, and of his 
valiant contempor- 
aries of the eighteenth 
century. 
The Empress Cathe- 
rine IL, in her desire 
to encourage the 
French silversmiths, 
and also with that 
love of magnificent 
display which charac- 
terised her, ordered 
complete table ser- 
vices of silver for the 
governors of her seven 
greatest provinces. 
Four of these services, 
executed between 1776 
and 1778 by the mas- 
ter engravers Louis 
Lehendrick and 
Charles Sprimann, 
were delivered, the 
last of the four not 
reaching Russia till 
1783. Of the other 
services, only portions 
came to hand, and 
eventually the idea of giving them to the governors was 
relinquished, and they were retained at the capital ; and in 
consequence there are four great services of silver by 
R; J. Auguste and his two collaborators still to be seen, com- 
plete with magnificent centre-pieces, fruit bowls of extra- 
ordinary beauty, and all the smaller accessories exquisitely 
chased. 
Two other silver services, by Fran9ois Thomas Germain, 
were executed by command of the Empress Elizabeth, and 
are of extraordinary elegance and charm. One was at first 
intended for the King of Portugal, but the Empress bought 
it. The second, which contains three magnificent centre- 
pieces — "Bacchus and Love," "The Awakening of Love," 
and "The Birth of Comedy" — was originally commissioned 
by the Empress Elizabeth, but passed into the possession of 
Count Soltykoff, from whom it was redeemed by the Emperor 
Alexander III. for 300,000 roubles. The famous Orloff 
service, of nine hundred pieces, one of the great features of 
which is the presence of ten grouped candelabra and fifty 
magnificent candlesticks, was commissioned by the Empress 
Jewelled Clock with Mechanical Movements 
Catherine as a present for Prince Gregory Orloff, and is the 
work of the two Roettiers (father and son) ; but, in some 
mysterious way, it did not pass into the possession of the 
person for whom it was intended, and could still be seen 
quite recently in the Winter Palace. 
Three later services are the work of Biennais and Odiot, 
the goldsmiths who worked for the Emperor Napoleon I. 
One is not only a dinner service, but a service for tea, 
and also., for the deooration of a room ; and it includes a 
fountain, two chandeliers, two magnificent centre-pieces for 
fruit, hundreds of plates and dishes, and all kinds of separate 
small pieces ; while the second, which Biennais made, is a 
service of over a thousand pieces of silver, much of which is 
engraved by Naudin ; and then, besides that, there are two 
tea services by Odiot, a great fountain by the same man, 
and three large chandeliers, all of silver, besides hundreds of 
smaller pieces en- 
graved by Fremin 
(1780), Imlin (1797), 
Feburier (1800), Boul- 
lier (1781), Cedoz 
(1809), Vachette 
(rSio), and Lebrun 
(1838). Altogether, 
nine large rooms were 
filled with this over- 
whelming display of 
sumptuous silver work . 
to which there could be 
no possibility of a rival, 
for no such mass of 
wrought silver existed 
elsewhere, and no 
other sovereign, save 
the Empress Catherine, 
ever commissioned sil- 
ver on such a huge 
scale, or pieces of such 
magnificence, as were 
some of the fountains, 
chandeliers, wine cis- 
terns, or centre-pieces 
for fruit. 
The F'rench pictures 
which one saw in 
Petrograd mainly be- 
longed to one par- 
ticular period. It was 
works by Boucher, 
Lancret, Pater, 
Watteau, Fragonard, 
and Nicholas Poussin, 
that specially appealed 
to the Russian royal- 
ties. Many of them 
were of extreme beau- 
ty, two of the little 
Watteaus being un- 
rivalled in importance, 
three of the Lancrets 
almost equally beauti- 
ful. The two principal 
works by Poussin were 
grand classical landscapes, the most important one by 
Boucher, a very unusual subject for that artist — "Repose 
in Egypt" — but painted somewhat on mj^hological lines, 
superb in draughtsmanship, and beautiful in colouring. This 
is not to say that earlier schools of France were not repre- 
sented. There were two portraits attributed to Clouet ; one- 
of Francis d'Alen9on, with some strong degree of probability ; 
five landscapes by Claude, representing different hours of 
the day, and several other landscapes by him of his usual 
type. Le Meine was represented by a "Cupid Asleep," and 
by the same artist there was a charming representation of 
the mythological legend of "Jupiter and lo"; while in 
another room were several portraits by Greuze and some 
landscapes by Marne. In French sculpture, Houdin and 
Falconet were well represented. 
Another great feature of the French school was the presence 
of the magnificent Gobelin tapestry, which covered the walls 
of the museum of carriages, and gave to the long galleries in 
which the Imperial carriages were presented a very 
sumptuous appearance. Some of the very finest tapestry 
