Back to search results

VUE DU PALAIS D'ETÉ DE SA MAJESTÉ IMPERIALE DU COTÉ DU NORD

Creator(s): Aleksei Grekov (Engraver) , Mikhail Makhaev (Original Drawing) , Giuseppe Valeriani (Original Drawing)

Currently in storage


About this object

This image is dominated by Bartolomeo Francesco Rastrelli's Summer Palace for Empress Elizaveta Petrovna, the building of which marked the emergence of a new style in St. Petersburg’s architecture. The exterior was light pink trimmed with white and the roofline was dotted with statuary. The extravagant exterior was matched by the formal gardens boasting shrubbery clipped in ornamental patterns, fountains, and gilded statuary. As the print also shows, the building was situated on land where two rivers—the Fontanka and the Moika—meet and where ground had to be shored up with granite embankments. These efforts were ultimately unsuccessful. A great flood in 1777 destroyed the garden and damaged the Palace, which was ultimately razed in 1797 to make room for Paul I’s St. Michael’s Castle (now known as the Engineer’s Castle).

Object name:
VUE DU PALAIS D'ETÉ DE SA MAJESTÉ IMPERIALE DU COTÉ DU NORD
Made from:
Paper
Made in:
Saint Petersburg, Russia
Date made:
After 1753
Size:
H. 22 1/8 in., W. 30 1/2 in.

Detailed information for this item

Catalog number:
55.85
Signature marks:
Credit line:
Museum Purchase, 2000