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The Hermitage and The Courtauld: shifting the focus to scholarship

Portrait of Catherine the Great, by Vigilius Eriksen

The State Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg and The Courtauld Institute of Art in London enjoy an exciting collaborative partnership, which focuses on scholarship.

From 2000 to 2007, a programme of exhibitions at the Hermitage Rooms at Somerset House, co-organised by the two organisations, offered visitors in London an introduction to the spectacular collections of The State Hermitage Museum. The collaboration has been enormously successful and has had a huge impact on both organisations, not only through its exhibition programme but also in the field of academic exchange. The recent shift in focus, from exhibitions to scholarship, better reflects the long-term aims of both parties.

Since opening to the public in November 2000, there have been twelve exhibitions at the Hermitage Rooms which attracted over 500,000 visitors. These ranged from the inaugural show Treasures of Catherine the Great to more focused exhibitions such as Peter Paul Rubens: A Touch of Brilliance and Circling the Square: Avant-garde Porcelain from Revolutionary Russia. These exhibitions have not only enriched London’s cultural life but also raised awareness of the wealth of the collections in the Hermitage, often showing works that were not even on view to the public in St Petersburg.

Since 2003, the alliance has enabled the Hermitage to re-establish links with Western art scholarship and there will continue to be an active programme of academic exchanges including symposia, lectures and conferences, as well as the highly successful visiting curator scheme. The alliance has also enabled The Courtauld to extend its international reach and develop its capacities in terms of exhibitions and curatorial relations.

The State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg

One of the four greatest museums in the world, The State Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg began life as the private art collection of the imperial family and was nationalised and greatly expanded after the Revolution. The Museum is housed in the buildings of the former imperial palace in the centre of St Petersburg. They comprise the Baroque Winter Palace built for the Empress Elizabeth, the Neoclassical Small Hermitage, Old Hermitage and Hermitage Theatre built for Catherine the Great and the Historicist New Hermitage built for Nicholas I. The latter was built as a museum where the cream of the imperial collection could be shown to the public. It opened its doors in 1852 and was known as the Imperial Hermitage Museum up to 1917.

The Museum owns one of the world's greatest collections of Old Master paintings, important Impressionist and Post-Impressionist works, Classical antiquities, European and Russian applied arts, Oriental art and items excavated by archaeologists throughout the former Soviet Union. Today the Museum's collection runs to some three million items, compared to one million in 1917.

Since 1992 Professor Mikhail Piotrovsky has been the director of The State Hermitage Museum. The Museum has ten curatorial departments, including a large and very active education department which runs courses for school children, as well as tours and lectures for adults. The staff of the Museum totals some 2,000, including 200 specialist curators and 130 guides.

The State Hermitage Museum is an important research centre for art history and archaeology. The Museum, in collaboration with The European University, St Petersburg, has founded the Faculty of Art History as well as the International Summer School for History of Art. Many of the employees of The State Hermitage Museum are Professors of the Academy of Art and also of the State University, both in St Petersburg.

See also: The State Hermitage Museum website