Napoleon’s fatal mistake

The Russian Museum celebrates the 200th anniversary of Russia’s victory over France.

By Irina Titova

The St. Petersburg Times

Published: July 18, 2012 (Issue # 1718)

RUSSIAN MUSEUM ‘Napoleonic Dance’ (1813) is one of the works on show at the Stroganov Palace in an exhibit devoted to the 1812 French invasion of Russia.

An art exposition dedicated to the 200th anniversary of the 1812 French invasion of Russia opened at the Stroganov Palace last week.

“The Year 1812 in Art From the Collection of the State Russian Museum,” features 100 pieces that reflect memories of the French invasion of Russia in many forms such as painting, graphics, sculpture, numismatics, porcelain, glass, furniture and more. Among the pieces are works by eminent Russian artists such as Orest Kiprensky and Alexei Venetsianov.

Due to the war, 1812 became a period of unusual patriotic enthusiasm and social unity in Russia. Both nobles and merchants donated large sums of money to the army and landowners and their servants signed up to fight.

It was a time when Russian art was at its prime of romanticism and there was an increase in interest in depicting military themes.

The exhibition features paintings depicting battles and heroic deeds from the war such as Mikhail Tikhonov’s “The Execution of the Russians by French Soldiers in 1812” and Kiprensky’s “Portrait of Colonel Yevgraf Davydov.”

The exhibit also includes an album of drawings and wash drawings done by English traveler John Thomas James between 1813 and 1814 while he was traveling around Europe. The Russian part of his trip largely followed the route taken by Napoleon’s army, allowing him to witness the results of the French military campaign. His drawings of a destroyed Moscow (1814) and the Borodino Field, where the main battle was held, are considered to be two of the most interesting pieces.

Crystal glasses produced at the Imperial Glass Factory and decorated with portraits of Tsar Alexander I and celebrated army general Mikhail Kutuzov are also on display.

The exhibition “The Year 1812 in Art From the Collection of the State Russian Museum” runs through Nov. 11 at the Stroganov Palace, 17 Nevsky Prospekt. M. Admiralteiskaya / Gostiny Dvor.