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Lot Essay
THE IMPERIAL PORCELAIN FACTORY AND OLD MASTER PAINTINGS
The Imperial Porcelain Factory started to produce large vases for imperial presentations and for the decoration of palaces during the reign of Emperor Alexander I in 1801-1825. The tradition was then continued by Emperor Nicholas I, who commissioned and awarded a remarkable number of vases. Under his patronage, the production of the factory reached its apogee, and works from this period are the finest examples of palace and presentation vases produced.
Many of the vases produced by the Imperial Porcelain Factory were decorated with copies of Old Master paintings. Consistent with the European tradition of using academic paintings as porcelain design sources, the middle section of the vase was treated by factory artists as a canvas on which to showcase their work. The paintings were typically scaled-down, faithful copies of original works in the Imperial Hermitage, the Academy of Arts or from collections in the imperial palaces in the vicinity of St Petersburg. The names of both the original artist and factory artist were usually added to the vase paintings.
THE WOUWERMAN PAINTINGS
The remarkably detailed and colourful paintings on the present vases were copied by the Imperial Porcelain Factory artist Semyon Golov (c.1783-1849) from canvases by the seventeenth-century Dutch painters, Philips Wouwerman (1619-1668) and his brother Pieter Wouwerman (1623-1682). Philips Wouwerman, who was one of the most prolific artists of the Dutch Golden Age, became famous as a genre painter. He excelled at depicting figures with distinctive expressions and realistic animals, including his famous image of a white horse, which is present in most of his paintings. His pictures were highly valued during his lifetime, but became even more sought after in the 18th century.
The first vase is decorated with a copy of Philips Wouwerman's detailed painting, A Battle between Turkish and Austrian Troops, depicting a battle during the Ottoman–Habsburg war (A. Somov, Imperial Hermitage. Catalogue of the painting gallery. [Imperatorskii Ermitazh. Katalog kartinnoi galerei.], St Petersburg, 1902, vol. II, p. 96-97, no. 1020). The intricacy of the scene demonstrates Golov's excellent craftsmanship. He studied at the Imperial Porcelain Factory school under the French porcelain painter Henri Adam and was regarded as one of the best specialists in copying historical works. He was appointed master painter in 1819 and worked at the factory until 1846.
The scene on the second vase is painted after The Troops at Rest by Pieter Wouwerman. The oeuvre of Pieter manifests the influence of his brother, and has frequently been attributed to Philips Wouwerman. According to Andrei Somov, curator of the Hermitage from 1886, this was the case with The Troops at Rest which had a later monogram of Philips Wouwerman (A. Somov, Imperial Hermitage. Catalogue of the painting gallery. [Imperatorskii Ermitazh. Katalog kartinnoi galerei.], St Petersburg, 1902, vol. II, p. 83-84, no. 1048).
Both paintings were acquired by Catherine the Great as part of the notable French collections of Louis Antoine Crozat, Baron de Thiers, and Joseph Antoine Crozat, Baron de Tugny. These and other works would form the foundation of the Imperial Hermitage Museum (now the State Hermitage Museum) in St Petersburg, which was founded by Emperor Nicholas I in 1852. A Battle between Turkish and Austrian Troops is still part of the Hermitage museum collection; however The Troops at Rest was probably sold in the 1920-30s and the present whereabouts are unknown. The distinguished provenance of both Philip and Pieter Wouwermans' original paintings reflects the enduring aesthetic appeal of the canvases reproduced on the present vases. The vibrant painting by one of the factory's best artists wonderfully captures the atmospheric Dutch landscapes and richly-coloured genre scenes.
The present vases, dated 1828, were produced by the Imperial Porcelain Factory at the beginning of the reign of Nicholas I (1825-1855), and retain many neo-classical influences from the reign of his predecessor, Alexander I (1800-1825). The form and decoration are closely related to two pairs of vases from the Peterhof Museum (see N.B. von Wolf (ed. V.V. Znamenov), Imperatorskii farforovyi zavod, 1744-1904, St Petersburg, 2008, pp. 325, 491).
The Imperial Porcelain Factory started to produce large vases for imperial presentations and for the decoration of palaces during the reign of Emperor Alexander I in 1801-1825. The tradition was then continued by Emperor Nicholas I, who commissioned and awarded a remarkable number of vases. Under his patronage, the production of the factory reached its apogee, and works from this period are the finest examples of palace and presentation vases produced.
Many of the vases produced by the Imperial Porcelain Factory were decorated with copies of Old Master paintings. Consistent with the European tradition of using academic paintings as porcelain design sources, the middle section of the vase was treated by factory artists as a canvas on which to showcase their work. The paintings were typically scaled-down, faithful copies of original works in the Imperial Hermitage, the Academy of Arts or from collections in the imperial palaces in the vicinity of St Petersburg. The names of both the original artist and factory artist were usually added to the vase paintings.
THE WOUWERMAN PAINTINGS
The remarkably detailed and colourful paintings on the present vases were copied by the Imperial Porcelain Factory artist Semyon Golov (c.1783-1849) from canvases by the seventeenth-century Dutch painters, Philips Wouwerman (1619-1668) and his brother Pieter Wouwerman (1623-1682). Philips Wouwerman, who was one of the most prolific artists of the Dutch Golden Age, became famous as a genre painter. He excelled at depicting figures with distinctive expressions and realistic animals, including his famous image of a white horse, which is present in most of his paintings. His pictures were highly valued during his lifetime, but became even more sought after in the 18th century.
The first vase is decorated with a copy of Philips Wouwerman's detailed painting, A Battle between Turkish and Austrian Troops, depicting a battle during the Ottoman–Habsburg war (A. Somov, Imperial Hermitage. Catalogue of the painting gallery. [Imperatorskii Ermitazh. Katalog kartinnoi galerei.], St Petersburg, 1902, vol. II, p. 96-97, no. 1020). The intricacy of the scene demonstrates Golov's excellent craftsmanship. He studied at the Imperial Porcelain Factory school under the French porcelain painter Henri Adam and was regarded as one of the best specialists in copying historical works. He was appointed master painter in 1819 and worked at the factory until 1846.
The scene on the second vase is painted after The Troops at Rest by Pieter Wouwerman. The oeuvre of Pieter manifests the influence of his brother, and has frequently been attributed to Philips Wouwerman. According to Andrei Somov, curator of the Hermitage from 1886, this was the case with The Troops at Rest which had a later monogram of Philips Wouwerman (A. Somov, Imperial Hermitage. Catalogue of the painting gallery. [Imperatorskii Ermitazh. Katalog kartinnoi galerei.], St Petersburg, 1902, vol. II, p. 83-84, no. 1048).
Both paintings were acquired by Catherine the Great as part of the notable French collections of Louis Antoine Crozat, Baron de Thiers, and Joseph Antoine Crozat, Baron de Tugny. These and other works would form the foundation of the Imperial Hermitage Museum (now the State Hermitage Museum) in St Petersburg, which was founded by Emperor Nicholas I in 1852. A Battle between Turkish and Austrian Troops is still part of the Hermitage museum collection; however The Troops at Rest was probably sold in the 1920-30s and the present whereabouts are unknown. The distinguished provenance of both Philip and Pieter Wouwermans' original paintings reflects the enduring aesthetic appeal of the canvases reproduced on the present vases. The vibrant painting by one of the factory's best artists wonderfully captures the atmospheric Dutch landscapes and richly-coloured genre scenes.
The present vases, dated 1828, were produced by the Imperial Porcelain Factory at the beginning of the reign of Nicholas I (1825-1855), and retain many neo-classical influences from the reign of his predecessor, Alexander I (1800-1825). The form and decoration are closely related to two pairs of vases from the Peterhof Museum (see N.B. von Wolf (ed. V.V. Znamenov), Imperatorskii farforovyi zavod, 1744-1904, St Petersburg, 2008, pp. 325, 491).