ANN ARBOR, MICHIGAN.- The University of Michigan Museum of Art presents “The Romanovs Collect: European Art from the Hermitage,” on view through November 23, 2003. This is a historic exhibition of more than 140 exquisite works of fine and decorative art from the unrivalled collections of the State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg. The Museum of Art is the exclusive worldwide venue for this extraordinary exhibition, the first such collaboration between the Hermitage and a North American university museum. This exhibition is made possible by Ford Motor Company. Additional support has been provided by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, the Trust for Mutual Understanding, an indemnity from the Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities, the University of Michigan’s Office of the Provost, Office of the Vice President for Communications, Office of the Vice President for Research, and other generous donors.

From French paintings, Dutch drawings, and Italian sculpture to meticulously detailed furniture, renowned Wedgwood and Sèvres porcelain, and Aubusson tapestries, the exhibition will provide an unprecedented window into the luxurious world of the Romanov tsars and their passion for collecting all things European.

“This is one of the most ambitious exhibition projects in the history of the Museum and we are delighted to have this opportunity to collaborate with the Hermitage,” said James Steward, director of the Museum of Art and organizer of the exhibition. “Our many thanks go to Ford Motor Company for its continuing generosity enabling us to bring these European treasures to the Midwest.”

“We are pleased to continue our support of the University of Michigan Museum of Art through the sponsorship of The Romanovs Collect, a landmark exhibition which celebrates St. Petersburg’s rich cultural heritage,” said Sandra E. Ulsh, President, Ford Motor Company Fund. “As Ford marks its 100th anniversary this year, we are proud to continue our longstanding commitment to supporting diverse arts and cultural programs such as this , which educate and inspire the public and enliven our communities.”

Anchoring the University of Michigan’s Celebrating St. Petersburg Festival—a wide-ranging series of cultural events and educational programs marking the 300th anniversary of St. Petersburg—the exhibition presents a fascinating story of Imperial personalities, nation building, and the evolution of collecting tastes across one of the most turbulent periods in European history.

Organized chronologically by tsar, the eight sections of the exhibition with artwork by some 80 European artists and artisans reveal the evolution of collecting in Imperial Russia from Peter the Great to the tragic end of the Romanovs in 1917. In founding St. Petersburg in 1703, Peter the Great set out to build a modern capital that would rival or exceed the capitals of Europe, and he avidly began to build a collection of European art, often buying art abroad to reflect both his personal taste and his desire to elevate Russia’s prestige internationally. Peter’s daughter Elizabeth, who ruled from 1741 to 1761, continued her father’s collecting practices by obtaining large numbers of artworks, including the exhibition’s porcelain service by Meissen, Europe’s oldest producer of hard ceramics.

Catherine II (ruled 1762-1796), known as Catherine the Great, was a voracious collector who acquired tens of thousands of works of art, often purchasing large collections en masse from European royalty and rulers, commissioning work directly from European artists, and making astute individual purchases on the advice of her personal coterie of agents abroad. Catherine’s taste for the Old Masters, the art of her own time, and the neoclassical are evident in such works as Hans Bol’s panoramic Allegory of Spring; Jean-Baptiste Greuze’s Portrait of a Young Man in a Hat; Anton Raphael Mengs’s graceful Annunciation; and pieces from the vast “Cameo” dinner and dessert service made for her by the royal Sèvres Porcelain Factory in France. While Catherine’s heirs may have slowed the pace of collecting, they were strongly influenced by her aesthetic preferences and continued to acquire art in all media, including one of Caspar David Friedrich’s signature Romantic landscapes, Gian Lorenzo Bernini’s dynamic sculpture of St. Ambrose, and Hubert Robert’s stunning portrayal of ancient ruins.

By the time Nicholas II came to power in 1894, the Romanovs’ personal tastes were no longer as definitively European as they had been in the previous century, and a changed political climate dictated what the tsar’s family could collect and display on behalf of the Russian nation. Nicholas’s taste for quiet domesticity serves as a thoughtful conclusion to this visually compelling exhibition.