Catherine The Great Art Collection

The Beginning of a “Great” Collection

By the end of the eighteenth century the Hermitage was already one of Europe’s finest museums. Catherine the Great had acquired not only a wide variety of classical works, but also paintings by contemporary western artists. Catherine defined the trends in collecting, which set high standards that have been impossible to ignore ever since. In addition, her interest in the Enlightenment Movement in the 18^th century bridged the gap between Eastern and Western Europe. Though Catherine’s relationship with the great philosopher Voltaire began as a publicity move, the two quickly became close friends. Catherine knew her letters to Voltaire were actually a message sent directly to the intelligentsia living in Europe.

Catherine began building her collection just one year after she reached the throne. Catherine saw herself foremost as an intellectual, so she judged the paintings she purchased not for their visual beauty or artistic technique, but for their intellectual and narrative content. Her first sizable purchase was in 1773, when she purchased a collection of 225 paintings from an art dealer in Berlin. The collection was originally destined for King Frederick II of Prussia. Among the 225 paintings, there were only five masterpieces – three Rembrandts, a Franz Hals and a Rubens. In 1769 Catherine scooped up the famous Dresden collection belonging to the late Count Heinrich von Brühl.  The collection included four Rembrandts, a Caravaggio and five works by Rubens. In 1771 Catherine purchased the famous collection of Pierre Crozat, which included eight Rembrandts, four by Veronese, twelve by Rubens, seven by Van Dyck and several by Raphael, Titian and Tintoretto.

Perhaps Catherine’s greatest conquest was England’s famed Walpole Collection. In 1778 the empress received news that the spendthrift grandson and heir of Sir Robert Walpole wanted to sell the family’s entire collection. The collection represented the finest and most famous private art collection in England, among the finest in the world. Sir Robert Walpole had dedicated nearly forty years of his life to building a collection of almost two hundred paintings, which included Rembrandt’s Abraham’s Sacrifice of Isaac, fifteen works by Van Dyck and thirteen by Rubens. The Walpole Collection confirmed Catherine’s reputation as Europe’s foremost collector of art. During her reign her collection grew to almost four thousand paintings, making her the greatest collector and patron of art in the history of Europe