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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 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 PRESENT VASE AND COMPARABLE EXAMPLES
The present vase is painted with La Sérénade after the seventeenth century Dutch painter Jacob Ochtervelt (1634-1682). The original work was in the collection of the Hermitage at the time the vase was produced by the Imperial Porcelain Factory. La Sérénade is recorded by Andrei Somov, curator of the Imperial Hermitage, in his catalogue of the collection (A. Somov, Imperial Hermitage. Catalogue of the painting gallery. [Imperatorskii Ermitazh. Katalog kartinnoi galerei.], St Petersburg, 1902, vol. II, p. 352, no. 891).
The painting was acquired for 1,500 roubles in 1826 from the collection of Prince Mikhail Miloradovich, a prominent Russian general. From 1928, part of the Hermitage collection was distributed among other museums or sold by the Soviet government, which was in urgent need of foreign currency. By 1930, the work was with Galerie van Diemen in Berlin and has since passed through several private collections. In 2017, it was donated by a private German collector to Kunsthalle Bremen where it is currently on view.
Another comparable vase painted with La Sérénade after Ochtervelt was sold at Christie’s, London, 29 November 2010, lot 358. The form and decoration of the present vase are closely related to the vase from the collection of the State Russian Museum, St Petersburg (see N.B. von Wolf (ed. V.V. Znamenov), Imperatorskii farforovyi zavod, 1744-1904, St Petersburg, 2008, p. 446). Another comparable vase was presented by Emperor Nicholas I to Friedrich Wilhelm IV of Prussia, and is currently part of the collection of the Prussian Palaces and Gardens Foundation (see M. Korablev, M. Sokolenko, Antologiia Russkogo Farfora XVIII-nachala XX veka, vol. 3, part 2, Moscow, 2013, p. 49).
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 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 PRESENT VASE AND COMPARABLE EXAMPLES
The present vase is painted with La Sérénade after the seventeenth century Dutch painter Jacob Ochtervelt (1634-1682). The original work was in the collection of the Hermitage at the time the vase was produced by the Imperial Porcelain Factory. La Sérénade is recorded by Andrei Somov, curator of the Imperial Hermitage, in his catalogue of the collection (A. Somov, Imperial Hermitage. Catalogue of the painting gallery. [Imperatorskii Ermitazh. Katalog kartinnoi galerei.], St Petersburg, 1902, vol. II, p. 352, no. 891).
The painting was acquired for 1,500 roubles in 1826 from the collection of Prince Mikhail Miloradovich, a prominent Russian general. From 1928, part of the Hermitage collection was distributed among other museums or sold by the Soviet government, which was in urgent need of foreign currency. By 1930, the work was with Galerie van Diemen in Berlin and has since passed through several private collections. In 2017, it was donated by a private German collector to Kunsthalle Bremen where it is currently on view.
Another comparable vase painted with La Sérénade after Ochtervelt was sold at Christie’s, London, 29 November 2010, lot 358. The form and decoration of the present vase are closely related to the vase from the collection of the State Russian Museum, St Petersburg (see N.B. von Wolf (ed. V.V. Znamenov), Imperatorskii farforovyi zavod, 1744-1904, St Petersburg, 2008, p. 446). Another comparable vase was presented by Emperor Nicholas I to Friedrich Wilhelm IV of Prussia, and is currently part of the collection of the Prussian Palaces and Gardens Foundation (see M. Korablev, M. Sokolenko, Antologiia Russkogo Farfora XVIII-nachala XX veka, vol. 3, part 2, Moscow, 2013, p. 49).