THE HERMITAGE

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THE HERMITAGE

The museum complex known as the Hermitage consists of five buildings. The first is the Winter Palace built by Peter the Great but never lived in by him. Empress Elizabeth was it’s first Royal resident. The Palace is in the Baroque style so loved by Elizabeth, with grand staircases and elaborately gilded walls and painted ceilings.
Catherine the Great was Elizabeth’s daughter-in-law and a great art collector. She commissioned agents all over Europe to purchase collections as they came to market. Her first acquisition consisted of 250 pieces that had been owned by a German merchant. When it arrived in Russia, she realized that the Winter Palace was not suitable to display art as the walls were marble and silk. So, she built what is now known as the Hermitage, attached to the Winter Palace by a covered walkway. Her collection soon outgrew the Hermitage and another building was constructed and then another. Now the collection contains over three million pieces. It is not possible to see even a tiny bit of its offerings. We started with the Italian Renaissance, progressed through the Dutch and Spanish schools and breezed though the impressive Impressionist collection.
I was surprised that some of these priceless masterworks were hung in places where the direct sunlight struck them. Another surprise was that the paintings were so accessible. The alarm often sounded as people got too close but too close was a matter of inches. I watch one woman place her finger about an inch from a canvas. It was a Rembrandt! I snuck away from the group to enjoy the Gauguin’s. Our guide had zipped right though that gallery without stopping. There I was able to see many of his paintings that I had only before seen in books. I wish I had more time and less people but was glad to have had the opportunity to see what I did.
A bit about Nina, our guide; she teaches English to university students and this is her part time job. She has the teacher’s knack of organizing our group and keeping us together and on schedule. She was very knowledgeable about the history, architecture and art we are seeing. She has traveled extensively and been to California and Florida. She acknowledges that not everyone here is better off under the new regime. The elderly are particularly hard hit and the medical system is broken down. Still, for most of the people they are better off with the opportunity to live better. She shared that the residents of St. Petersburg were even proud of their traffic jams as that meant they had more cars, more about that later.
After nine long hours we returned to the Eurodam, very glad to be back on board.

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