Military Gallery of the Winter Palace

Portrait gallery in the Winter Palace of Saint Petersburg, Russia

The Military Gallery (Russian: Военная галерея) is a gallery of the Winter Palace in Saint Petersburg, Russia. The gallery is a setting for 332 portraits of generals who took part in the Patriotic War of 1812. The portraits were painted by George Dawe and his Russian assistants Alexander Polyakov (1801–1835), a serf, and Wilhelm August Golicke.

Construction

The top-lit, barrel-vaulted hall in which the gallery is accommodated was designed by architect Carlo Rossi and constructed from June to November 1826. It replaced several small rooms in the middle of the main block of the Winter Palace - between the White Throne Hall and the Greater Throne Hall, just a few steps from the palace church. The gallery was opened in a solemn ceremony on 25 December 1826.

Plan showing the location of the Military Gallery within the palace

Burning and reconstruction

Less than ten years after its completion, it was destroyed by fire in 1837. The fire burned slowly and Dawe's portraits were saved from the flames. The architect Vasily Stasov recreated the hall exactly as it had been before.

Description by Littauer

As a cadet of the Nicholas Cavalry College [ru], Vladimir Littauer was posted in 1912 to stand night-time guard in the Military Gallery. He describes the experience as an eerie one, standing under the rows of portraits in the "huge hall" lit only by a single bulb over a cluster of banners. The isolation of the solitary sentry was emphasized by the two to three minutes that footsteps could be heard down halls and corridors before the replacement guard arrived in the gallery.

Soviet additions

During the Soviet era, the gallery collection was enhanced by four portraits of Palace Grenadiers, the special ceremonial unit created in 1827 from veterans of the Patriotic War of 1812 to guard the entire building. The portraits were also painted by George Dawe, in 1828. More recently, the gallery acquired two paintings by Peter von Hess from the 1840s.

Museum exhibit

Today, as part of the Hermitage Museum, this room retains its original decoration. Copies by Dawe and his workshop of the portraits of Boris Vladimirovich Poluektov, Dmitry Vladimirovich Golitsyn and Boris Vladimirovich Poluektov are now in the collection of the Pushkin Museum.

Gallery

References

Littauer, Vladimir (May 2007). Russian Hussar. p. 24. ISBN 978-1-59048-256-8.

External links

Media related to Hermitage hall 197 - Military Gallery at Wikimedia Commons
(in English) Hermitage Museum Website
(in Russian) www.museum.ru

v t e The Winter Palace
Rooms	Jordan Staircase Field Marshals' Hall Small Throne Room Armorial Hall Military Gallery St George's Hall and Apollo Room Grand Church Alexander Hall White Hall Gold Drawing Room Private Apartments Rotunda Arabian Hall Malachite Room Neva Enfilade Gardens
Miscellaneous	Cabin of Peter the Great Fire in the Winter Palace Hermitage Museum

v t e Carlo Rossi (architect)
Church buildings	Church of Saint Catherine in Ascension Convent (consecration, 1817) St. Peter and St. Paul's Cathedral, Tallinn (1841–1844)
Secular buildings and structures	Maly Theatre (Moscow) (1808) Anichkov Palace (reconstruction project, 1816) Mikhailovsky Palace (new design, 1817; built 1819–1825) Arts Square (1816–1834) General Staff Building (Saint Petersburg) (1819–1839) Yelagin Palace (1822) Michael Manege (renovation of the façade, 1823–1824) Rossi Bridge (1825) Rossi Pavilion (1825) Military Gallery of the Winter Palace (1826) Alexandrinsky Theatre (1828–1832) 2 Rossi Street (1828–1834) Tripartite Bridge (1829–1831) National Library of Russia (second building, 1832–1835) Tauride Palace (reconstruction, 19th-century, with others) Oława Castle (attributed autorship of the castle, 19th century)
Related	Neoclassical architecture Empire style Palace Square Russian Museum Charles Le Picq (stepfather) Vincenzo Brenna (architecture master)

59°56′27″N 30°18′52″E / 59.94083°N 30.31444°E / 59.94083; 30.31444

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