The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts To Host "Fabergé Revealed"

Written by Cecil Underwood Sunday, 15 April 2012 21:25

Richmond, VA.- The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (VMFA) is proud to present the largest collection of Fabergé on public view in the United States. The exhibition, "Fabergé Revealed", includes works from four collections in America, totaling more than 500 objects. It will be on view at VMFA from July 9th through October 2nd. The Russian jeweler Karl Fabergé, arguably the most famous jeweler of all time, crafted objects for the families of the last two tsars of Russia and for most of Europe’s nobility. He is best known for his Imperial Easter eggs. On exhibition from 9 July through 2 October at the VMFA.

VMFA’s collection is the largest public collection of Fabergé in this country and includes five Russian Imperial Easter eggs. Only 50 were created by this world-renowned jeweler. Most Fabergé works are made from gold, platinum, diamonds and rubies, among other precious metals and gemstones. The dazzling artistry of Fabergé has been a longtime favorite of visitors to our art museum,” Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Director Alex Nyerges said. “To see the Easter eggs is a treat itself, but to see them accompanied by hundreds of other Fabergé works of art is just incredible. We are pleased to have Dr. Géza von Habsburg, a preeminent Fabergé scholar, to curate this exhibition and provide fascinating new scholarship on the Virginia Museum’s most popular collection.” The name Fabergé is synonymous with refined craftsmanship, glittering luxury and the last days of the doomed Russian imperial family.

The array of enameled picture frames and clocks, gold cigarette cases and cane tops, hardstone animals and flowers in rock crystal vases, and ruby encrusted brooches and boxes continue to fascinate viewers as they did when first displayed in the windows of Fabergé’s stores in St Petersburg, Moscow and London. In addition to showcasing VMFA’s extensive Fabergé collection, the exhibition will feature loans from distinguished private collections.  The collection of Matilda Geddings Gray of Louisiana has loaned its rare Napoleonic Egg and Lilies of the Valley Basket. Noteworthy loans from the Arthur and Dorothy McFerrin Foundation Collection include the Nobel Ice Egg and the Empress Josephine Tiara.  Additionally, in a complementary exhibition, more than 100 pieces will come from the family collection of Virginia-born Daniel Hodges, including the Bismark Box and the Coiled Serpent Paperweight.

Alongside these loans, "Fabergé Revealed" will present VMFA’s entire collection to the public and will create a rare opportunity to view more than 500 objects by the celebrated jeweler to Russian Tsars Alexander III and his son and successor Nicholas II. The exhibition will be separated into six sections, showcasing works with precious metals, gemstones, enamels, miniature Easter eggs and hardstone carvings.  The installation will also allow for a 360-degree view of each Imperial Easter egg.

Karl Fabergé, born in 1846, took over the family business from his father, the jeweler Gustav Fabergé in 1872. Initially the firm produced jewelry, but achieved a breakthrough in 1882 with a first sale to Empress Maria Feodorovna, the wife of Tsar Alexander III, who acquired a small piece of archeological gold jewelry. Soon thereafter Fabergé was appointed Supplier to the Imperial Crown and began his series of 50 Imperial Easter eggs, which were to create his everlasting fame. Maria Feodorovna received 30 of these masterpieces.  Her daughter-in-law Tsarina Alexandra Feodorovna, the wife of the last Tsar Nicholas II, received 20 Imperial eggs. Fabergé’s firm, the largest of its time, with 500 craftsmen and with six branch offices, produced more than 150,000 pieces of jewelry, silver and precious objects, of which very few survived the 1917 Revolution. The large majority of these treasures were disassembled, melted or destroyed by the Bolsheviks. After the murder of Tsar Nicholas and his family, Fabergé closed his shops, fled and died as a refugee in Switzerland in 1920.


In the midst of the Great Depression, on January 16, 1936, Virginia's political and business leaders bravely demonstrated their faith in the future and their belief in the value of art by opening the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond. The English Renaissance-style headquarters building was designed by Peebles and Ferguson Architects of Norfolk. The museum's first addition was built in 1954 by Merrill C. Lee, Architects, of Richmond. By the mid 1960s, additional gallery space was again desperately needed. The museum's second addition, the South Wing, was designed by Baskervill & Son Architects of Richmond. It featured four new permanent galleries and a large gallery for loan exhibitions, as well as a new library, photography lab, art storage rooms and staff offices. As more exhibition space and visitor services were needed, a third addition, the North Wing, designed by Hardwicke Associates, Inc., Architects, of Richmond, was completed in 1976. It added three more gallery areas (two for loan exhibitions and one for the Sydney and Frances Lewis Art Nouveau Collection) as well as a new sculpture garden with a cascading fountain. In December 1985, the museum opened its fourth addition, the West Wing. It now houses the Mellon collections, consisting of major examples of French Impressionist, Post-Impressionist and British Sporting art (which was permanently given to the museum in 1983); the Lewis Contemporary art collections; and the outstanding Lewis collections of Art Nouveau and Art Deco furniture, glass and other decorative arts. The West Wing was designed by Hardy Holzman Pfeiffer Associates of New York. The museum has assembled a wide-ranging collection of world art characterized by great breadth and exceptional aesthetic quality. It includes significant holdings of Classical and African art, paintings by European masters such as Nicolas Poussin, Francisco Goya, Michel Delacroix and Claude Monet, and American masters such as John Singer Sargent and Winslow Homer, one of the world's leading collections of Indian and Himalayan art, an internationally important collection of fine English silver, unequaled holdings of Art Nouveau and Art Deco furniture, ceramics, glass and jewelry, a dynamic collection of Modern and Contemporary art, a popular collection of Fabergé imperial jeweled objects and noted holdings of French Impressionist and Post-Impressionist art, including original waxes and bronzes by Edgar Degas. In 2003, a year after its selection of London-based architect Rick Mather, VMFA unveiled a master plan for a $100-million building expansion and transformation of its 13 1/2-acre campus. Mather's design will provide Virginians with a work of contemporary architecture that will display more fully the museum's extensive collection of world art. His virtuoso handling of transparency and natural light will function as both a tool and a metaphor to open the museum to its surroundings and create an inspiring atmosphere in which to view art. Visit the mueum's website at ... http://www.vmfa.state.va.us

---

Click on logo below to add this article to your favorite Social Website ~