St. Petersburg, Russia - The State Russian Museum opens the “Grand Duchess Elena Pavlovna, owner of the Mikhailovsky Palace” exposition in the Mikhailovsky Palace. It comprises exhibits from the collection of the museum, State Archives of the Russian Federation, St Petersburg Museum of Theatre and Music, Mining Museum of the St Petersburg State Mining Institute. The palace itself is perhaps one of the main exhibits of the jubilee exhibition dedicated to the bicentenary of Elena Pavlovna’s birthday.

The personality of Grand Duchess Elena Pavlovna (1806-1873) takes her own rightful place in the list of lustrous names of women who contributed to nineteenth-century Russian culture. A daughter of the Duke of Wurttemberg, Princess Frederica Charlotte Maria came to Russia as a fifteen-year old girl and upon converting to Orthodoxy married Grand Duke Mikhail Pavlovich (1798-1849), the younger son of Russian Emperor Paul I, General-Feldzeugmeister of the Russian Army, cofounder of the system of education in national military schools.

As a member of the ruling Romanov dynasty, Grand Duchess received the whole of St Petersburg in the Mikhailovsky Palace built for the Grand Ducal couple by the architect Carlo Rossi. Through the efforts and enthusiasm of its young hostess the palace became a peculiar center of social and cultural life of the Northern capital.

Keen interest in the fate of her new motherland made Elena Pavlovna a witness and contributor to many prominent events of her time. She grieved over the tragic death of Alexander Pushkin. She supported the founding of Russian Musical Society headed by Anton Rubinstein. She lived through the troubles of the Crimean War and contributed to the formation of the first national sisters of mercy community, which took part in the heroic defence of Sebastopol.

Elena Pavlovna travelled through Europe a lot. When in Italy she met many Russian artists, sat with her daughter Mary for the famous portrait by Karl Briullov, which is now one the highlights of the Russian Museum collection. The delivery of Alexander Ivanov’s Christ’s Appearance to the People to Russia was also a matter of her interested concern.

The inquisitive mind of Grand Duchess always thirsted for knowledge. Emperor Nicholas I even described her as “the scholar in our family”. A good proof of the name is the exhibited collection of the volcanic rocks found with the participation of Grand Duchess in the environs of Naples, now stored in the Mining Museum of the St Petersburg State Mining Institute.

In her saloon a group of liberal-minded officials discussed the plans of emancipation of peasants implemented in the course of Great Reforms of the 1860s-70s. Grand Duchess organised many charitable institutions, hospitals, orphanages, the St Petersburg Clinical Institute which bears her name now.

Her image inspired many poets, national and European artists who devoted their works to Elena Pavlovna. The exhibition comprises a whole gallery of Grand Duke Mikhail Pavlovich’s family portraits from the collection of the Russian Museum and the St Petersburg Museum of Theatre and Music. Many of the portrait miniatures of various periods have been put on display for the first time and help viewers trace the whole life of Grand Duchess.

A number of documents from the personal archives of Elena Pavlovna, currently stored in the State Archives of the Russian Federation, reveal the scope and diversity of her interests. The exhibition comprises a number of portraits of the celebrated Russian men of letters, artists, musicians, scientists and politicians from the milieu of “Madame Michèle”, participants of the “morganatic” soirees in her saloon. One of her contemporaries rightfully wrote about her: “Her name embraces a whole epoch”. The unique works of decorative art from the Russian Museum collection give a lively idea of the interior decor of the Mikhailovsky Palace, which has retained the style and flavour of the epoch of Grand Duchess Elena Pavlovna.

The State Russian Museum today is a unique depository of artistic treasures, a leading restoration center, an authoritative institute of academic research, a major educational center and the nucleus of a network of national museums of art.

The Russian Museum collection contains circa 400.000 exhibits. The main complex of museum buildings - the Mikhailovsky Palace and Benois Wing - houses the permanent exhibition of the Russian Museum, tracing the entire history of Russian art from the tenth to the twentieth centuries. The museum collection embraces all forms, genres, schools and movements of art. Visit The State Russian Museum at : http://www.rusmuseum.ru/eng/museum/