(1800 Paris 1890)
View of the Russian section at The Great Exhibition in London in 1851
Pencil, quill, ink et watercolor, enhanced with gouache
255 x 494 mm
Signed lower left : Eugène Lami 1852
(sold in pairs with the View of the Austrian section at The Great Exhibition in London in 1851)
Provenance: Commissionned by Anatole Demidoff, prince of San Donato ; San Donato’s sale, 8th, 9th et 10th March 1870, n°322 ; Emile Boussod.
Exhibition: Eugène Lami, Peintre décorateur de la famille d’Orléans, musée Condé de Chantilly, 23rd February – 19th May 2019, N°37
Literature: Eugène Lami, Pierre-André Lemoisne, 1914, n°862, 868 and 869 (mistakenly identified as the French section) gathered today; Eugène Lami, Peintre et décorateur de la famille d’Orléans, Nicole Garnier-Pelle et Mathieu Deldicque, in collaboration with Caroline Imbert, Edition Faton, Les Carnets de Chantilly, 2019, n°37 reproduced p. 82.
True profusion and display of artistic wealth as industrial of most countries of the world The Great Exhibition remains in memory as the place of the fanciful splendor of the second half of the nineteenth and early twentieth century. The first was inaugurated in 1851 on English territory under the large glass plates of the Crystal Palace built specifically for the event by Joseph Paxton. Each nation that had the means to present itself had then to deploy within the assigned section a careful and spectacular staging in order to unveil to the eyes of the world its most wonderful creations and innovations.
A few painters especially watercolourists, became the bard of this new theatre. Among them was Eugène Lami whose talent for drawing the portrait of interiors was recognized to the point of elaborating for King Louis-Phillipe and the Orléans family the decoration projects of most of their royal residences.
His skillful brush able to give all the grace of decorative arts attracted prestigious sponsors such as the prince of San Donato Anatole Demidoff (1812-1870). Rich Russian diplomat and industrialist he owned vast territories in the mountainous regions of the Urals with many mines including malachite. By his privileged economic and political position Demidoff actively participated in the cultural demonstration of Russia during The Great Exhibition and wanted to keep the memory ordering from Lami a series of watercolors one of which is ours.
In this series the main international sections are particularly important and highlighted. Our watercolor is truly an ode to the art object and furniture which the artist portrays with ease and remarkable rendering.
Our watercolor was long divided into two sheets and wrongly identified in 1914 by Lemoisne as representing the French section due to the presence of this large crater in porcelain chalice compared to vase from the manufacture of Sèvres.
Actually it was its Russian counterpart the Saint-Petersburg porcelain factory. Perched in the middle of our leaf this large vase is mentioned in the Catalogue de l’Exposition Universelle de 1851 by Duncombe and Harman at no 318 of the Russian section: “La Manufacture Impériale de Porcelaine, St. Petersburg. Vases décorés de tableaux”.
In addition this calyx crater was adorned on its faces with landscapes made after those of the Dutch painter Nicolaes Berchem (1620-1683), more easily visible on an aquarelle of the same subject, Part of the Russian court, by Henry Clark Pidgeon (1807-1880) at the Victoria & Albert Museum.
The two large golden bronze candelabras that frame the stage although the one on the right is cut by the framing instead focusing on malachite vases – true models of our work – are listed in the catalogue no. 287 of the previously mentioned catalogue: “Krumbigel, Fab. Moscou. Deux candélabres en bronze doré.” Richly carved by this Moscow manufacture their column supports a multitude of arms decorated with arabesques whose ends are adorned with sparkling glass globes. These candelabras are reproduced in The Art Journal of 1851.
As for the malachite vases produced in the workshops of the Demidoff manufacture hence the importance that Lami attaches to them in our watercolour they are mentioned in this same catalogue, at no. 324: «Demidoff, M. M. Prop. Nizhne-Taghilsk , Sibérie ; différents objets en malachite” The vase with neo-rocaille style generous shoulders on the left and decorated with gilded bronze ornaments was purchased by Queen Victoria. It is now kept in the royal collections under reference RCIN 1709.
At the back of the section are two large doors also in malachite and decorated with gilded bronze which the photographer Hugh Owen (1834-1891) immortalized with the vase purchased by the queen on the left and a calyx crater of malachite on the right visible to the left of the door on our watercolour. The construction of these doors required more than thirty craftsmen for over a year.
The other representations thus allow us to glimpse the freedoms taken by Lami in the arrangement framing and exaggeration of certain elements notably in malachite of the Russian section. For example looking at the watercolour by Joseph Nash (1809-1878), The Great Exhibition: Russia, The Royal Collection it becomes clearer that the Russian section had many other elements including silverware on the sides and a bronze vase in the foreground which would almost go unnoticed on Lami’s work. This work is therefore a manifesto of the fantasized memory that a great sponsor wanted to keep from an event like The Great Exhibition. Despite the orientation that Lami takes for Demidoff in his watercolor our leaf remains with a warmer touch a sincere and striking testimony of the pomp, the colors and effervescence that animated the Crystal Palace’s aisles during the first Great Exhibition.
EUGENE LAMI :
Born into a family of imperial officials Eugene Lami was marked in his childhood by military magazines, the spectacle of uniforms and the splendor of the imperial regime at its peak. At the age of 10 he was very impressed by a meeting with Napoleon during a visit to the Museum. His family being related to the Vernet it is quite natural that he becomes friends with Horace who shares his admiration and enthusiasm. In 1817 Eugene Lami entered the École des Beaux-Arts where he studied under Gros alongside Delaroche and the British watercolourist Bonington with whom he remained very close. He meets Géricault, Chateaubriand and Auber in the workshop of Horace Vernet which was then a centre of liberal opposition to the regime. He naturally began his artistic career as a collaborator of Horace Vernet by illustrating the Collection des uniformes des armées françaises de 1791 à 1814. He participated for the first time in the Salon des Artistes Français in 1824 with an «Etudes de chevaux» and will exhibit there every year until 1878 except between 1844 and 1847 period when he worked at Chantilly. Decorated with the Legion of Honour in 1837 he was promoted to Officer in 1862 and won a second-class medal at the 1855 Salon. He visited London in 1826 a must for any artist known as the ‘modern’ one. Despite his liberal views he was chosen to illustrate the famous «Quadrille de Marie Stuart», a memorable ball given to the Tuileries by the Duchess of Berry in 1829. One of the favorite artists of the Orléans and Rothschild Lami will mark with his imprint the history of taste and decoration in France in the 19th century.