Collections

The Gatchina palace collection was begun by Count Gregory Orlov, the palace’s first owner and a collector of hunting weapons, paintings and objects of decorative arts from Western Europe and the East. After his death, the Grand Duke Paul Petrovich came to own the Palace, which later served as an imperial residence from 1796 through 1917. Throughout this time, the collection continued to expand.

Following the October Revolution, the Palace was opened to the public as a museum and until the WWII remained the largest museum among the suburban palaces outside of St Petersburg both in terms of its spaces and the scope of the collection. The Museum holdings included 54,030 artworks on view or in storage.

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Engravings and Lithographs

The Gatchina Museum-Preserve’s holdings of engravings and lithographs contain 633 pieces. The collection features colored lithographs and engravings depicting figures in various regimental uniforms that were originally placed in the private rooms of Paul I, Nicholas I and Alexander II, several views of Gatchina parks, portraits of prominent Russian statesmen, and of emperors and members of their families. Some of these were produced by foremost engravers, such as E.P. Chemesov, N.I. Utkin, I. S. Klauber, W. James, Ch.-A. Wortmann.

Some of the most important recent acquisitions include a series of engraved portraits of grand masters of the Order of Malta, purchased in 2012 and produced by the famous French engraver Lourent Cars in the 1720s. These were made to illustrate abbot de Vertot’s book, focusing on the history of the Order of Malta “Histoire des Chevaliers Hospitaliers de St. Jean de Jerusalem, appelles depuis les Chevaliers de Rhodes et aujourd'hui les Chevaliers de Malte» (first published in 1726).

Metal

The Gatchina Palace contained an extensive and diverse collection of bronze pieces, primarily lighting fixtures and clocks which was a reflection of its peculiar evolution.

Furniture

The Gatchina Museum had about 2500 pieces of furniture before World War II, of which less then 300 pieces have survived, according to records. Interestingly enough, the report compiled by V.M. Kuchumov in 1941 and describing the furniture collection held at the Central Depository of Museum Holdings indicated that most of its collection was made up of items evacuated from the Gatchina palace – 25… items in total.

Weapon

The arms collection at the Gatchina palace was started by the palace’s first owner, Grigory Orlov, and continued to grow with additions from its successive owners.

Textiles

Decorative textiles were an integral part of the Palace’s interior decoration before 1941. The holdings included an extensive collection of costumes dating from the 18th through the early 19th centuries with wardrobes of crown personages and imperial family members forming its most valuable portion. Today, the bulk of the Palace’s textile collection includes commemorative artwork such as Russian and French tapestries from the 18th to the late 19th centuries as well as rare European and Oriental embroideries.

Rare books

By the start of World War II, the Palace’s book collection consisted of over 30,000 items, incorporating libraries of historical and scholarly books. The entire book collection, totaling 6,474 items, was inventoried and became part of the museum’s holdings.

Painting

The painting collection at the Gatchina Palace held over 2000 pictures before 1941. It was started by Count G.G. Orlov and added by each of its successive owners. By 1917, it had grown into a rich and extensive collection of West European and Russian painting.

Numismatic

The Gatchina Museum coin collection was small in size and probably random. It featured mostly Russian coins and commemorative medals dating from the 18-19th centuries.

Scheme

The State Gatchina Museum contains an important collection of architectural drawings (1, 234 items). During World War II, the collection was evacuated to Sarapul. The drawings gradually made their way back to the museum beginning in 1946 to the late 1980s. Today, only seven exhibits are housed outside of the museum. The Gatchina Palace drawings are of great artistic and historical significance.

Collection of artifacts

In the prewar period, the Gatchina Palace possessed a substantial collection comprised of artworks made of bone, lacquer, wood and stone, as well as household pieces such as caskets, bags, ink stands, cigarette cases, frames, Easter eggs, etc. “These are those insignificant pieces that fill up the palace’s rooms and, when taken as a whole, produce a unique, yet historically distinctive, ensemble”. Most of the collection was made up of oriental lacqureware, including rare objects of carved red lacquer, as well as black and red lacquer items, both polychrome and painted in gold of various tints.

Items of the collection with the most significant artistic or historic value were evacuated during wartime and to a large extent have been maintained. The exceptional carved tusks that used to adorn the rooms of Alexander III prior to the war made their way back to the Gatchina Palace, as did the oriental lacquer collection in segments, regarded to be one of the finest of its kind. Unfortunately, most of the pieces from this extensive collection have not yet been returned to the Palace and are preserved in other country residences, in particular at Pavlovsk, Tsarskoye Selo and Peterhof museums. However, even those items that are now back at the Gatchina museum give an idea as to the richness of the collection that once adored the interiors of the Arsenal Wing. The collection continues to expand through purchases made by the museum.

Porcelain and glass

Before 1941, the Gatchina museum’s holdings of decorative arts included a unique porcelain and glass collection dating from the 16th to the early 20th centuries. The most important pieces in the collection were the artworks produced at the Imperial Porcelain Factory in St. Petersburg and by leading European manufactures, as well as an extensive range of porcelain ware from China and Japan.

The collection was considerably damaged during World War II. Nevertheless, over 2,300 pieces have been preserved that now make up the core of the Gatchina palace’s porcelain and glass collection, comprising fine Russian pieces of art, works produced by masters from Meissen, Vienna and Berlin porcelain manufactories and Sevres masterpieces.

Sculpture

In the pre-war period, the Gatchina collection was highly varied and included some of the finest artworks, dating from classical antiquity of the first-third centuries AD, as well as modern ages from the 17th to the early 20th centuries. The collection represented a variety of stylistic movements, ranging from baroque to art nouveau and covered an extensive group of countries such as Italy, France, Germany, Ireland, China, and Russia. The collection included objects made of decorative stones, including marble, granite, porphyry, jasper, jade, agalmatolite, serpentine, etc.

Precious metals

Like other official imperial residences, the Gatchina palace had a large number of items that contained precious metals and gems. Excluding coins, medals and religious items, the silver inventory of 1920 recorded 459 items of various uses, ranging from large bowls to bookmarks and buttons.

Photography

The Gatchina Palace’s original holdings included a fascinating photographic collection. The collection was begun in the 19th century, at the dawn of photography, when the palace’s owners - the imperial family members - decorated their private rooms with hundreds of photographs, which documented events in the life of tsar’s family - official receptions, travels about Russia, visits from members of European royal houses, and nature outings.

Scientific archive

The Research Archive holds records pertaining to the Gatchina Palace and dating from 1917 onwards. The records consist of historical notes, prewar inventories, research papers, restoration designs for the palace and park, architectural drawings and other materials, totaling over 3,000 items.

Watercolors and Drawings

The Gatchina Museum-Preserve’s watercolor and drawing collection currently contains 501 pieces. The prewar holdings, however, were far more extensive and included over 1,500 items – portraits, landscapes, images of military uniforms, genre, battle and hunting scenes.

Many of these works on paper were produced by renowned artists such as O. Verne, H.F. Viollier, M.N. Vorobyov, E.P. Haw, M. Zichi, I. Mayer, J. J. Mettenleiter, V.D. Polenov, L. Premazzi, V.S. Sadovnikov, A.I. Charlemagne, K.A. Ukhtomsky. The Gatchina palace museum currently holds just 300 artworks from its original collection, while 1,095 drawings and watercolors from the Palace’s prewar collection remain in other museums. In the 1980s and 1990s, works by modern artists were added to the collection. At about the same time, the Palace acquired several portraits and landscapes from the 18th, 19th and the first half of the 20th centuries. These include works by K.E. Makovsky, A. Ya. Golovin, and N.E. Lancere.