200th Anniversary of the birth of celebrated Russian poet and writer Alexander Pushkin
18 May, 1999 - December, 1999

Currently on show in the Hermitage Museum are three exhibitions in commemoration of the 200th anniversary of the birth of celebrated Russian poet and writer Alexander Pushkin:

Alexander Pushkin and the Winter Palace,
Alexander Pushkin and his Time in Coins and Medals.

Participants:
All-Russian Alexander Pushkin Museum, St Petersburg
Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow
Tsarskoye Selo Museum Reserve
St Petersburg Union of Artists
Moscow Union of Artists

Alexander Pushkin and the Winter Palace, including paintings, drawings,sculptures and applied art.There are portraits of Pushkin's numerous famous contemporaries. When he was young and single, the poet made frequent visits to A. O. Rosset, maid of honour to Empress Alexandra Fyodorovna. Attending the obligatory balls and ceremonies in the Palace, he came into contact with Emperor Nicholas I, Empress Maria Fyodorovna, the heir to the throne Alexander Nikolayevich, ministers and diplomats. Many of his friends from his days at school at the Lycee had achieved high position and were to me in the Winter Palace - among them State Chancellor Grand Prince Alexander Gorchakov and prominent Russian statesman Mikhail Speransky. Other friends were also received at Court, such as the daughter and two grand-daughters of celebrated Russian Fieldmarshal Mikhail Kutuzov. In the year before his tragic death after a duel (1837) the poet frequently visited his wife's aunt Yekaterina Zagryazhskaya at the Winter Palace, where she was lady in waiting to the Empress. Zagryazhskaya often helped Pushkin when he was in straitened financial circumstances. To complement the portraits are several unique paintings by pupils of Alexey Venetsianov showing the state rooms in the Imperial residence as they were before the fire of 1837, allowing us to see these rooms just as Pushkin saw them.

Alexander Pushkin and his Time in Coins and Medals presents over 350 numismatic items, including little known medals and badges devoted to the subject of Pushkin. This rarely exhibited material covers the last 150 years. The earliest object associated with Pushkin is a medal commemorating the 25th anniversary of his death. Designed by I. Chukmasov, it was struck at the St Petersburg Mint in 1862. A badge for members of the Legislative Committee set up by Catherine II is also of interest, for it was Pushkin who first made reference to it in his historical work Stories of Pugachev. The exhibition includes works by several contemporary artists and a number of pieces produced over the last few decades