- Museum number
- Painting.21
- Description
-
Portrait of Peter I, Emperor of Russia (1672-1725). T.Q.L. turned three-quarters-r., the eyes looking full, wearing armour and a blue sash over his l. shoulder, and holding a helmet. In the distance is a city on the edge of a river or lake and to the right are tents and a fortress.
Oil painting on canvas
- Production date
- 18thC
- Dimensions
-
Height: 129 centimetres
-
Width: 102 centimetres
- Curator's comments
- The Museum’s only detailed source of information about this portrait, at present, is a printed 19th-century list of oil paintings in the Museum which identifies it as a portrait of Peter I, Emperor of Russia and states (in quotation marks, indicating that it has been copied from a source so far unidentified) that it is “from an original, drawn by Klingstad, in the possession of the Earl of Hertford, 1725; then Ambassador at Petersburgh” ... “From the Old Cottonian Library”. (See also Oliver Cromwell) The Cottonian Library was given to the nation in 1700 and eventually stored at Ashburnham House where it was almost destroyed by fire in 1731. It was subsequently moved to Westminster. Since this portrait is dated 1725 it must have been an addition to the Cotton collection but whether it originates with the family or became attached in Ashburnham House or Westminster is not known. Also, the Earl of Hertford does not appear to have been Ambassador to Russia but was Ambassador to France 1763-65. The portrait is briefly mentioned in one of the Museum’s earliest guide books [Powlett, 1761, p.5]: as “Peter the Great Czar of Muscovy”.Powlett (1761).
The style of this large work differs from that of the miniaturist Karl Gustav Klingstedt (1657-1734) so it is most probably by another artist. The subject seems however to be Peter the Great, wearing the blue ribbon of the Order of St Andrew (established 1698), although no similar portrait has so far been identified. In the distance is a city on the edge of a river or lake and to the right are tents and a fortress.
In the 1842 and 1879 List of Portraits the painting, in the 3rd or Central Compartment of the Eastern Zoological Gallery is described as 'Peter I, Emperor of Russia "from an original drawn by Klingstad, in the possession of the Earl of Hertford, 1725; then Ambassador at Petersburgh. From the Old Cottonian Library".
According to the 1879 list the painting is 'from an original, drawn by Klingstad, in the possession of the Earl of Hertford, 1725; then Ambassador at Petersburgh'.
Piet Bakker (email August 2021) pointed out that this portrait was painted by someone who was familiar with Peter's portrait by the Leiden painter Carel de Moor, painted in 1717. Prints after the de Moor painting include 2006,U.1461.
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
-
Montagu House (1761)
Montagu House, Upper Floor, Room V (10 Feb 1810)
Eastern Zoological Gallery.(1842, 1879)
King Edward VII Gallery, Bay xv-xvi.
Buildings&Estates offices (C. Terrey) (c.2000-9)
- Condition
- Cleaned and frame regilt by Buttery, 1897.
- Acquisition date
- 1753
- Acquisition notes
- The portrait appears in the Museum’s List of Portraits ... (1842 and 1879) as “Peter I, Emperor of Russia from an original drawn by Klingstad, in the possession of the Earl of Hertford, 1725, then Ambassador at Petersburgh. From the Old Cottonian Library”. However, this information seems to be incorrect. The Earl of Hertford does not appear to have been Ambassador to Russia but was Ambassador to France 1763-65. The Cottonian Collection had already been given to the nation in 1700 and was eventually stored in Ashburnham House, where it narrowly escaped destruction in a fire in 1731, then at Westminster before its acquisition by the Museum in 1753, as part of the collection entrusted to the British Museum under the terms of the British Museum Act 1753. The portrait is listed in Dodsley’s 1761 Guide to the British Museum (p. 5) as “Peter the Great Czar of Muscovy”. It does not appear to be mentioned in the Museum’s Book of Presents before this date and does not seem to be in the Catalogue of Sir Hans Sloane’s collection. Since this portrait is dated 1725 it must have been an addition to the Cotton collection but whether it originates with the family or became attached in Ashburnham House or Westminster is not known.
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- Painting.21
