Painting Collection
The Painting Collection includes over a thousand paintings from Western European and Russian masters, dating from the 16th century to the first half of the 20th century. The most complete, valuable and internationally acclaimed sub-collections consist of Netherlandish and Russian paintings by Jacob Jordaens, Maerten de Vos, Philips Wouverman, Fyodor Rokotov, Ilya Repin, Konstantin Korovin and others. There are also paintings from Germany, Italy, France, Austria, Switzerland and Finland. Several paintings from the Painting Collection have been the subjects of international research and exhibition projects.
Kerttu Männiste
Curator
Gallery
Graphic Arts Collection
The Graphic Arts Collection is composed of more than 4,100 works of art, the majority of which were created by German and Russian artists. The most noteworthy German authors include well-known Expressionists: Otto Dix among others. The subset of Russian graphic art consists of 18th to 20th century drawings, including some remarkable works by well-known 19th-century masters. A tenth of the collection consists of art by famous artists from the Low Countries, allowing us to observe the development of printmaking from the 16th to the 18th centuries. All of the above works are supplemented by high-quality graphic art from 18th-century England and France. The subset of Italian art is small but contains some true pearls of 16th-century ink drawing.
Gallery
Sculpture Collection
The Sculpture Collection provides an overview of Estonia’s historical contacts with Western European and Russian art. The collection includes more than 250 works of art created outside of Estonia in the 18th to the 20th centuries. Its core is composed of copies of sculpture classics and of examples of Soviet Russian art.
Valuable originals that deserve to be highlighted include Bust of Princess Volkonskaya by the Italian sculptor Pietro Tenerani, Bust of Karl Seidlitz by the German sculptor Joseph von Kopf and The Regiment’s Son by the Russian female sculptor Sarra Petrovna Bogatkina. Along with the portraits, the collection includes several examples of figurative and decorative sculpture.
Gallery
Applied Arts and Furniture Collection
The Collection of Applied Arts consists of decorative items, made of various materials, originating in Western Europe, Russia and Asia in the 18th to the 20th centuries. The porcelain collection is the largest and contains samples from many Russian producers, including avant-garde Soviet china from the early 1920s. The fan collection provides an overview of the different styles of these accessories during the 18th to the 20th centuries.
The furniture collection includes items which were made in the 18th to the 20th centuries in Russia and Western Europe and have reached the museum from different interiors in Estonia. Some sets have been used as official furniture in Kadriorg Palace and that is where they are displayed to this day.
Aleksandra Murre
Curator
Gallery
