About collection

Portrait miniature came to Russia under Peter the Great, and the Russian Museum's collection shows it almost from the very beginning. Here are works by Grigory Musikiysky and Andrei Ovsov, the first Russian masters of painting in enamel, together with an even earlier portrait of Peter I of about 1700, which the emperor himself presented to Grigory Stroganov in 1714 in a diamond setting. The Petrine enamels came to the museum in 1930 from the Hermitage, from its Gallery of Jewels and from the collection of Prince Lev Kochubey.

The collection holds enamel on gold and copper, watercolour on ivory, oil on tinplate. Catherine II in travelling dress by Pyotr Zharkov, a portrait of Kutuzov painted from life by Peter Rockstuhl, Alexander I and the Romanov suite by Jean Benner, portraits of Nicholas I and his daughters. Scale is what sets this collection apart: the portrait of Catherine I painted by Musikiysky in 1724 is 3.6 centimetres high.