Alexander Nikolaevich Benois, 1870-1960

Acquired directly from the artist by the father of the present owner. 

‘It was at Peterhof that the ‘novel of my life began’…. At Peterhof there is something so magical, so dear and poetic, that almost everybody who gets to know it falls under its spell.’

Benois felt a strong connection with the palace of Peterhof. Not only had his father Nikolai Benois worked there as an architect for over ten years, but it also harked back to a past culture which Benois and his fellow miriskusstniki were trying to revive in the arts.

His first sketches of the palace architecture and grounds date from 1900 when Benois was preparing his history of eighteenth century art. Fearing that Russia’s cultural landmarks might be destroyed in a wave of post-Revolutionary vandalism, he returned in 1918 to record Peterhof in an extensive series of sketches and lithographs. Finally in 1942, Benois put together an album of views of Peterhof dedicated to his wife which drew together a number of his earlier studies as well as some new works based on his original sketches.