Hermitage.

The State Hermitage Museum in Saint

Petersburg is the largest museum and
picture gallery in Russia. It is also one
of the most influential institutions in art
sphere in the world. The museum is
situated at the Harbor of Neva River in
Winter Palace, which used to be the
official residence of Russian monarchs.

Hermitage has appeared in 1764 as a private collection of Catherine the

Great, Empress of Russia. She was fond of European pictorial art and her
first collection consisted of 200 pictures painted by Dutch and Flemish artists.
At first these pictures weren’t on display. On the opposite, they were hidden in
remote and secluded rooms of the Winter Palace. This has also become a
reason to give the collection a name “Hermitage”, which means from French
“a private secluded place”. In 1769 more pictures were purchased for the
collection. They were brought from Dresden especially for the Empress.
However, one of the most important renewals happened in 1772, when
Queen Catherine has bought a large collection of European art in Paris. The
collection included pictures which were dominantly of Italian, French, Flemish
and Dutch artists.

As a museum, Hermitage has opened its doors for numerous visitors in 1852
in the New Hermitage building. Already by the 1880 the attendance of
Hermitage reached 50 000 visitors a year.

At the moment people can see there various masterpieces of such world-
known artists as Matisse, Picasso, Van Gogh, Rembrandt, Van Dyck,
Leonardo da Vinci and many others.

Surprisingly, Hermitage is not only a picture gallery. There are also lots of
sculptures, ancient arts and crafts items and else. Almost all works of art are
of European origin.

At some point the museum started receiving works of Russian painters, but
they were later moved to the Russian Museum, which is also in Saint
Petersburg.