The Collection
After an international tour, VMFA’s renowned collection of Fabergé has returned to the museum. Five new galleries have been prepared to showcase 280 Fabergé objects and other Russian decorative arts. The galleries feature both innovative displays and a range of interactive components designed to inform, engage, and delight.
Since 1947, when Lillian Thomas Pratt donated a large selection of Fabergé objects to the museum, they have continued to enchant visitors. This spectacular Fabergé collection—the largest public collection outside of Russia—includes five of the 52 Russian imperial Easter eggs created by the St. Petersburg firm led by jeweler Karl Fabergé (1846–1920).
Between 1933 and 1946 Lillian Tomas Pratt assembled a collection of more than 475 Russian objects, including over 170 made by the celebrated Fabergé firm. The highlight of this collection, which she bequeathed to the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in 1947, is the magnificent group of five imperial Easter eggs that Fabergé created for the last two tsars of Russia. The museum’s suite of five galleries displays a selection of Fabergé objects as well as other Russian decorative arts from the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
The Russian Empire under the rule of Tsar Alexander III and his son Tsar Nicholas II was one of the largest in the world, Although this period, from 1881 to 1917, was marked by political turmoil, economic struggle, and war, the imperial court lived in extraordinary opulence. In 1885 Alexander commissioned the first imperial Easter egg by Fabergé, which he presented to his wife, Empress Maria Feodorovna.
After Alexander’s death in 1894, Nicholas continued this tradition, presenting Easter eggs to both his mother and his wife, Empress Alexandra Feodorovna. In 1872 Karl Fabergé, a craftsman of French Huguenot origin, assumed control of the small St. Petersburg jewelry firm founded by his father, Gustav, thirty years earlier. Under Karl’s leadership, the firm was greatly enlarged and catered to wealthy aristocrats, leaders of business and industry, and the royal families of Europe and Asia. This well-known establishment created an enormous number of objects, a large majority of which have disappeared. Many were broken up, melted down, or destroyed—but those that remain offer a fascinating glimpse into a vanished era.
Jeweler to the Russian Court
KARL FABERGÉ (1846-1920), who combined his early training as a goldsmith and jeweler with innovative business practices, created one of the most successful firms of the late 19th century. The company’s reputation for objects of quality, beauty, and prestige attracted a select and international clientele, in particular, the Russian imperial family. Fabergé was appointed Supplier to the Imperial Court in 1885, and the St. Petersburg company expanded with branches in Moscow (1887), Odessa (1901), London (1903), and Kiev (1906).
Although Fabergé did not personally make the objects he sold, he directed the firm with great expertise, employing about 500 people, who produced more than 150,000 items. He hired a chief workmaster, who oversaw the main workshop, where new ideas were developed. Over the years, gifted artists including Mikhail Perkhin and Henrik Wigström held this important position. These chief workmasters supervised the creation of most of the imperial Easter eggs.
By the time of Tsar Nicholas II’s abdication in 1917, Fabergé had presented fifty Easter eggs to Russia’s last rulers. During World War I, many of Fabergé’s craftsmen were drafted into the Russian military. By 1918 the company was nationalized and all its stock confiscated by the government. That same year, following the execution of Nicholas and his family by revolutionaries, Fabergé fled to Switzerland, where he died in Lausanne in 1920.
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