May 16 to September 16, 2012, the second floor halls of the Alexander Palace will house two exhibitions marking the 200th anniversary of the Russian Patriotic War of 1812, also known as the French invasion of Russia.

Tsarskoye Selo was one of the favourite residences of Emperor Alexander I, whose personal determination and integrity ensured that Russia and her people – of all social classes together – were victorious in the war against Napoleon. Alexander I commemorated the victory with a triumphal To-my-Dear-Comrades-in-Arms Gate built in the Catherine Park in 1817.

The exhibition Alexander I and Napoleon: Peace before War will show items from the Tsarskoye Selo collections related to the calm years in French-Russian relations between 1805 and 1809 and, for the first time in 70 years, the painting Napoleon’s Army entering Munich on 24 October 1805 by François Dubois (1790–1871), which disappeared from Tsarskoye Selo during World War II.

It was returned in 1948 and then stored in the reserve collection of the museum as an unknown artist’s work until its recent successful restoration and attribution.

The exhibition Year 1812 in works from private collections of Moscow and St Petersburg, curated by the collector and art historian Sergei Podstanitsky, will present over 300 works of painting and applied decorative arts from nine private collections of Moscow and St Petersburg.

The exhibitions will run May 16 through September 16, 2012, in the 2nd floor halls of the Alexander Palace, 10.00–18.00 (last entry 17.00) daily except Tuesdays and the last Wednesday of each month.