Timothy Corrigan, a Pallasart client, is one of the most celebrated interior designers in the world. He has offices in Beverly Hills and Paris.
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The Green or Cameron Dining Room The Second Suite of apartments composes the so called Apartments of the Emperor Alexander I.The first room of these apartments is The Green Dining Room. This room has two windows, reaching the ground, and overlooking the big square; its walls are in the Roman style and are painted. The ceiling representing "Triumph of Bacchus" is the work of a pupil of Canova, Antonio Canoppi. The furniture is white, covered with light-green gros-de-Naples, of antique style; at the furthest end of the room is an organ; on the marble chimney is a dark bronze clock with the model of the monument of Minin and Poyarsky in Moscow; on the tables are vases of dark and light glass with Etruscan decorations, and Chinese and Japanese porcelain of the 16th and 17th centuries. Next to the Dining Room is situated a small room with one window, facing the square and making a passage to the following Room of the Imperial Standards. It is The Room Preceeding the Cast-Iron Staircase, which is to be seen through the window in the screen. The doors of the Green Dining Room, the Room of the Imperial Standards, and the Room With Arches, open out on the landing of the cast iron staircase. The walls of the landing are covered with imitations of marble and adorned with four small gilt sconces, in Empire style. The walls of the room, preceding the cast-iron staircase, are covered with white silk panels in wooden gilt frames in rococo style; on the walls are two landscapes by Rosa da Tivoli. The following room with three windows, reaching the floor and overlooking the square is the Drawing Room of the Emperor Alexander III. The walls of the drawing room are covered with ancient Chinese silk with watercolor paintings; the decoration is framed with gilt carving and modeling in rococo style. The painted ceiling "Flora and Zephyrus" was copied from the old model by Theodore Brulov after the fire of 1820. Between the windows stand high mirrors in gilt frames of rococo style with muddled sconces; in the corners are two huge stoves, one of Dutch tiles of the beginning of the 18th century, the other restored from the old drawing of Kuznetzov. At the window in a corner is a large clock with chimes, the work of Roentgen and Kitzing in Neumied ,of the end of the 18th century; near the back door is a desk of the 18th century; the furniture is in pseudo Chinese style of the times of the Empress Yelizaveta; on the tables are some particularly valuable Chinese porcelain, blue vases, and a crimson bowl; near the window is the marble bust of the Emperor Alexander I; on the walls hang in full length the portraits of the Emperor Alexander I in the uniform of the Life Guards Hussars, by Batman, and of the Empress Catherine II after Lampi; near the windows hang the half-length portraits of the Emperor Peter I and of the Grand Duchess Anna Petrovna; and on the wall opposite the windows, the half-length portraits of the Emperor Peter I, of the Empress Catherine I, of the Empress Anna loannovna, and of Elizabeth Petrovna, all of them the work of Caravaca.  Bedroom of Emperor Alexander I Beyond the door, at the end of the room is the Bedroom of the Emperor Alexander I. Two windows reach the floor and face the park: the walls are covered with Chinese silk and with water colour paintings, representing scenes from the life of the Manchurians; every thing in rich gilt frames; above the alcove, with the modest camp-bed of the Emperor, on a magnificently carved gilt arch in Louis XV style, is the monogram of the Empress Catherine II. The ceiling is painted with"The Allegorical Representation of the Natural Sciences". In the corner is a chimney of the same style; and between the windows a mirror down to the floor. The furniture is of mahogany in empire style, covered with dark green Morocco leather; in the chests of drawers are a great number of small dressing-case things; near the mirror are his sword and sabre; on the bed a straw mattress in a chamois leather cover, horse-hair cushions: in similar covers, and a chintz and pique counterpane; on the wall are the plans of Petersburg and Tsarskoe Selo; over the door and above the stove hang the pictures: "Pastoral", "Vestal", and "Flowers", restored after the fire of 1820 by Antonelli. The following room, with two windows, overlooking the park, is the Reception Room. Its walls are covered with imitation of marble and with antique friezes; the doors and furniture are of light poplar wood, covered with blue silk in Empire style. On the walls hang a beautiful gilt bronze lustre, two pictures of Adam by an unknown painter, "Battle at Leipsic", by Sauerweide, "Maneuvers Near Kalish", by Cazella, and "Mass in Luneville", by Ladurner. Near the mirror stand, a vase of the beginning of the 19th century, representing the fight at Brienne, presented in former times by the Emperor Alexander I to the Field-Marshal Osten-Saken; several green vases from the Imperial Porcelain Factory; a bronze gilt clock, representing a warrior in ancient Greek armor, by Moynet the Elder, Tomire and Co. (Moyet aine, Tomire et Comp.), a work of the beginning of the 19th century. Next to the Reception Room is the Small Room with Arches, with one window, overlooking the park. The walls and the ceiling are ornamented with imitation marble; opposite the window a small door leads, to the cast-iron staircase; the furniture is of dark Persian walnut in Empire style, covered with yellow silk. The door leads into the Study. Two windows, reaching the floor, overlook the park; the walls and ceiling are covered with marble imitation of a pinkish shade, with paintings in Empire style; in the back ground of the room is a rich marble chimney with bronze ornaments and a magnificent clock of French work of the beginning of the 19th century, representing Julius Caesar; between the windows stands a tall mirror; on the writing table is a malachite and bronze ink-stand; the furniture is of walnut wood, ornamented with bronze, in Empire style. By the wall stands a huge china vase from the Imperial Porcelain Factory, painted by Swebach in 1818, and representing the capture of Paris on the 19th of March 1814. Next to the Bedroom are situated three rooms, which may be visited only with special permission of the Chief of the Palace Administration. They are the Small Library with a passage into the Dressing Room, Footman's Room, and Private Study of the Emperor. The Library has one window, reaching the floor overlooking the garden, it serves as a passage to the Dressing Room and to the private staircase, leading into the Park; the walls of the Library are white with gilding, small bookcases are on the walls; here too, hang the portraits of the Emperor Peter II, genre Luddecke; of the Prince George Oldenburg by Kiprenski, of the Grand Duchess Catherine Pavlovna; of Anna Petrovna; of the Empress Anna loannovna; of the Tsar Ivan V; all works of unknown painters; and a print, representing the Empress Alexandra Fyodorovna with the Tsarevich Alexander Nikolaevich and the Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna, a copy by Fricht from the original by Dawe. The small Footman's Room with one window, overlooking the park, has ancient blue hangings with a white frieze; the ceiling is painted in Empire style; the divan and arm-chairs are covered with red hemp stuff; in the passage is an engraved portrait of the Count Nikita Ivanovich Panine, the work of Radiges from the original by Rosselin. A door leads into the Private Study of the Emperor Alexander I. Two windows overlook the park; the walls are covered with white brocade and decorated with, gilt carving and modeling in rococo style. The painted ceiling "Apotheosis of Alexander of Macedonia" is a Russian work of the 18th century. The furniture is of the same style as in the Bedroom; it consists of a big leather divan, of a large writing table, of a drawing table with little cupboards, and of a chest of drawers with bronze ornamentation; the writing-table is covered with green cloth and stands in the middle of the room, facing the windows; in the chest of drawers and in the cupboards are to be seen the Emperor's own and armorial stamps, the travelling portfolio for papers, a bottle-cast, a washing-set for travelling, a magnificent tea service (a gift of the town of Brussels and the work of Faber), a great quantity of plans of the suburbs of Krasnoe Selo, descriptions of travels, campaigns, books of gardening, military laws of the Polish cavalry, German military books, plans of houses, designed by Montferrand for the poor inhabitants of Tsarskoe Selo, mathematical and drawing instruments, work-boxes, dressing cases, pistols and other trifles. On the chimney is a travelling clock in a wooden case, the work of Breget; on the chest of drawers a small bronze clock of the work of the beginning of the 19th century and a bronze candelabrum with mother-of-pearl ornaments by Degen; near the divan are a small telescope, the Emperor's frock coat, his hat, and his cap. On the wall near the door hangs a plan of Tsarskoe Selo of 1822; and on the chest of drawers is a small miniature, painted by Kitty Thomattis in 1823 of the Grand Duchess Catherine Pavlovna, and a similar portrait on jade. Above the door hangs "Scene at the Fountain" by an unknown painter; and over the divan a pastel portrait of the Grand Duchess Catherine Pavlovna by herself, in 1805; and her portrait by an unknown painter. Above the drawing table stands a portrait of the Empress Elizabeth Alekseyevna by Vige-Lebrun in 1801; nearer to the divan is a portrait of the Prussian King Frederick William III by Gebauer; a watercolor portrait of the Grand Duke Constantine Pavlovich by Stavik; and above the chest of drawers a copy made by the Grand Duchess Maria Nickolaevna in 1803 of a "Woman's Head" by Greuze. The last room, of the Second Suite of Apartments is the White Dining Room. This room is situated next to the drawing-room of the Emperor Alexander I and has, a door, opening straight into the study. The white dining-room has three windows, overlooking the square; its walls are covered with white silk and ornamented with wooden gilt carving and modeling in rococo style. The painted ceiling representing "Rape of Tarsias" was executed by Theodore Brullov after the fire of 1820. The furniture is gilt in the style of Louis XV, covered with white silk; tall mirrors are raised on slabs of gray marble. Near the window is a bronze group "Rape of the Sabines"; on the tables is some Japanese and Chinese porcelain of the 16th-17th centuries. Against the wall, at the end of the room, are two chests of drawers of the 18th century work and a magnificent desk of Russian work of the end of the 18th century, with two inscriptions on the left side of it (a) "The laws of the Great Empress Catherine II" and "For the prosperity of all loyal subjects". On one of the chests of drawers is a clock in the shape of a portico of dark bronze with a figure of the "glory" in gilt bronze on the upper part of it; inside the clock is an organ. On the walls hang the following pictures, "The Capture of Shamill" by Willewalde in 1863, three views of the Tsarskoe Selo palace in the time of the Empress Elizabeth by an unknown artist, "The Colonnade of the Palace" by F. Alekseyev in 1823, "Palace Quay in St. Petersburg", by the same painter in 1794, and a Gobelin "Parrot and Monkeys" with the inscription 'IS. S. Groot, P. T. made pri Impe. Sbp. Ma. 1770". With this room finishes the "Second" suite of apartments. They were till 1781 the private rooms of the Empress Catherine II. The Bed Chamber of the Emperor Alexander I was the bedroom of his sovereign grandmother. When the Empress removed to another part of the palace, those rooms were occupied by Alexander Pavlovich: the rooms, facing the garden, were transformed into private apartments, those, which faced the square, remained state-apartments, serving as a passage to the church' gallery through the rooms of the Tsarevich, they used to be called afterwards the "First Apartments". With the enlargement of the family and household, rooms on the ground-floor were added to the interior rooms of the first apartments, a part of which have been transformed into the Church Hall. A part of the rooms of the first and of the second suites of apartments have preserved the old style of ornamentation of the time of the Empress Elizabeth (Bedroom, Study, Drawing Room, the Dining Room), they formed probably the halls of the right wing during Yelizaveta's time. The other state apartments are ornamented in a recent style, they were, it seems, built by Neelov in the beginning of the reign of Catherine II, when the demolished galleries and orchards were transformed into state rooms. The private rooms of the first suite of apartments, as well as the study, the reception chamber, and the green dining, room of the Emperor Alexander I, were furnished still later. The fire of 1820 spoiled all the furniture and the walls of the palace as far as the Picture Hall, which is next to the White Dining Room. But the character of the ornamentation was unchanged, Stasov, being ordered to renew "everything in its previous" style. When the Emperor Alexander I came to Tsarskoe in summer, he always occupied the rooms of the "Second apartments". He chose these rooms for himself, although the New Aleksandrovski Palace had been built specially for him during the last year of Catherine's life. In these apartments the Tsar, weary in body and mind, found mental and physical repose, and returned from his fatiguing journeys straight to Tsarskoe Selo, instead of going to Petersburg; here were taken the most important resolutions of the last years of his reign. On his return from the congress of Troppau in May 1821, he received here the famous Benkendorf's note, concerning the secret societies, which he left without consequence. Here at the same time he received from the Adjutant General Vassiltchikov the information of the existence of a political conspiracy among the officers and the list of the conspirators' names. "My Dear Vassiltchikov", said the Emperor after some time of profound and serious meditation, "you, who have been in my service from the beginning of my reign, know, that I myself shared and encouraged these illusions and errors; I cannot punish them". Here too, on the 16th of August 1823, the Emperor signed the manifesto, concerning the succession to the throne of the Grand Duke Nicholas Pavlovich, but he did not promulgate it and ordered it to be kept until required in the Cathedral of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin. Both these resolutions: not to persecute the secret societies, and not to proclaim the change in the succession to the throne, gave vent to the resolution in the minds of the upper class of society and brought about the 14th of December 1825. The Emperor Alexander I passed the best years of his life in Tsarskoe Selo, when as a boy and youth he accompanied the Great Catherine in her stay here during the summer months. Here he spent the four summers, following his marriage, when Russia enjoyed peace and power - happy results of Catherine's reign at a moment, when the whole of Western Europe was trembling at the storm and thunder of the French Revolution. Here to the Emperor Alexander rested during the last years of his life, after having gained, through Russia's superhuman efforts and enormous sacrifices, the name of "the Deliverer of Europe". The struggle with Napoleon, the intrigue of the European diplomacy, the Polish, Greek, and Turkish questions, together with the interior difficulties, crushed all the illusions of the favorite grandson of Catherine II; and having lost confidence in men and succumbing from the labours of his reign, in the stillness of Tsarskoe Selo, being in a mystical frame of mind, he dreamed of resigning the crown and of finishing his life as a private man, somewhere in the tranquility of a beautiful castle on the banks of the Rhine. How little the Emperor valued his own life, and how he felt the weight of his dignity, may be seen from his words to Vassiltchikov after his recovery from a severe illness in 1824, when, having been congratulated by the latter for his deliverance from a mortal danger, he replied. "In reality I should not have been displeased to throw off the burden of a crown, whose weight oppresses me so terribly". |
