| Exhibition Dates: |
November 22, 2011–November 30, 2021 |
Exhibition Location:
|
European Sculpture and Decorative Arts, Gallery 555, first floor |
Louisiana heiress and philanthropist Matilda Geddings Gray (1885-1971) acquired her first object by Fabergé in 1933. An artist herself, with a refined aesthetic sensibility, she was a sophisticated collector, while the name of the Russian artist-jeweler Peter Carl Fabergé (1846-1920) was almost unknown in the United States. Over the following years, Matilda Geddings Gray amassed one of the finest Fabergé collections in the world, and Fabergé’s art has become widely known and internationally sought after.
A selection of works by Fabergé from Matilda Geddings Gray’s sumptuous collection is on long-term loan at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and comprises the exhibition
Fabergé from the Matilda Geddings Gray Foundation Collection, opening November 22, 2011. Objects originally commissioned by and created for the Romanov family, such as the
Lilies-of-the-Valley Basket—the most important Fabergé work in a U. S. collection—and three magnificent Imperial Easter Eggs, are on view. The exhibition will display works from the collection on a rotating schedule for five years. Iconic works from the House of Fabergé have not been on public view in New York since 2004.
After Matilda Geddings Gray died in 1971, her collection passed to the foundation she had established, with the stipulation that a broad public should be able to enjoy it. The collection was on view for many years at the New Orleans Museum of Art and at the Cheekwood Botanical Garden and Museum of Art in Nashville.
Peter Carl Fabergé (1846-1920) was a talented artisan and jeweler but also a visionary. In 1872 he took over his father’s small atelier in Saint Petersburg and within 40 years transformed it into the world’s largest enterprise of its kind, employing some 500 craftsmen and designers. During the 1870s Peter Carl Fabergé had ongoing and open access to the world-renowned collections of the Hermitage for cataloguing, repairing and restoring of precious pieces, particularly ancient gold pieces of jewelry. In 1882, at the Pan-Russian Exhibition held in Moscow, he was awarded the gold medal for his accurate replicas of those objects, drawing the attention of the czar and of the Imperial family. In 1885 the House of Fabergé was nominated “Goldsmith by special appointment of the Imperial Crown” and received the commission for the first Imperial Easter Egg. The firm rapidly grew to become the largest jewelry enterprise in Russia, and from 1882 to 1917 (when the Russian Revolution brought an end to the Fabergé production), the House of Fabergé produced thousands of objects ranging from silver tea sets to objets de luxe. The artisan died in Lausanne, Switzerland, in 1920.
The exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum features three of the 50 Imperial Easter Eggs created for the Romanov family by Fabergé beginning in 1885. Records show that the eggs were initially commissioned by Czar Alexander III for his wife, Maria Feodorovna, and then by his son and heir, Czar Nicholas II, for his mother and his wife. The creation of each Imperial Easter Egg required the work of many people—designers, gem cutters and setters, engravers, enamelers, polishers—and each could take more than a year to complete. The three Imperial Easter Eggs on view include the
Imperial Danish Palaces Egg, which Czar Alexander III presented in 1890 to his wife, and which is divided into 12 sections in opalescent pink enamel with diamonds, emeralds, and sapphires. It opens to reveal a surprise folding 10-panel screen that bears miniatures of the Empress’ favorite Danish and Russian retreats. The
Imperial Caucasus Egg, an opulent piece adorned with diamonds, pearls, crystal, and ivory, has four oval doors, each of which open to reveal a different miniature view of Abastuman, the imperial hunting lodge in the Caucasus Mountains. And the
Imperial Napoleonic Egg, which Czar Nicholas II presented to his mother, the dowager empress Maria Feodorovna, on Easter 1912, commemorates the centenary of the Russian victory over the armies of Napoleon, revealing a folding six-panel screen with miniatures showing the six regiments of which the dowager empress was an honorary colonel.
Another highlight of the exhibition is the
Lilies-of-the-Valley Basket, considered to be Fabergé’s floral masterpiece. It is the most important piece by the artisan in any collection in the United States. Made in 1896, it was originally presented to Czarina Alexandra Feodorovna and consists of 19 individual stems emerging from nine separate plants in a “moss” of spun, fused, clipped, and polished green and yellow gold. Each pearl blossom is edged in silver set with rose-cut diamonds, with realistic leaves made of hard, dense nephrite and carved with the striations characteristic of the lily of the valley plant. The czarina, who treasured the
Lilies-of-the-Valley Basket, kept it on view in her private apartments and often took it with her when traveling.
Fabergé from the Matilda Geddings Gray Foundation Collection is organized by Curator Wolfram Koeppe and Valeria Cafà, Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Curatorial Fellow, both of the Metropolitan Museum’s Department of European Sculpture and Decorative Arts.
The exhibition is featured on the Museum’s website at
www.metmuseum.org.
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Updated November 21, 2016
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