Luigi Ossipovitch Premazzi

LOT 203 LUDWIG OSIPOVICH PREMAZZI RUSSIAN 1814-1891 A DRAWING ROOM WITH BLUE CARPET AND CHINTZ UPHOLSTERED FURNITURE signed and dated L Premazzi 1859 lower right; signed by Alexander Popoff and indistinctly inscribed on the reverse watercolor over pencil on heavy paper 10 3/4 by 15 3/8 in. 27.3 by 39 cm

A Painted Porcelain Plaque Probably by the Imperial Porcelain Factory, St Petersburg, periodof Nicholas I Rectangular, painted after Luigi Premazzi with a view of the RosePavilion, Lugovoi Park, Peterhof, surrounded by figures sitting,strolling and riding in a carriage, within a gilt bronze frame,signed in Cyrillic and dated 'Semenov 1853.' (lower left) 11½ x 15 in. (29.2 x 38.1 cm.), framed This plaque is likely the work of Timofei Semenov, who came froma family of Imperial Porcelain Factory workmen and specialised inlandscape painting. He was appointed assistant master in 1849 andthen, in 1854, master painter. The design is taken from an 1850 watercolor by Luigi Premazzi(1814-1891), an Italian who relocated to Russia in 1839. It depictsthe Rose Pavilion in Peterhof, designed by Andrei Schtakenschneiderand destroyed during the Siege of Leningrad (1941-1944). Theoriginal watercolor hung in the library of Emperor Alexander II andnow is in the collection of the State Hermitage Museum. As part of an official commission from Emperor Nicholas I,Premazzi, along with Konstanin Ukhtomsky and Edward Hau, painted aseries of watercolour views of the interiors of the New Hermitage.The commission lasted nine years, from 1852 to 1861, during whichtime fifty-five pictures of the New Hermitage were produced. Inaddition, Premazzi painted a number of views of palaces and grandresidences in St Petersburg and its environs.

Italian by birth, Premazzi spent most of his life in Russia, where he was responsible for establishing a school of watercolour. Having graduated from the Academy of Arts in Milan he came to Russia to work as drawings teacher in the household of Prince Sergei Gagarin in 1848. A chance meeting with Emperor Nicholas I at Peterhof in 1851 changed his fate, for the Emperor immediately commissioned a series of watercolours. Thereafter Premazzi acquired commissions from members of the Imperial Family and the aristocracy of St. Petersburg. In 1852 he painted interior views of the Hermitage halls. In 1854 he became an Academician (for his depiction of the Chinese room in the Grand Catherine palace at Tsarskoe Selo), and in 1861 he was made a Professor. Between 1874 and 1877, Premazzi resided at the court of the Grand Duke Mikhail Nikolaievich (1832-1909), Viceroy of the Caucasus.