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Bust of Czar Nicholas I of Russia (1796-1855)
(18th and 19th Centuries )
Rauch was extremely famous in his time, and he and the numerous sculptors he trained dominated German sculpture during the first half of the 19th century. The writer Anna Jameson declared that "no modern sculptor enjoys a higher or more universal reputation," while the critic J. Beavington Atkinson described him as "the sculptor who eclipses all others." Rauch was viewed by contemporaries as able to combine the ideal with a modern sensibility. His work was widely collected and commissioned by the royal houses of Europe.
There is another almost identical bust by Rauch of the emperor in the State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, but it is dated 1821. For more on this object, see Gabriella Tassinari, I ritratti dello zar Nicola I incisi su intaglio e cammei, Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte, vol. 68, no 3, (Sonderdruck, 2005). p. 363.
Inscription
Provenance
Provenance (from the French provenir, 'to come from/forth') is the chronology of the ownership, custody, or location of a historical object. Learn more about provenance at the Walters.
Alexander Polovtsoff, Paris; Miss Mary Churchill Humphrey; given to Walters Art Museum, 1957.
Exhibitions
| 2017-2018 | Fabergé and the Russian Crafts Tradition: An Empire's Legacy . The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore. |
Conservation
| Date | Description | Narrative |
|---|---|---|
| Treatment | Cleaned, repaired | |
| Treatment | Cleaned to remove dirt and grime; deteriorated repair to marble at lower edge removed and replaced with conservation grade materials. | |
| 6/22/1971 | Treatment | cleaned |
| 11/30/2015 | Examination | Cleaned for exhibition. |
Geographies
Germany (Place of Origin)
Measurements
H: 24 13/16 × W: 15 5/16 × D: 10 5/8 in. (63 × 38.86 × 27 cm)
Credit Line
Gift of Miss Mary Churchill Humphrey in memory of Alexander Polovtsoff, 1957
Location in Museum
Not on view
Accession Number
In libraries, galleries, museums, and archives, an accession number is a unique identifier assigned to each object in the collection.
In libraries, galleries, museums, and archives, an accession number is a unique identifier assigned to each object in the collection.
27.554