🗓️November 27, 2013 — March 17, 2014
THE RUSSIAN MUSEUM BENOIS WING
📍2, Griboyedov Сh Emb, St Petersburg 191186 Russia
◆ An Invitation to Dinner. Cookbook of the Russian Museum ◆
The theme of food has been widely explored in the works of Russian artists from the 18th century through the early 21st century, yet it had never before become the subject of a dedicated exhibition. The extensive collection of the Russian Museum, which includes several hundred artworks related to gastronomic topics, provided a rich foundation for a comprehensive and vivid exploration of this theme.
The exhibition presented over 300 works from the Russian Museum’s collection, as well as from private collections and artists’ studios.
The display included grand imperial dinner services from the 18th–19th centuries, examples of contemporary decorative and applied art, as well as paintings and graphic works depicting a wide range of dining scenes — from modest meals to lavish banquets.
Among the featured artists were renowned masters such as Konstantin Makovsky, Andrei Ryabushkin, Boris Kustodiev, Ilya Mashkov, Pyotr Konchalovsky, Arkady Plastov, and Viktor Ivanov.
The exhibition also included recipes for traditional Russian dishes and numerous menus from court and aristocratic dinners. Since the first half of the 19th century, such menus were often designed by major artists and became unique works of art in their own right, reflecting the stylistic trends of different eras.