Postcard from Bishkek

On 11th March, 1914, (although it was still the 26th February according to the Julian Calendar in use throughout Russia at that time), at the age of 87, Pyotr Semenov Tianshanski passed away in St. Petersburg from pneumonia.

He is famous for a number of things – but the epithet Tianshanky, (which Tsar Nicholas II granted him to add to his last name), illustrates the importance attached to the accounts he wrote of his journeys of exploration into the interior of the Tian Shan mountain range – bringing this hitherto unknown region to wider audience.

His journals not only described his experiences, the landscape and wildlife that he encountered, but also many of the discoveries that he made. He discovered, described and collected specimens of many ‘new’ species of plants and insects – many of which now bear his name.

He was fêted on his return to St. Petersburg and belonged to a vast number of learned societies, including the Russian Geographical Society which he basically ran for forty years, from 1873 until his death; The Russian Entomological Society, of which he served as President; The Academy of Sciences and the Academy of Arts.  He often used his position to encourage and support the further exploration of Central Asia – such as the expeditions of Prezhervalsky and Kozlov.

Less well known, perhaps, are some of his other activities.

He was, for example, extremely interested in the power of the emerging discipline of statistics (a man after my own heart) and did his best to advance their study and use in the Russian Empire.  He served for ten years as the Chairman of the Central Committee for Statistics and it is said that it was largely due to his efforts that first census of the Russian Empire was organized and held in 1897.

Less well known, perhaps, is the fact that he was an avid collector:

… of insects … his collection of over 700,000 specimens  were ayatematized, described and became a part of the St. Petersburg Zoological Museum

… and … of artworks -his collection of over 700 paintings by Dutch and Flemish artists dating from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, (including works by Rembrandt , Jordaens , Van Dyck , Flink , Fabricius , Salomon de Bray, Lastman , Muyarta, Dirk Hals, Eze. Boursa, Kalfa , Beyer, Putter, Reykhalsa – as well as lesser well known artists), was the largest in Russia.  Apparently he planned to bequeath it the Hermitage Museum and so concentrated in obtaining samples which the museum lacked.

He bought many of his paintings in auctions in Berlin, Munich, Cologne, Vienna, Paris and London on his many regular trips to these European cities … as well as in St Petersburg, where the sale of artworks and antiques was reaching a previously unprecedented scale.

He also wrote about his collection including many of which were brought together and published as a collection of Essays on the History of Dutch Painting.

His collection also included engravings and etchings – over 3500 lithographs, and works by artists of the Italian school and more than 150 etchings by Durer.

Although he had originally planned to donate his collection to the Hermitage … he considered this unfair to five sons and thirteen grandchildren, so in 1910 he sold it to the museum for just 250000 rubles – apparently in gold(!) – but that was just half the estimated value of half a million.  Under the terms of the agreement, they remained in him for the rest of his life … which meant that it became the last major addition to the museum before the outbreak of the First World War.

After his death the Hermitage mounted a special exhibition of the works in his memory.

Here is a selection of the paintings from the collection:

In 1920, a decision of the Soviet government, many paintings were allocated to other museums around the country … and later several works were sold off.

The Hermitage, however, managed to hold on to a wide selection of the works and they formed the bases of another specialist exhibition – A Collector’s Taste – in the Nicholas Hall of the Winter Palace in 2006 – timed to coincide with the 400th anniversary of the birth of Rembrandt.

 

 

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