Little-Known Images of Folk Costumes and Types of the Peoples of Russia in the Nationalmuseum, Stockholm

562 Miscellaneous Edward KASINEC Janis A. KRESLINS, Sr. LITTLE-KNOWN IMAGES OF FOLK COSTUMES AND TYPES OF THE PEOPLES OF RUSSIA IN THE NATIONALMUSEUM, STOCKHOLM* Very little known, and for the most part unnoticed in scholarship is the important and sizable collection of early drawings and watercolors held by the Department of Prints and Drawings at the Swedish Nationalmuseum in Stockholm, depicting people of different ethnic backgrounds and belonging to various social strata of the Russian Empire. An inventory of this collection , entitled “Folk Costumes and Types,” by Peter Pfab, was included in the publication Russian Architectural Drawings in the Nationalmuseum, by Bjorn H. Hallström.1 * In preparing this article, valuable assistance was provided by Merit Lane of the Department of Prints and Drawings at the Nationalmuseum in Stockholm. The authors also wish to thank the Photography Department of the Nationalmuseum, and HeeGwone Yoo of the Slavic and Baltic Division, The New York Public Library. An exception is the article by the Estonian ethnographer Gustav Ränk, describing the drawings depicting Estonians in this collection: “Estniska folkdräkter från 1700 – talets första hälft,” in Svio-Estonica: Studier utgivna av Svensk-Estniska Samfundet. 1960. Vol. XV. No. 6. Pp. 36-51. 1 Nationalmusei Skriftserie. 1963. No. 9. Pp. 135-143. In the inventory, the original German descriptions of the drawings and prints are translated into English. 563 Ab Imperio, 4/2008 Hallström assumes that the impressive collection of architectural drawings and other visual materials was collected by Friedrich Wilhelm von Bergholz (1699-1765), Gentleman Usher to the Duke of Holstein, who in the first decades of the eighteenth century repeatedly stayed in St. Petersburg and witnessed the building of Peter I’s city. A detailed account of his stay in St. Petersburg from 1721 to 1725 is given by Bergholz in his diary.2 Bergholz returned to St. Petersburg in 1742 as a tutor to Karl Peter Ulrich of Holstein-Gottorp (the future Peter III of Russia, r. 1762), son of Duke Karl Frederick of Holstein-Gottorp and Anna Petrovna, a daughter of Peter I of Russia. Hallström concludes that it was Bergholz who acquired the collection now in the possession of the Nationalmuseum. When Bergholz was dismissed by Princess Sophie FriderickeAuguste of Anhalt-Zerbst – the future Catherine II of Russia (r. 1762-96) – as unsuited to be tutor to her future husband, he returned to the city of Wismar on the Baltic coast (now in present-day Germany) which at that time was under Swedish control. Hallström could not determine how and when the so-called Bergholz collection came to Sweden. He assumes that Bergholz had left, or sold it, to the Swedish Royal House, which had helped him during the years when his Russian pension had been stopped. However, in a recent publication “The Tessin Collection of Architectural Drawings during the Eighteenth Century (1728-1772)”3 Laine suggests that the history of the so-called Bergholz collection is much more complex. Laine argues that most of the materials pertaining to eighteenth century Russia at the Nationalmuseum are from the collections of the Tessin family, whose members were the leading Swedish architects and arbiters of taste for three generations. Both volumes of drawings were bound in 1750, hence they were drawn earlier. The Tessins had close connections to the kings of Sweden, to whom they sold their collections. Laine suggests that the “Bergholz” collection may have been given to the Swedish KingAdolf Frederick (r. 1751-1771) by either the Empress Elizabeth Petrovna of Russia (r. l741-1762), or Catherine II (r. 1762-1796), both close relatives. The rulers of Sweden and Russia were members of the German Holstein-Gottorp family, and it was a matter of custom for them to exchange political (and personal) gifts of this nature. The several hundred drawings of the various types of Russians, Ukrainians , Georgians, Kalmyks, Tartars, Samoyeds, Yakuts, Tungus, Mongols, 2 Tagebuch, welches er in Russland von 1721 bis 1725 als holsteinischer Kammerjunker geführet hat. Magazin für die neue Historie und Geographie. Halle, 1785. Theil 19. S. 1-202; Theil 20. S. 329-529. Theil 21. S. 179-360; Theil 22. S. 502-552. 3...