Lot 271: Attributed to Nicolas Louis de Lespinasse (Pouilly 1734-1808 Paris) View of the Oranienbaum Palace

View of the Oranienbaum Palace
pen and ink and watercolour on paper, heightened with gouache, original wash-line mount
25 x 68cm (9 13/16 x 26 3/4in).

An engraving after the present watercolour was published in Histoire physique, morale, civile et politique de la Russie Ancienne [et moderne] (Paris and Versailles, 1783-1794).

Originally built for Peter the Great's right-hand-man, Prince Menshikov, Orienbaum is located on the Gulf of Finland to the west of Saint Petersburg and immediately opposite the fortress of Kronstadt. It then became the summer residence of Grand Duke Peter Fedorovitch, the heir of the Empress Elizabeth (and future Emperor Peter III). Over the last ten years of Elizabeth's reign, Bartolomeo Francesco Rastrelli reconstructed the Grand Palace in the form that it appears here. Following Peter III's murder in 1762, his widow, Catherine the Great, made it a summer residence.