Imperiia: a spatial history of the Russian EmpireMain MenuAboutDashboardsData CatalogMapStoriesGalleriesGamesWho said history was boring?Map ShelfTeach Our ContentCiting the ProjectKelly O'Neilldc20b45f1d74122ba0d654d19961d826c5a557f5The Imperiia Project // Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies, Harvard University
Anatolii Demidov
12020-03-20T00:31:02-04:00Kelly O'Neilldc20b45f1d74122ba0d654d19961d826c5a557f591Detail of portrait by Karl Briullov, circa 1831plain2020-03-20T00:31:02-04:00Kelly O'Neilldc20b45f1d74122ba0d654d19961d826c5a557f5
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12019-03-27T11:36:41-04:00A Princely Playboy in Crimea74Views from the Voyage of Anatolii Demidovimage_header2023-01-09T23:54:15-05:00Anatolii Nikitich Demidov was born into not one, but two, of the wealthiest and most powerful families in Russia in March 1813. His father, Count Nikolai Nikitich (Demidov), was ambassador to France. His mother, Baroness Elizaveta Aleksandrova, was a Stroganov. Anatolii grew up in Paris and spent his life in Europe. He married into the Bonaparte family, conducted famous affairs, collected great works of art, and helped Russia finance the Crimean War.
In 1837, Demidov organized a scientific expedition to southern Russia and Crimea, sparing no expense. He published his own travel account the same year, and a voyage album followed in 1838 with 100 lithographs by Denis Auguste Marie Raffet.
According to the old adage, these fifteen images are worth 15,000 words. The stories they tell are not of princes and delicious courtly scandal, however. They tell stories of nameless peasants and ramshackle landscapes and quiet moments in the shadows. They are steeped in romanticism, to be sure. Yet they communicate something important about what it meant to inhabit Crimea in the early 19th century.
Shall we start with a slideshow of the plates, in publication order? If you want a closer view of an image, click on the timeline entry title. A new page will open. Beneath each image you will see a source link: clicking on the link will open the image on a related Imperiia site - one equipped with a high-resolution dynamic viewer.
Cartographically inclined? Move through the gallery by clicking on the placemarks below (note: the placemarks are spaced around the modern locations of the named towns - they do not indicate specific locations).