Tauride Palace Seen from the Neva
by PATERSSON, Benjamin, Oil on canvas, 68 x 85 cm
The Swedish painter Benjamin Patersson was renowned for his paintings and engravings of St. Petersburg, where he lived from 1787 until his death. He executed approximately one hundred views of the city, of which thirty-three were paintings and the remainder watercolours and engravings.
Between 1783-89 Catherine II had one of the great monuments of Neoclassicism built for her favourite, Gregory Potemkin. After his success in annexing Crimea (Tauride), this Field Marshall was rewarded with the honorary title of Prince of Tauride and given a palace. The Tauride Palace, built by the architect Ivan Starov, served as the model for countless houses of the nobility built in and around St. Petersburg.