From the collections of the State Museum and Exhibition Center ROSPHOTO, the State Museum-Reserve “Peterhof”, the All-Russian Society for the Preservation of Historical and Cultural Monuments, the Museum Agency of the Leningrad Region and private collections, the Literary and Art Museum-Estate “Priyutino”, and the Museum-Estate “Rozhdestveno”.
By the end of 2023, ROSPHOTO presents the exhibition project “Country Life”, immersing visitors in a world of vivid summer colors, endearing and often almost childlike memories. Summer is a special time — a chance to spend weeks or months in nature, to pause the routines and bustle of the city, a season of leisure and delight.
The exhibition features photographs from the late 19th and early 20th centuries drawn from the collections of ROSPHOTO, the Peterhof State Museum-Reserve, the All-Russian Society for the Preservation of Historical and Cultural Monuments, the Museum Agency of the Leningrad Region, and private collections. The display introduces the traditions of country life in the Russian Empire: cozy family meals, light-hearted entertainments, tennis and croquet, swimming, dancing, walks by foot or by bicycle, mushroom and berry gathering, amateur theatricals, popular festivities — and, of course, photography itself. This fashionable new technology that already became accessible to the general public, was especially appealing in summer, with its abundance of light and free time.
Amateur and family photographs capture many prominent figures of the era who spent their summers at dachas near St. Petersburg: the family of architect Benois in Peterhof, the socialite Julia Lorer, the artist Ivan Vladimirov, veterinarian Karl Kosse, gold miner Viktor Bazilevsky, Ilya Repin in Kuokkala, and academist Alexander Karpinsky in Siverskaya. Visitors can also see the family album of the Nabokov-Rukavishnikovs from the Rozhdestveno estate, along with many other fascinating glimpses into summer life.
The word “dacha” originates in the Petrine era, when it referred to land granted by the sovereign. Most often this was associated with plots along the Baltic coast, which Peter I gave for the construction of seaside estates known as myza or dacha.
construction of seaside estates known as myza or dacha.The dacha boom — emerged in the second half of the 19th century, with the rapid construction of railways, especially around St. Petersburg, and the allocation of large areas for development and lease. At the same time, a new social class, — the middle class, eager to escape the hot and noisy city, began moving actively into the suburbs. It was in this period that the term dacha became firmly established as a country summer house where families spent several months each year. The dacha world first grew around the imperial residences such as Peterhof and Tsarskoye Selo, but other directions developed their own centers of attraction, resorts, picturesque landscapes, lakes, and rivers.
Urban residents usually rented a house or a plot for the summer, while wealthier families could afford to purchase or build their own. Dachas were constructed both according to individual designs and to standard projects, which shared many features and well-thought-out architectural solutions. The heart of dacha family life was the sunlit veranda and the spacious wooden terrace with steps — a favored setting for group photographs of summer life.
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