Fabergé and the Russian Crafts Tradition: An Empire’s Legacy

This exhibition explores the Russian crafts tradition that culminated in the creativity of the workshop of Carl Fabergé, and his world-renowned House of Fabergé. Between 1885 and the revolution of 1917, Peter Carl Fabergé’s workshop created exquisite jeweled and enameled Easter eggs for the Russian tsars. 

The exhibition includes more than 70 stunning objects that highlight the extraordinary artistry of Russian jewelers and enamel-workers, including the Walters’ two Fabergé Easter eggs. 

A concurrent exhibition, After Fabergé, by contemporary artist Jonathan Monaghan, reinvents the famous Easter eggs for the 21st century in a series of five prints that comment on consumer culture and changing definitions of luxury.

Credit: Exhibition overview from museum website.

Whether or not you go, Fabergé and the Russian Crafts Tradition: An Empire's Legacy is a beautifully illustrated book on Russian decorative arts, published to coincide with an exhibition at the Walters Art Museum.

This book gives a fascinating overview of Russian decorative art, revealing a highly accomplished crafts tradition that persisted over nine centuries. It includes works by Peter Carl Fabergé and his workshop, jeweled Byzantine icons, silver drinking vessels, and intricate enamels. Featured are two extraordinary Fabergé eggs that were once in the Russian Imperial collection, including one that opens up to reveal a miniature gold replica of the Gatchina Palace, near St. Petersburg.

The decorative arts had flourished in Russia under the patronage of the tsars and their court, whose apparently limitless resources supported the production of some of the most technically sophisticated works of art ever made. With the onset of the Russian Revolution, a few individuals helped bring many of these objects to Europe and then into major private and public collections in the United States, including that of the Walters Art Museum. On the 100th anniversary of the revolution, this book tells the stories of their initial dispersal and of the collectors and dealers through whose hands they passed. Full catalog entries for each object are included. 160 illustrations in color and black and white.

Fabergé and the Russian Crafts Tradition: An Empire's Legacy