Easter Egg “View of Children's Island in the Alexander Park at Tsarskoye Selo”

Imperial Porcelain Factory, St. Petersburg. 1870s

Overglaze polychrome painting, gilt, imitation of diverging pattern on porcelain.

Height - 8.8 cm

Egg with painting after the lithograph by Karl Kolman (1786-1846) “View of Children's Island in the Alexander Park at Tsarskoye Selo” (1830). During the reign of Nicholas I, an island on the pond at the Tsarskoye Selo park was fitted out for his son and heir Alexander as a place to play and study. In 1830 the architect Alexei Gornostayev (1808-1862) oversaw the building of a small children’s playhouse, designed by the architect Vasily Stasov (1769-1848). In 1830 Karl Merder (1787-1834), the heir’s tutor, suggested that the children think of a motto for the island, which had become their home. The result of their collective creative effort was a drawing of “a cliff, washed clean with water, an ant, and an anchor”, symbolizing “persistence, action, and hope”. Presumably, the ant, as the symbol of the Children’s Island, later lent its name to the handwritten magazine “The Ant”, which the heir, with the help of his friends, started “publishing” in 1831. When the children of Alexander II and his brothers grew old enough, they continued to explore the territories previously “occupied” by their parents. Alexander II passed his love for the Children’s Island to his children and grandchildren. The children of Nicholas I, Alexei and his sisters, the Grand Duchesses Olga, Tatiana, Maria and Anastasia, enjoyed playing here, boating on the pond, planting flowers and shovelling snow in the winter. They were often joined by their father.