Les Youssoupoff : Un Siècle De Collections Françaises

Based on previously unpublished documentation, this book traces the history of the Francophile tastes of one of Russia's most famous aristocratic families, the Youssoupoffs. It examines the French collections amassed by the members of this family over five generations, from the late eighteenth century to the early twentieth century, in a saga that reveals their fate in the aftermath of the Russian Revolution.

From collections of French paintings to the royal jewels belonging to Queen Marie Antoinette and the Bonaparte family, from the complete décors designed in Paris for the palaces of St Petersburg to the residences - a hotel and a château in Brittany - built in France, from fashion to goldsmiths' and silversmiths' wares, this study dissects for the first time, through a multi-generational example, the various aspects of the Russian nobility's taste for French culture, at a time when Russia and its elite were looking to the West.