 Alexander
Pavlovich was devoted to the porcelain factory like his powerful
grandmother, Catherine the Great, and her son Pavel Petrovich
before him. "In the autumn of this year", said the
empress, writing somewhat coquettishly about her beloved grandson
in a letter of 1782, "he suddenly wanted to see the porcelain
factory and the arsenal. The workers and the officers were
amazed at his questions, his affability, his attention and
his politeness. Nothing escapes this boy, who is not yet even
five."
When, 19 years later, Alexander Pavlovich became tsar he
was not able to look after the development of the factory
as his attentions were fully engaged by the Napoleonic wars
in Europe, the Turkish war in the Middle East, and the Great
Patriotic War of 1812, as well as the liberal reforms of the
"Committee for Social Salvation" and Mikhail Speranski,
the "military settlements" of Alexei Araktcheyev,
the secret societies of the future Decabrists, and other matters
of foreign and domestic politics. During this time the factory
was under the supervision of the finance minister, Count Dmitri
Guryev, who was mainly concerned with the reduction of the
huge stocks accumulating in warehouses and shops.
For the reorganization of production he found a man well
versed in these matters: a professor of technology at the
University of Geneva, Franz Gattenberger, who had already
worked as an administrator for the Gardner factory near Moscow
in the 1780s. Soon after he was appointed director of the
factory in 1803, Gattenberger presented Count Guryev with
a detailed report on the far from flawless state of production,
as well as proposals for reorganization. Based on these proposals,
new statutes for the Imperial Porcelain Factory were confirmed
in 1804 and supplemented in 1816. The reforms concerned administration
and finances, working procedures, and quality control as well
as personnel policies.
At that time the Royal Prussian Porcelain Manufactury in
Berlin was famous for its high technical accomplishments and
Guryev imported three of its masters: the arcanist (porcelain
chemist) Schulz, the mechanic Schreiber and the kiln master
Seiffert. The latter proved especially useful. He pointed
out all the flaws and inefficiencies of the kilns, brought
them up to European standards and had new, three-story kilns
installed in place of the old ones that had been constructed
by Vinogradov.
 Rachette's
assistant Peter Munster was appointed master modeller, his
assistants in turn were two graduates of the Academy of Fine
Art, Ivan Komander and Alexei Kanunnikov. This, however, did
not satisfy Guryev. In order to bring the artistic side up
to the highest standard, an assistant professor of the Academy
of Fine Arts, Stepan Pimenov (father of the famous sculptor)
was brought in 1809. At Pimenov's request, Alexei Voronikhin,
the nephew of Andrei Voronikhin, was also seconded from the
Academy to the modelling shop. From the Sevres factory, famous
for its porcelain painters, they invited Henri Adam, later
to be followed by the "Artists of the Porcelain Trade"
- the gilder Denis Moreau and the porcelain painter Swebach.
Apart from these, the arcanist Pierre Landel and the flatware
turner Ferdinand Davignon were brought in from France. They
were all warmly welcomed at the factory, contributed to the
improvement of the products and trained many Russian masters.
Throughout the reign of Alexander I, the laboratories and
the muffle kilns were run by Master Vasili Voinov, the son
of Vinogradov's assistant Nikita Voinov.
Guryev implemented Gattenberger's proposals for improvement
in the conditions of both masters and workmen. The employees
were allotted some ground, given loans to purchase their own
one-family houses, state-owned apartments were built for them
to rent, and they were given access to rank according to the
established state hierarchy, so that gifted children of factory
serfs were able to study at the Academy; wages were revised,
pensions and other emoluments were increased.
Guryev attempted to increase factory sales with the help
of the vice governors of Russian cities and through sales
at the Fair of Nijni Novgorod. In order to stop competition,
he managed to obtain a ban on the import of foreign china
in 1806. These measures, however, favored the establishment
of many private indigenous porcelain factories, whose products,
while not as good, were certainly cheaper and the Imperial
Porcelain Factory found it even more difficult to survive
competition.
This led to stricter separation between items from the section
"Presentations and Gifts" - which were high quality,
artistic porcelain - and the more common china for mass sales.
Commercial considerations led to the introduction of transfer
printing, but demand was so sluggish it was abandoned again.
While Catherinian porcelain had been created in the era prior
to Neo-Classicism, porcelain made in the reign of Alexander
I fell into the high period of Russian Neo-Classicism, which
found its expression in the Empire style. Although Russian
ceramic art shared certain traits with general trends in Western
Europe, its Empire style had its own particularities. Even
the influence of French craftsmen was not able to make its
mark - the management of the "new taste" remained
in the hands of Russian artists. The heroic figures of classical
antiquity found their place in a Russian reality shot through
with the heroism and love of country of the Great Patriotic
War of 1812.
 Typical
of the stylistic idiosyncrasy of Russian high Neo-Classicism
is the "Guryevski" service, one of the most important
sets of the first quarter of the 19th century. Count Guryev
ordered it for Alexander I. It was executed under the aegis
of master modeller Stepan Pimenov. The design for it was probably
created by the architect Jan Thomas de Thomon, a designer
at the imperial glass factory who also produced sketches for
the porcelain factory. This ensemble continued the series
of gala services for the court from the Catherinian period,
but it differed essentially in subject matter and composition.
The "Guryevski "service does not include a decorative
centre piece like the "Arabesque" service. Instead
Pimenov sculpted the individual items of porcelain, achieving
an astonishing synthesis of shape, sculptural elements and
pictorial decoration. Based on the classical figures of caryatids
and atlantes, he introduced into the ensemble figures of Russian
youths and girls, which carry their burdens - vases, dishes,
baskets - with ease and elegance above their heads. The figures
are harmonious, artistically perfect, the ethnic types noble
and sublime. Even the small items of the service are in strictly
classical style. The reddish-brown fond of the decoration,
with its applied gilt sculptures and gilded antique ornaments,
gives the whole set a majestic and festive appearance. Over
90 different types of ornamentation can be observed on the
desert plates alone. The decoration was modelled on sketches
made after engravings by Stepan Galaktyonov, Andrei Ukhtomski,
Kosma Cheski, after paintings and water colours by Semyon
Stshedrin, Fyodor Ale-xeyev, Fyodor Matveyev, townscapes of
Moscow and Petersburg, views of Tsarskoe Selo, Pavlovsk, Peterdvorets
and Gatshina. The martial scenes were taken from drawings
by Solomon Schiflar, who had sketched Alexander Fs journey
to Finland; the series the "Peoples of Russia" was
based on engravings by Johann Georgi and E. Korneyev, while
the Petersburg genre scenes were derived from drawings by
Christian Geisler. The scenes from the life of the capital
became so popular that many private porcelain factories adopted
them too.
While Catherine II had appeared as the main heroine in the
"Arabesque" service and Emperor Napoleon had been
glorified by the porcelain of Sevres, the "Guryevski"
service may be said to be a hymn of praise to the Russian
people, a glorification of the victorious, multinational Russian
empire. Originally the "Guryevski" service consisted
of 50 covers and was kept in the Winter Palace, in the apartments
of Yelisaveta Alexeyevna, wife of Alexander I. Later it was
ceded to the Peterdvorets Palace "for the use in the
rooms of princes staying there". In subsequent decades
the service was constantly extended, so that in the end it
consisted of 4,500 items and the decoration had used several
kilograms of gold. Today the major portion of the "Guryevski"
service is part of the collection of the Palace Museum of
Pavlovsk.
Balance of detail, harmony and clarity of line characterize
the large Voronikhin vases. They consisted of three parts
and were held together by a metal rod. The porcelain handles
were added separately; as a rule they were covered in ormulu
and, together with the gilding of the plinth, completed the
composition.
The greatest mastery was reached in the painted decoration
of the vases, in which, apart from Swebach and Moreau, a number
of excellent copyists from the factory's own school were engaged.
An especially beautiful example is the vase "Russian
Folk Dance" by S. Golov as is also the somewhat later
"Hector Takes Leave of Andromache" by V. Mestsheryakov.
Particularly popular were scenes from the Patriotic War of
1812 and portraits of war heroes.
Towards the end of the Alexandrine period a change in style
took place - disharmonies between form and decoration appear
and the sculptural expressiveness of porcelain as a material
recedes into the background.
Tsar Alexander I died in 1825, soon to be followed by the
porcelain factory's patron, Count Guryev. In memory of the
late emperor, during whose reign the victory over Napoleon
had been achieved, the factory produced a vase that was extraordinary
at the time, even by European standards. It measured two meters
in height, with a profile of Alexander I on one side, and
a globe encircled by a banner inscribed "Russia"
on the other.
A new monarch, Nicolas I (1825 - 1855), now ascended the
throne, and a new era in the development of the Imperial Porcelain
Factory began. While in the early 1830s the traditions established
by Guryev were still adhered to and the artistic level was
also maintained, the political reaction, which began to rage
through the whole country after the Decabrist revolt on Senate
Square had been put down, and the incredible bureaucratisation
of the entire state system which followed, soon made itself
felt in the porcelain factory as well.
Prince Peter Volkonski, who in 1837 had been appointed minister
of the newly re-introduced Ministry of the Imperial Court,
and who was at the same time Minister for Apanages and Secretary
of the Cabinet, with responsibility for the porcelain factory,
did not consider it possible, unlike his predecessors, to
look after the factory personally. A series of changing administrators
and directors were concerned mainly with discipline and order;
conditions resembled a state of siege in time of war. Pecuniary
fines were increased and the prosecution of transgressions
made harsher. In cases of unauthorized absence from the factory,
drunkenness, theft, revolt and disturbances, the culprits
were sent to be soldiers. A police superintendent was charged
with keeping production in order, as well as ensuring order
in Farforovskaya Sloboda (the village where the porcelain
masters and workers lived with their families). At the same
time moral and material rewards for good work and exemplary
conduct were increased: monetary rewards, orders, mention
on the "plaque of honor", liberation from serfdom
were among these. No inns were allowed within the village,
but a choir was established which also sang in the church
that had been refurbished by the factory.
In 1844, one hundred years after the factory was founded,
it had 220 employees, of whom 30 worked in the administration
and the remainder in production, particularly in the porcelain
painting shop.
It was under Tsar Nicholas I that kaolin was first imported
from Limoges for the preparation of the china paste. The production
of porcelain plaques and large items attained a high degree
of technical perfection. At this time a special gilding process
was used, and the pieces which have survived from the Nicholas
period are remarkable for their gentle polish, sheen and the
lasting quality of the gilding, such as was never again attained.
Platinum was also used for decoration.
The technical perfection, variety of shapes, the mastery
of painting and the rich decoration, however, could not make
up for the paucity of artistic ideas. In the imperial factory
under Nicholas Pavlovich, just as in other leading porcelain
factories in Europe, ceramic art became increasingly eclectic
and stylized.
Nicholas I attempted to isolate porcelain manufacture from
the influence of the Academy of Fine Arts, where there were
signs of "revolutionary" trends towards realism.
On the pretext that the busts of the sovereign and of his
wife, Alexandra Fyodorovna, had been a failure, Professor
Stepan Pimenov was suspended.
The artistic direction of porcelain manufacture was taken
over by the imperial court under the eye of Nicholas I himself,
to whom the porcelain designs had to be submitted and which
often resulted in their undergoing various changes.
In the period immediately after Pimenov's departure, the
modelling department was run by Alexei Voronikhin. At his
direction the large services "Gerbovyi" (the heraldic
service) and "Solotoi" (golden) were made, with
varying decoration. In order to enrich these services vases
were made with groups in relief, depicting mythological subjects.
This can be said to have been the last echo of the highly
developed ceramic culture of the previous period.
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