The New Hermitage
The next major addition to the Winter Palace and the Hermitage was not added until the year 1837 under the rule of Czar Nicholas I. In December of that year, the great fire of 1837 took hold in the halls between the two Hermitage pavilions. The imperial art collection that was located in each of the pavilions was saved by the guards and servants living in the Winter Palace. Through their efforts, the two connecting passages were destroyed and a dividing wall was built between the buildings to keep out the flames. The fire was eventually extinguished by dousing the flames with water that was pumped out of the Neva River (Norman 66). Because of the fire, Nicholas had to rebuild and restore the palace to its original splendor. During the reconstruction of the palace, Nicholas came up with the idea of adding yet another addition to the already large palace-complex. This addition was to become the New Hermitage that was built between the Small and Large Hermitage pavilions. The New Hermitage was built for the soul purpose of becoming a museum and the best of the imperial art collection was moved into the building in 1852. Besides having the New Hermitage built, Nicholas also had architect Andrey Stakenschneider redecorate the interiors of both the Small and the Large Hermitages (Norman 67).
The New Hermitage
Nicholas' New Hermitage was opened to the public for the first time on February 5, 1852. On that day a huge ceremony was conducted for the opening of the museum and there was a special performance that was put on in the Hermitage Theatre (Timeline). Even though this marked the opening of the New Hermitage, the Winter Palace and the Hermitage were not declared official museums until the year 1917. It was in that same year that the Hermitage was forced to close due to the Revolution. Following the October Revolution, the Hermitage confiscated many different private collections which included the works of Monet, Renoir, Van Gogh, and Picasso (Hermitage Museum). The Hermitage was able to reopen in 1919 and over the next couple of years, more and more galleries became available for public viewing. Much of what is in the Hermitage today was put back in November of 1920. This was the official end to the Civil War and the re-evacuation of the Hermitage took place on the 17th of that month. Today, the Hermitage has nearly 3 million pieces on display. This number is nearly 3 times the number of pieces that were in the museum in the year 1916 (Norman 155, 167). The Hermitage once again closed from 1925-1930. During this period, the collections passed to the "Museums Fund". Over the next few years,"the Hermitage and the Russian Museum were allowed to choose the works that they wanted and the rest were sent to the Museum Fund Storage." Between 1928 and 1932, the works that found their way to the Museum Fund Storage were sold all over the world. The sales finally stopped when the Depression started to take a grip on the wealthy art collectors of the United States and of other countries. Because of the Depression, men and women worldwide no longer had enough money to be buying extra luxuries such as Russian art. (Norman 168-69). In the end, the Hermitage only lost several thousand items from its collection. If not for the Depression the loss to the Hermitage could have been devastating (Norman 180).
Although the early part of the 20th century was a tough time for the Hermitage and the Winter Palace, the museum seems to have done just fine since then. Since the 1930s, the museum only closed down for one other rather lengthy period of time during WWII. From September 8, 1941 until January 27, 1944, the city of Leningrad was under siege by the German army and the Hermitage was out of commission. This period in history is known as the 900 day siege of Leningrad. Because of the siege, the Hermitage’ workers were forced to move most of the treasures out of the Hermitage in order to keep them safe from the war. The evacuation of the Hermitage treasures took place shortly after June 22, 1941. It was on this date in history that the German army first invaded Soviet territory. Two days later, the museum staff, artists, scientists, students and any other man or woman not fighting in the war came to help pack up the Hermitage treasures. The packing of the exhibits took place over the next several days and nights and they were to be loaded on to trains that were bound for the city of Sverdlovsk. That first secret train left on the morning of June 30, 1941 and it contained nearly half a million exhibits. The train reached its destination on July 10th and the crates were unloaded into three different locations. These locations included an art gallery, a catholic church, and in the basement of the Ipiatev Mansion. This was the same mansion that held the Russian Imperial family when they were shot in 1918. The Second train of treasures did not leave Leningrad until July 20th. The train carried 1,422 crates that contained nearly 700,000 works of art (Art Saved for Humanity).
Hermitage after the War
During the 900 day siege of Leningrad, when the Germans cut off Leningrad from the rest of Russia, plans for a third train for evacuating the last of works was scrapped. The treasures, already in their crates, would remain in the Hermitage for the duration of the war. The works were therefore moved to the basement of the Hermitage where they were watched daily by those who decided to stay by their side. To protect those who guarded the treasures from German air raids, bomb shelters were also built in the basements of the Hermitage. Thus the Hermitage collections were split between Sverdlovsk and the basement of the Hermitage for the duration of the war (Graeme). For three years, the State Hermitage Museum remained out of commission. On November 8, 1944, the museum finally reopened when an exhibition was put on to display the works that had not been evacuated (Norman 241). On October 10, 1945, the Hermitage treasures that had been evacuated for the war were starting to arrive back at the museum. By November 4, 1945, sixty-eight rooms were opened to the public. The rooms were fully restored to their original beauty and their walls were filled with all of their former collections (Graeme).
The State Hermitage Museum
Today, the Hermitage has nearly 3,000,000 items on display. Researchers say that if one were to stand in front of each exhibit for only one minute, they would have to stay in the Hermitage for nearly eleven years (Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg). Today however, one can view the works of the Hermitage without ever stepping inside of the old Winter Palace. That is because the Hermitage has its own webpage located on the internet. By use of this website, one can take a virtual tour of many of the galleries just by the click of a mouse. The website is so good that one can search for a particular painting or look for the collections of someone like Catherine the Great. Virtual tours can also be taken that can allow one to go from room to room looking at the different works in the collections. Besides going online to look at the Hermitage works, one might be able to catch a traveling exhibit in a city near you. In recent years, different exhibits have left Europe and have traveled around the World. Some of the exhibits have traveled south to Germany while others have made it across the Atlantic Ocean to museums in Philadelphia and Las Vegas.