French Paintings from the USSR: Watteau to Matisse : The National Gallery London 15 June-18September 1988

From Front Jacket: "Celebrating the first major display of painting to come to Britain from the USSR, this book covers three centuries of French art, from the Rococo and the Age of Enlightenment to the Impressionist and Post-Impressionist periods. The Russian interest in French art began in the reign of Peter the Great. It continued under Catherine the Great, who established the Hermitage to house her own collection of paintings by Watteau, Fragonard, Greuze and other leading French artists. Her enthusiasm for French art was shared by Russian aristocrats, whose collections are now also in state museums. The end of the 19th century saw a new phase of Russian connoisseurship devoted to French avant-garde. Two celebrated collectors, Ivan Morozov and Sergei Shchukin, bought important works by Cezanne, Matisse and Picasso, and their recognition of these artists, who at that time were not widely appreciated, accounts for the significance of the Russian modern collections. In this book all the 38 pictures in the exhibition are illustrated in color. Soviet curators have written catalog entries to the paintings, and also an introduction which describes their acquisition by Russian collectors."