Exploring Saint Petersburg–in living color

The first thing that strikes you as you navigate the bustling streets of St. Petersburg (the week of the annual St. Petersburg International Economic Forum) is the the mix of spirit-lifting colors on many of the 365 Imperial palaces here. Our tour guide, (a local historian with an enviable memory for detail) Zoye Tarasova, told me this region only gets “40 days of sun all year”–so it makes sense that the Czars and architects of the day (1700s) chose color to combat the sense of gray.

The Winter Palace and State Hermitage Museum sport what I  can only describe as Martha Stewart “Araucana Teal.” It’s not quite green, not quite blue–but a delicate mixture of the two. Now I’m sounding like Myrna Loy  in “Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House.” If you missed that 1948 classic film with Cary Grant–I have to share the dialogue that always makes me smile. Mrs. Muriel Blandings (Loy) tries to describe to her house painters the kind of green she’d like in the living room, then the shade of yellow for the dining room…

                                     MURIEL
                         Now I want the living room to be a
                         soft green.
                                (PeDelford nods)
                         Not quite as bluish as a robin's
                         egg, but yet not as yellow as daffodil
                         buds.

                                     PEDELFORD
                         Mm.

                                     MURIEL
                              (handing him a sample)
                         The best sample I could get is a
                         little too yellow, but don't let
                         whoever mixes it go to the other
                         extreme and get it too blue. It should
                         just be sort of a grayish yellow
                         green.

                                     PEDELFORD
                              (making a note)
                         Mm-hmm.

                         (They turn to the dining room.)

                                     MURIEL
                         Now the dining room I'd like yellow.
                         Not just yellow, a very gay yellow.

                                     PEDELFORD
                         Mm-hmm.

                                     MURIEL
                         Something bright and sunshiny.
                              (sudden inspiration)
                         I tell you, Mr. PeDelford, if you'll
                         just send one of your workmen to the
                         A&P for a pound of their best butter
                         and match it exactly, you can't go
                         wrong.

                                     PEDELFORD
                              (making a note)
                         Mm.

                                     MURIEL
                         This is the paper we're going to use
                         here in the foyer.
                              (hands sample to him)
                         It's flowered but I don't want the
                         ceiling to match any of the colors
                         of the flowers. There are some voltaren little
                         dots in the background, and it's
                         these dots I want you to match. Not
                         the little greenish dots near the
                         hollyhock leaf, but the little bluish
                         dot between the rosebud and the
                         delphinium blossom. Is that clear?

                      (PeDelford looks carefully at the sample, then:)

                                     PEDELFORD
                              (making note)
                         Mm-hmm.

                                     MURIEL
                         The kitchen's to be white. Not a
                         cold, antiseptic hospital white -- a
                         little warmer but not to suggest any
                         other color but white.

                                     PEDELFORD
                              (note)
                         Mm.

                                     MURIEL
                         Now for the powder room, I want you
                         to match this thread.
                              (hands him thread)
                         You can see it's practically an apple
                         red. Somewhere between a healthy
                         Winesap and an unripened Jonathan.

                                     PEDELFORD
                              (making note)
                         Mm.

                        (There is a crash from the kitchen.)

                                     MURIEL
                         Will you excuse me?

               (Muriel hastily exits toward the kitchen. PeDelford turns to
               his assistant.)

                                     PEDELFORD
                         Got it, Charlie?

                                     CHARLIE
                              (deadpan; indicating
                              rooms with his thumb)
                         Green, yellow, blue, white, red.

                                     PEDELFORD
                         Check.

Almost all the Romanovs starting from Catherine the Great (a devoted supporter of the arts) resided in the Winter Palace–now home to the massive collection of the Hermitage Museum, which houses more than three million works of art and historical artifacts, including, the iconic “Dance” by Henri Matisse (Pic #6).

(Pic #2) Contemporary Russian street graffiti: color keeping pace with history

The distinctive shades of green, rust, dusty pinks, gold, and royal  blues–inside and out–in the palaces, cathedrals, museums, and on the streets, sent me spinning.

(Pic #3) Painted ceiling trim, Russian Museum, circa 1895

I started seeing colors I’d never seen before, and  interesting shapes and textures–everywhere. It’s why I had to stop to grab a few shots of Russian graffiti (Pic #2) on St. Petersburg streets and signs, as well as abandoned moorings in the Neva River. (Pic #4)

(Pic #4) Abandoned mooring, Neva River

Palace, church, and museum ceilings, walls, hallways, dishes, and Louis the XIV furniture, are all luxuriously adorned in gold. (Pic #7)

St. Isaac’s Cathedral took 40 years to complete–and once you see the art on the inside–you understand why. Many of the artisans who worked on the mammoth structure (1818-1858) never saw it completed. Check out  the painstaking work on the painted  dome that dominates the St. Petersburg skyline. (Pic #5).

(Pic #5) St. Isaac's dome: Holy Spirit "dove" at center

(Pic #6) My "Matisse moment"at the Hermitage

(Pic #7) Gold and lapis bowl, Russian Museum