Anatole Demidov
Encyclopedia
Villa San Donato
The Villa San Donato is a Palladian palace built by Russian industrialist Nikolay Demidov on 42 hectares of marshland to the north of Florence at Polverosa which he had bought from the Catholic church, after he was made Russia's ambassador to the court of Tuscany. The first stone was laid on 27...
, was a Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
n industrialist, diplomat and arts patron of the Demidov
Demidov
The Demidov family, also Demidoff, were an influential Russian merchant, industrialist and later chivalry family, possibly second only to the Tsar himself in wealth during the late 18th and early 19th centuries.-History:...
family.
Early life
Born in Saint PetersburgSaint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea...
or Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
, he was the second son of Count Nikolai Nikitich Demidov and Baroness Elisabeta Alexandrovna Stroganova
Elisabeta Alexandrovna Stroganova
Baroness Elisabeta Alexandrovna Stroganova was a Russian aristocrat of the Stroganov family....
; he grew up in Paris, where his father was ambassador. He served briefly as a diplomat himself in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
(living in the hôtel built by Charles de Wailly
Charles De Wailly
Charles De Wailly was a French architect and urbanist, and furniture designer, one of the principals in the Neoclassical revival of the Antique. His major work was the Théâtre de l'Odéon for the Comédie-Française...
for the sculptor Augustin Pajou
Augustin Pajou
Augustin Pajou was a French sculptor, born in Paris. At eighteen he won the Prix de Rome, and at thirty exhibited his Pluton tenant Cerbère enchaîné .-Selected works:...
, at 87 rue de la Pépinière, now the rue La Boétie
Rue La Boétie
The rue La Boétie is a street in the 8th arrondissement of Paris, running from rue d'Astorg to avenue des Champs-Élysées.Number 45 is the location of the Salle Gaveau, a 1020-seat concert hall built in 1905-1906 by the architect Jacques Hermant, for the piano manufacturer Gaveau....
), Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
and Venice
Venice
Venice is a city in northern Italy which is renowned for the beauty of its setting, its architecture and its artworks. It is the capital of the Veneto region...
. On his father's death in 1828 Anatole settled for good in western Europe, returning to Russia as little as possible. This attitude alienated him from tsar Nicholas I of Russia
Nicholas I of Russia
Nicholas I , was the Emperor of Russia from 1825 until 1855, known as one of the most reactionary of the Russian monarchs. On the eve of his death, the Russian Empire reached its historical zenith spanning over 20 million square kilometers...
, who always had an antipathy towards him.
Scholarly endeavours
In 1837 he was created 1st Prince of San Donato. In 1837–1838, he organised a scientific expedition of 22 scholars, writers and artists (of which Auguste Raffet and the critic Jules JaninJules Janin
Jules Gabriel Janin was a French writer and critic.-Biography:Born in Saint-Étienne , Janin's father was a lawyer, and he was educated first at St. Étienne, and then at the lycée Louis-le-Grand in Paris...
became Demidov's friends) to southern Russia and the Crimea
Crimea
Crimea , or the Autonomous Republic of Crimea , is a sub-national unit, an autonomous republic, of Ukraine. It is located on the northern coast of the Black Sea, occupying a peninsula of the same name...
, headed up by Frédéric Le Play. It cost 500,000 francs and its results were published as Voyage dans la Russie méridionale et la Crimée (4 vol., 1840–1842), with 100 original lithographs by Raffet and dedicated to the tsar despite his not having taken any interest in the book (irritated as he was that most of the expedition's members had been French). Demidov also financed a trip to Russia by André Durand
Andre Durand
André Durand is a painter working in the European Hermetic tradition. He is influenced by artists such as Rubens, Titian, Michelangelo and Velázquez....
to relieve the peasants, the results of which were published as Voyage pittoresque et archéologique en Russie (1839). In 1840, Demidov himself published a series of articles on Russia in the Journal des Débats
Journal des Débats
The Journal des débats was a French newspaper, published between 1789 and 1944 that changed title several times...
– these were collected as Lettres sur l’Empire de Russie (1840) with the aim of fighting certain received French ideas about Russia. Nevertheless, these works irritated Nicholas I due to their description of Russia's feudal system. In 1847 Demidov made a trip to Spain with Raffet, publishing an account of it later as Etapes maritimes sur les côtes d’Espagne (1858). In 1842, he was elected a foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences or Kungliga Vetenskapsakademien is one of the Royal Academies of Sweden. The Academy is an independent, non-governmental scientific organization which acts to promote the sciences, primarily the natural sciences and mathematics.The Academy was founded on 2...
.
Art collector
He also considerably expanded the Demidov collectionDemidov collection
The Demidov collection was a collection of artworks gathered by the Russian industrialist Nikolay Demidov and considerably expanded by his second son Anatole. It was mainly on show at their Villa San Donato near Florence, in which a private museum of 14 rooms was devoted to them...
assembled by his father at the Villa San Donato
Villa San Donato
The Villa San Donato is a Palladian palace built by Russian industrialist Nikolay Demidov on 42 hectares of marshland to the north of Florence at Polverosa which he had bought from the Catholic church, after he was made Russia's ambassador to the court of Tuscany. The first stone was laid on 27...
near Florence
Florence
Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with approximately 370,000 inhabitants, expanding to over 1.5 million in the metropolitan area....
, being particularly interested in Romantic art
Romanticism
Romanticism was an artistic, literary and intellectual movement that originated in the second half of the 18th century in Europe, and gained strength in reaction to the Industrial Revolution...
. In the Paris Salon
Paris Salon
The Salon , or rarely Paris Salon , beginning in 1725 was the official art exhibition of the Académie des Beaux-Arts in Paris, France. Between 1748–1890 it was the greatest annual or biannual art event in the Western world...
of 1834 he acquired Paul Delaroche's The Execution of Lady Jane Grey (now in the National Gallery, London
National Gallery, London
The National Gallery is an art museum on Trafalgar Square, London, United Kingdom. Founded in 1824, it houses a collection of over 2,300 paintings dating from the mid-13th century to 1900. The gallery is an exempt charity, and a non-departmental public body of the Department for Culture, Media...
). In 1833 he bought François Marius Granet
François Marius Granet
François Marius Granet , French painter, was born in Aix-en-Provence; his father was a small builder.-Biography:...
's The Death of Poussin, which caused a sensation at the 1834 Salon. He commissioned paintings from Eugène Delacroix
Eugène Delacroix
Ferdinand Victor Eugène Delacroix was a French Romantic artist regarded from the outset of his career as the leader of the French Romantic school...
and watercolours from Richard Parkes Bonington
Richard Parkes Bonington
Richard Parkes Bonington was an English Romantic landscape painter. One of the most influential British artists of his time, the facility of his style was inspired by the old masters, yet was entirely modern in its application.-Life and work:Richard Parkes Bonington was born in the town of Arnold,...
and Théodore Géricault
Théodore Géricault
Jean-Louis André Théodore Géricault was a profoundly influential French artist, painter and lithographer, known for The Raft of the Medusa and other paintings...
, as well as Briullov's The Last Day of Pompeii
The Last Day of Pompeii
The Last Day of Pompeii is a large canvas painted by Russian artist Karl Briullov in 1830-33.The Russian painter visited the site of Pompeii in 1828 and made numerous sketches. Depicting the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 AD, the completed canvas was exhibited in Rome to rapturous reviews of critics...
. His collection was split up in public sales in Paris in 1863 and shortly before the prince's death in 1870.
Marriage and separation
Napoleon I of France
Napoleon Bonaparte was a French military and political leader during the latter stages of the French Revolution.As Napoleon I, he was Emperor of the French from 1804 to 1815...
, and built a museum below the house of San Martino on Elba where Napoleon had lived during his first exile and caused a mass to be sung at Portoferraio every 5 May (which is still sung today). In 1839 he was introduced by Jules Janin
Jules Janin
Jules Gabriel Janin was a French writer and critic.-Biography:Born in Saint-Étienne , Janin's father was a lawyer, and he was educated first at St. Étienne, and then at the lycée Louis-le-Grand in Paris...
into the circle of Jérôme Bonaparte
Jérôme Bonaparte
Jérôme-Napoléon Bonaparte, French Prince, King of Westphalia, 1st Prince of Montfort was the youngest brother of Napoleon, who made him king of Westphalia...
, former king of Westphalia, who was living in exile at the Villa di Quarto
Villa di Quarto
The Villa di Quarto is a villa on via di Quarto in Florence, in the hilly zone at the foot of the Monte Morello. Quarto is one of the toponyms relating to the Roman milestones, the most famous of which in this area is Sesto Fiorentino, of 45,000 inhabitants.-History:The villa was built in the 15th...
in Florence
Florence
Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with approximately 370,000 inhabitants, expanding to over 1.5 million in the metropolitan area....
. A plan to marry Jérôme's daughter princess Mathilde-Létizia Bonaparte to Demidov was quickly formed. It was agreed she would receive a dowry of 50,000 francs in jewels (bought by Demidov for 1 million francs from Jérôme, always short of money) and 240,000 francs in money, payable in instalments. A decree of 20 October 1840 also made Demidov "prince of San Donato" to allow the princess to hold onto her title, though Demidov's princely title was never recognised in Russia. The marriage took place in Rome or Florence on 1 November 1840.
In March 1841 the couple went to Saint Petersburg, where the Tsar was full of attention for his cousin (through the Wurttembergs) the princess and losing no opportunity to humiliate Demidov by any means possible. In spite of this, Anatole began his own infidelities. On 17 August 1841 the couple arrived in Paris, where they lived at hôtel Demidoff at 109 rue Saint-Dominique
Rue Saint-Dominique
The rue Saint-Dominique is a street in the 7th arrondissement of Paris. It has formerly been known as chemin de la Longue Raye , chemin des Treilles , chemin Herbu ou chemin Herbu des Moulins à Vent , chemin du Moulin à Vent, chemin de l'Oseraie , chemin du Port , chemin des Vaches , chemin de la...
until June 1842, when they moved to spend a year in Saint Petersburg before finally setting up home at the villa San Donato. Their relationship soon soured, with the princess taking count Émilien de Nieuwerkerke
Émilien de Nieuwerkerke
Count Alfred Émilien O'Hara van Nieuwerkerke was a French sculptor of Dutch descent and a high-level civil servant in the Second French Empire...
as a lover, and Demidov taking Valentine de Sainte-Aldegonde
Valentine de Sainte-Aldegonde
Valentine de Sainte-Aldegonde was a French noblewoman. She was the wife of Alexandre Edmond de Talleyrand-Périgord and the mistress of Anatole Demidov...
, duchesse de Dino, as a mistress.
Mathilde made a violent scene with Valentine during a ball and in reply Demidov slapped her twice in public. His strong blows caused much damage, the violent side of his crime fighting laid bare for him to see. Separated since 1843, in September 1846 Mathilde fled to Paris to take refuge with Nieuwerkerke, taking with her the jewels from her dowry. Even so, Demidov was condemned by a tribunal in Saint Petersburg to send Mathilde an annual pension of 200,000 francs and was never able to recover his jewels. In many ways Demidov felt he deserved such punishment, and their separation was authorised in 1847 by a personal decision of tsar Nicholas I. Demidov's many other mistresses included Maria Calergis, considered one of the most beautiful women of her era, Ernestine Duverger and Fanny de la Rochefoucauld (daughter of Francois, 8th duc de la Rochefoucauld, with whom he had an illegitimate son).
Later life
Demidov tried to repair the damage the separation had done to his social standing by increasing his charitable donations. He created hospitals, orphanages and started an international committee to aid prisoners of the Crimean WarCrimean War
The Crimean War was a conflict fought between the Russian Empire and an alliance of the French Empire, the British Empire, the Ottoman Empire, and the Kingdom of Sardinia. The war was part of a long-running contest between the major European powers for influence over territories of the declining...
, as well as giving 1 million roubles to finance that war (for which Alexander II of Russia
Alexander II of Russia
Alexander II , also known as Alexander the Liberator was the Emperor of the Russian Empire from 3 March 1855 until his assassination in 1881...
made his chamberlain and councillor of state). In 1860 he, the duc de Morny
Charles Auguste Louis Joseph, duc de Morny
Charles Auguste Louis Joseph Demorny/de Morny, 1st Duc de Morny was a French statesman...
and doctor Oliffe made up the consortium of investors which founded the bathing resort at Deauville
Deauville
Deauville is a commune in the Calvados département in the Basse-Normandie region in northwestern France.With its racecourse, harbour, international film festival, marinas, conference centre, villas, Grand Casino and sumptuous hotels, Deauville is regarded as the "queen of the Norman beaches" and...
, and he took part in the famous Carnival de Paris (a painting at the musée Carnavalet shows his team taking part).
A bon viveur, two chicken dishes were named after him, including Chicken Demidoff (elaborately stuffed, smothered, tied up and garnished), and the Demidoff name is also applied to dishes of rissoles and red snapper. He died in 1870 of a pulmonary congestion in his hotel on rue Saint-Dominique in Paris. Dying without legitimate issue, his title of Prince of San Donato passed to his nephew Pavel Pavlovitch Demidov.