Russian peasant girl
This figurine is an exceptionally rare extant example of a Russian folkloristic figure composed of Siberian hardstones and purpurine. The deep crimson material known as purpurine was a variety of a similar chemically made glass known in the eighteenth-century workshops of Murano, near Venice. The manufacture of purpurine would appear to have been brought about by the crystallization of a lead chromate in a glass matrix, resulting in an extremely durable material of great beauty, on account of both the intensity and the unique depth of its sang-de-boeuf color. The House of Fabergé seems to have had the exclusive use of this remarkable material. The mark C. FABERGÉ, inscribed in English, indicates that the object was destined for the firm's shop in London.
Artwork Details
- Title: Russian peasant girl
- Artist: Peter Carl Fabergé (1846–1920)
- Date: ca. 1910
- Culture: Russian, St. Petersburg
- Medium: Jasper, sapphire, purpurine, nephrite, jade
- Dimensions: Height: 6 1/4 in. (15.9 cm)
- Classification: Lapidary Work
- Credit Line: Gift of R. Thornton Wilson, in memory of Florence Ellsworth Wilson, 1954
- Object Number: 54.147.107
- Curatorial Department: European Sculpture and Decorative Arts
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Peter Carl Fabergé
1899–1904
On loan to The Met
House of Carl Fabergé
Henrik Emanuel Wigström
1908–17
On loan to The Met
House of Carl Fabergé
ca. 1908–17
On loan to The Met
House of Carl Fabergé
Karl Feodorovich Woerfell
probably 1905–08
On loan to The Met
House of Carl Fabergé
probably 1908–17
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