"The exhibition, Her Imperial Majesty's Hermitage is based on the description of the Imperial Hermitage, made in a guide to Saint Petersburg by Johann Gottlieb Georgi in 1794. The structure of the Hermitage and the basic works characteristic for Catherine's time are displayed in the great Nicholas Hall. The exhibition includes the following sections: picture gallery of Catherine the Great, a room of paintings, a room of engravings, a library of the Empress, a collection of naturals, a collection of rarities and objects of the East, contemporary art in the time of Catherine II.
Johann Gottlieb Georgi, naturalist, ethnographer, chemist, mineralogist and physician, was born in 1729 in Prussian Pomerania; he was educated at Uppsala University, Sweden. At the end of 1770, invited by the Imperial Academy of Sciences, he went to St. Petersburg. His "Experience of Describing the Russian Imperial Capital City of Saint Petersburg and Attractions in Its Surroundings" was first published in German in St. Petersburg in 1790. In addition to a comprehensive historical sketch of the capital and the characteristics of its administrative and social order, the author provided a very detailed description of its geography, soil and minerals, the diversity of flora, fauna, birds and fish. The Hermitage is also present in the book, but its description occupies just four pages.
In early 1793, Georgi started preparing the Russian version of the book dedicated to "To Her Highness, the Most Sovereign, the Great Empress Catherine Alexeyevna, the Sole Rule of All Russia". In the new book, the section on the cultural life of St. Petersburg expanded markedly. This particularly affected the Hermitage. Georgi's new book, according to the rules of construction of academic writings, was preceded by an indication of the sources of information used by the author. It says about the Hermitage: "The news on the Imperial hermitage are completely the fruit of the permission given by HER SUPREME IMPERIAL MAJESTY to examine this room and to report on it in this translation carried out thanks to the benevolence of His Excellency Privy Councillor, Senator, President of the State Board of Commerce and Chevalier Gavrilo Romanovich Derzhavin. Mr. Luzhkov, the librarian, and Mr. Martinelli, the gallery inspector, actively participated; the news of the Imperial Art Gallery is mostly composed by Mr. Martinelli."…"
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