This suite of rooms, dedicated to rotating exhibitions of art treasures from the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, is one of the major attractions of Somerset House in the Strand. It opened in the autumn of 2000 and was the museum’s first exhibition space outside Russia. The initiative was a collaboration between Lord Rothschild and Prof. Mikhail Piotrovsky, Director of the State Hermitage Museum. The first director, who had charge of the creation of the rooms, was the former journalist, Mrs. Geraldine Norman. The Rooms were welcomed by the Russian Minister of Culture of the day as ‘ a new and effective method of developing collaboration between Russia and Great Britain’ and had the strong support of Tony Blair and his Arts Minister in the U.K.

The Hermitage Rooms are run by the Hermitage Development Trust, a privately funded charity, established by Lord Rothschild in 1999. Since 2004 HDT has joined the family of charities run by the Courtauld Institute of Art. A far reaching scholarly alliance between the Hermitage and the Courtauld, including the organisation of exhibitions, was signed into being by their two respective directors, Prof. Mikhail Piotrovsky and Dr. Deborah Swallow, in 2005.

Somerset House, an 18th century palace which spreads down the north bank of the Thames below Waterloo Bridge, was London’s first dedicated office building. It is now in the process of transformation into one of the city’s most exciting cultural centres. The Courtauld Institute, with its world famous art collection, moved into the north block in 1990.

The Exhibition Space

The Hermitage Rooms echo the decorative style of the museum in St. Petersburg to give the visitor the impression that he has wandered into a hitherto uncharted wing of the palace. There are marquetry floors, chandeliers and replicas of Russian imperial furniture. The rouched cotton curtains which control the light on every Hermitage window are duplicated in Somerset House.

The Hermitage Rooms reflect Nicholas I’s style of interior decoration. He commissioned the museum tucked into the back of the Winter Palace, the ‘New Hermitage’, which opened its doors to the public in 1852, taking a passionate interest in every detail of its construction.

The Rooms comprise an introductory Gallery, four exhibition galleries and a corridor. Two exhibitions are generally organised there every year, opening in the spring and autumn.