A Priceless Gift. Dedicated to the Memory of Lydia Delektorskaya. Paintings, Sculpture, Drawings, Engravings, Books.

On 4 October 2005 an exhibition opened in the Twelve Column Hall of the New Hermitage in which more than 100 items by the French artist Henri Matisse are displayed. For 22 years, Lydia Delektorskaya (1910 - Tomsk, 1998 - Paris) was Matisse’s secretary. She was a devoted friend and selfless assistant to the artist, to whom she dedicated her life. Delektorskaya was the inspiration for many of Matisse’s works. His face was captured in numerous oil paintings, drawings and printed graphics. She won people over by her astonishing directness, generosity, clarity of thinking and desire to do good. The priceless exhibits which she gave to the Hermitage have extraordinarily enriched the collection of works by Henri Matisse.

The curators of the exhibition are Dr. Asya Cantor-Gukovskaya, lead researcher, and Larisa Dukelskaya, senior researcher, of the State Hermitage’s Department of Western European Art.

A scholarly illustrated exhibition catalogue prepared under the general editorial direction of Larisa Dukelskaya has been issued by the Chisty List Publishing House in St Petersburg. It has introductory remarks by Professor Mikhail Piotrovsky, Director of the State Hermitage. Among the authors of the articles for sections on Painting, Drawings, Sculpture, Books and Engravings are Dr. Albert Kostenevich, Dr. Asya Cantor-Gukovskaya, Elena Karcheva, Larisa Dukelskaya, and Mikhail Balan, all curators in the State Hermitage’s Department of Western European Art.

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Lydia Delektorskaya

The exhibition catalogue

At the opening of the exhibition

At the exhibition