The Tsarina's Lost Treasure: Catherine the Great, a Golden Age Masterpiece, and a Legendary Shipwreck Gerald Easter
A rivetinghistory and maritime adventure aboutpriceless masterpieces originally destined for Catherine the Great.
On October 1771, a merchant ship out of Amsterdam, Vrouw Maria, crashed offthe stormy Finnish coast, taking her historic cargo to the depths of the Baltic Sea. The vessel was delivering a dozen Dutch masterpiece paintings to Europes most voracious collector: Catherine the Great, Empress of Russia.Among the lost treasures wasThe Nursery, an oak-paneled triptych by Leiden fine painter Gerrit Dou, Rembrandts most brilliant student and Hollands first international superstar artist. Dous triptych was long the most beloved and most coveted painting of the Dutch Golden Age, andits loss in the shipwreck was mourned throughout the art world.
Vrouw Maria, meanwhile, became a maritime legend, confounding would-be salvagers for more than two hundred years. In July 1999, a daring Finnish wreck hunter foundVrouw Maria,upright on the sea floor and perfectly preserved.The Tsarinas Lost Treasuremasterfully recounts the fascinating tale ofVrouw Mariaher loss and discoveryweaving together the rise and fall of the artist whose priceless masterpiece was the jewel of the wreckage.
Gerald Easter and Mara Vorheesbring to vivid life thepersonalities that drove (and are still driving) this compelling tale, evoking Robert Massies depiction of Russian high politics and culture, Simon Schamas insights into Dutch Golden Age art and art history, Gary Kinders spirit of, danger and adventure on the beguiling Archipelago Sea.
On October 1771, a merchant ship out of Amsterdam, Vrouw Maria, crashed offthe stormy Finnish coast, taking her historic cargo to the depths of the Baltic Sea. The vessel was delivering a dozen Dutch masterpiece paintings to Europes most voracious collector: Catherine the Great, Empress of Russia.Among the lost treasures wasThe Nursery, an oak-paneled triptych by Leiden fine painter Gerrit Dou, Rembrandts most brilliant student and Hollands first international superstar artist. Dous triptych was long the most beloved and most coveted painting of the Dutch Golden Age, andits loss in the shipwreck was mourned throughout the art world.
Vrouw Maria, meanwhile, became a maritime legend, confounding would-be salvagers for more than two hundred years. In July 1999, a daring Finnish wreck hunter foundVrouw Maria,upright on the sea floor and perfectly preserved.The Tsarinas Lost Treasuremasterfully recounts the fascinating tale ofVrouw Mariaher loss and discoveryweaving together the rise and fall of the artist whose priceless masterpiece was the jewel of the wreckage.
Gerald Easter and Mara Vorheesbring to vivid life thepersonalities that drove (and are still driving) this compelling tale, evoking Robert Massies depiction of Russian high politics and culture, Simon Schamas insights into Dutch Golden Age art and art history, Gary Kinders spirit of, danger and adventure on the beguiling Archipelago Sea.