Portraits of historical Georgian nobility exhibited at Sighnaghi Museum

Eastern Georgia’s picturesque town of Sighnaghi is set to host an exhibition of 19th century portraits of the country’s noble families, showcasing their legacy and artistic trends of the era.

Hosted by the Georgian National Museum at the network’s Sighaghi Museum venue, the show will be centred around over 40 paintings of historical figures of the royal court and nobility.

Over 40 portraits of people from noble families of the Kakheti province including King Erekle II, Queen Darejan and Tekla Batonishvili, will form the central point of the exhibits.

Organisers revealed some of the exhibits would be displayed publicly for the first time, a part of them following conservation and restoration work carried out by experts.

At its emergence, portrait art for royal court personalities in Georgia had commonalities with the European genre of the same type.

However they also feature distinct manner of their painters and influences generated by Georgia’s ties with Imperial Russia and the Western world.

This later evolved into a style referred to as the Tiflis Portrait School, titled after the old name for the capital city.

In works created under this school, smaller-size portraits featured feudal era nobility and the new bourgeoisie, with the style of works persisting until the 1860s and 1870s.

Beside the paintings the exhibits will also include works in sculpture and miniature genres.

Opening on Thursday, the show Portraits of Kakhetian Nobles will be on display at the venue over the next three months.

The Sighnaghi Museum is located on 8, Shota Rustaveli Blind-alley in Sighnaghi.