Kuskovo Palace

The Kuskovo Palace was the main building on the estate of Count Peter Sheremetev near Moscow. The palace was constructed between 1769 and 1775 under the stewardship of Karl Blank. The blueprints were commissioned from Charles de Wailly in Paris and only arrived in the summer of 1774, when the palace was almost completed. They were possibly employed when the facades were decorated in the Neoclassical style. The palace was made of wood. The facades were lined with deal, while the tapering columns of the central portico were made from whole tree trunks.

The interior decor of the state apartments reflects an aspiration towards imitation, theatricality and external decorativeness. The architect widely employed artificial marble, plafonds, grisaille (decorative painting in greyish tints imitating moulding), tapestries depicting perspective views and papier-mâché with gilded deep reliefs. The parquet floors were commissioned from master joiner Johann Kint in St Petersburg in September 1770. They arrived in Kuskovo in January 1771 and were in place by March.