The Tradition of Quality
In 1900 at the instance of the Imperial Philanthropic Society (the largest charity organization in Russia at that time) Julius Freedlander, a technologist, was invited to Saint-Petersburg to organize the first factory for the production of oil-paints in Russia. The enterprise was very successful and fulfilled both state and private orders.
In 1934, on the initiative of the Tretyakov Gallery’s employees, the Leningrad Artists’ Paints Plant was formed on the basis of the factory according to the Government’s decree. Its task was a production of painting materials, which did not yield in quality to characteristics of the best world’s analogs. Outstanding specialists in the field of the painting techniques were attracted to the compounding development. Among them Professor of Painting D. I. Kiplik, Director of the All-Russian Academy of Arts U. Brodsky, as well as many organizations such as the Institute of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture named after Repin and the Scientific Research Restoration Institute. As the result of many years spent on the plant development, a unique industrial complex was created. Now it is the St.Petersburg Artists’ Paints Plant. The plant produces more than 600 items of painting materials: artists’ oil, watercolors, gouaches, tempera and acrylic paints, dry pigments, as well as varnishes, oils, paint thinners.
Research and applied works are being permanently held at the plant in order to enlarge the palette and to develop new types of paints. High level of the production quality is supported by tight control of all production stages.
High quality of the plant’s production is proved by its use for the fulfillment of the most delicate works, including those connected with the restoration of the valuable paintings and architecture. The factory’s paints were used for restoration of the Blessed Basil’s Cathedral, the Kremlin Big Palace, the Taurida Palace, the Temple of Christ the Savior and during the restoration of paintings from The State Hermitage Museum, The State Russian Museum and The State Tretyakov Gallery.
Production of the St.Petersburg Artists’ Paints Plant became customary for several generations of painters in Russia, countries of Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) and Baltic countries, as well as in Germany, Great Britain and the USA.
The watercolors sets of the St.Petersburg Artists’ Paints Plant are represented in North America under the trademark of Hermitage Paints. But the red palette - a trademark of the St.Petersburg Artists’ Paints Plant - is always present on the plant’s production.
