Loading images...
The Empress of Art, by Susan Jaques
€10.00

Quay Books
This is an art-oriented biography of the mighty Catherine the Great, who rose from seemingly innocuous beginnings.
A German princess who married a decadent and lazy Russian prince, she mobilized support amongst the nobles, playing off of her husband's increasing corruption and abuse of power. She then staged a coup that ended with him being strangled with his own scarf in the halls of the palace, and she being crowned the Empress of Russia.
Intelligent and determined, Catherine modeled herself off of her grandfather in-law, Peter the Great, and sought to further modernize and westernize Russia. She felt that the best way to do this was through a ravenous acquisition of art, which Catherine often used as a form of diplomacy with other powers throughout Europe.
She was a self-proclaimed "glutton for art" and she would be responsible for the creation of the Hermitage, one of the largest museums in the world, second only to the Louvre. Catherine also spearheaded the further expansion of St. Petersburg, and the magnificent architectural wonder the city became is largely her doing.
“An absorbing account of a fascinating figure and her legacy” - Booklist
More from Quay Books Browse Quay Books All
Every Word Is a Bird We Teach to Sing: Encounters with the Mysteries and Meanings of Language, by Daniel Tammet
€7.00
€25.00
72% off
Survivors Club: The True Story of a Very Young Prisoner of Auschwitz by Michael Bornstein, Debbie Bornstein Holinstat
€5.00
€12.00
58% off
Diarmuid Lynch: A Forgotten Irish Patriot, by Eileen McGough
€5.00
€15.00
66% off
The Tin Drum, by Günther Grass
€4.00
€14.00
71% off
From Hell to Breakfast, by Carl Olsson
€8.00
Somewhere Close to Happy, by Lia Louis
€4.00
€20.00
80% off
How Democracies Die : What History Reveals About Our Future, by Steven Levitsky & Daniel Ziblatt
€6.00
€12.00
50% off
Complete Poems for Children, by James Reeves: Illustrated by Edward Ardizzone
€150.00