This book of postcards presents thirty of the finest paintings from the fabled collection of The State Hermitage Museum in , Russia. Founded by Empress Catherine the Great, the Hermitage is an ensemble of five magnificent buildings erected in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Grandest of all is the Winter Palace, the richly ornamented home of the ruling Romanov dynasty until the Russian Revolution. So imagine that you are walking along echoing halls, across gleaming parquet floors, under sculpted ceilings from which hang gold-plated chandeliers, as you take in this assortment of landscapes, madonnas, still lifes, and portraits from Russia, Italy, France, England, Holland, Flanders, and Germany.