Fyodor Matveyevich Apraksin, by Salomon Gouin

Description

Portrait medallion, bone, signed on the reverse GOUIN.F and dated 1709, round, diam. 6cm

Salomon Gouin was born probably in Dieppe, he died ca. 1720 in St. Petersburg. He worked with Jean Cavalier from 1696/7. Together they travelled to Russia and Persia with the Swedish diplomat Ludvig Fabritius. Gouin worked in Russia from around 1702. Ivory portrait medallions demonstrate his presence there in 1704. He was employed in the Russian Mint owned by Tsar Peter the Great in St. Petersburg from 1708-1719. His medal struck in 1708 to honour Admiral F.M. Apraksin is signed GOUIN.F. (An silver example of this medal was recently sold for 30’000Euros: Künker Auktion, 20th June 2016, lot 243)

The British Museum has an ivory portrait medallion of the same size, signed S. GOUIN. F. MOSCO 1705 (Registration number 1888,0514.1).

Fyodor Matveyevich Apraksin (Фёдор Матве́евич Апра́ксин, 1661-1728) was from an old boyar family. His sister Marfa Matveyevna married the elder (half-) brother of Tsar Peter I, Fyodor Alekseevich (1676-1682). Apraksin, one of the first Russian admirals, governed Estonia and Karelia from 1712 to 1723, was made general admiral in 1708, presided over the Russian Admiralty from 1718 and commanded the Baltic Fleet from 1723. On land, Apraksin defended St. Petersburg from the Swedish army, at sea he inflicted a decisive defeat on them at Gangut.

The Apraksin Palace was the largest and grandest in St Petersburg. It was designed in 1717–1725 by the French architect Jean-Baptiste Alexandre Leblond (1679–1719), who had been invited to Russia in 1716 by Peter the Great. Several decades later, the palace was demolished to make room for the Winter Palace, which now occupies the spot.