Examination Card 23

You have visited a museum. Describe it. Include the following:

• its exhibits;
• your impressions.

I had always wanted to visit the Hermitage Museum and last summer my dream came true. My mother’s friend lives in St. Petersburg and she invited me to come and see her. She has a daughter my age called Kate. I made friends with her, and during my stay with them she showed me a lot of beautiful sights. 

Of course, the first place she took me to was the Hermitage. It is one of the largest and oldest museums in the world. It was founded by Catherine the Great in 1764 and has the largest collection of paintings in the world. The most part of the Hermitage collection is housed in the Winter Palace, the former residence of Russian emperors.

The Hermitage collection is so huge that we could only see a small fraction of it, so we chose to see the collection of Western European Art. This collection is the main attraction for visitors and about 2.5 million people a year come to see it. Among the most famous works in the collection are the paintings of Rubens, Rembrandt, Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Caravaggio, El Greco, Goya and some other artists.

The collection of English Painting has about 450 pictures. Among them there is my favorite painting Portrait of Duchesse de Beaufort by Thomas Gainsborough who was a famous English painter of the 18th century. This portrait is an outstanding work of art. The artist depicts a graceful and attractive young woman. She has got a pleasant oval face, a straight nose and delicate hands. The portrait is painted in cold colors – black, blue, gray and white. I like this picture because it is not a traditional official portrait. The woman in the picture seems alive and we have a feeling that she is looking at us.

I think that the Hermitage is a great place to visit, so I am planning to go to St. Petersburg next summer too and to see some other collections of this wonderful museum.