The White Dining Room

This is the largest room of the ground floor chambers, located on the main axis of the Palace along the western facade. Three glazed doors lead to a wide porch with a view of the Slavyanka River. In the center on the opposite wall is a door, from where, through the Dark Pantry and the Egyptian Vestibule, you can see the Triple Lime Alley. The decoration of the room was carried out by architect Charles Cameron in 1784–1787. Just like in the Billiards Room, it is distinguished by the strict harmony of the architectural solution. Fluted pilasters alternate with window and door openings and mirrors over fireplaces, creating a clear rhythm of vertical divisions of the walls of a delicate pistachio shade. The stucco decor along the upper perimeter of the walls and on the plafond conveys exquisite elegance to the room. Three of Charles Cameron's projects (templates) for the decoration of the plafond, the capitals of the pilasters, and the frieze drawing have been preserved in the museum's architectural graphics holdings. Pilasters are crowned with Corinthian capitals, above them, there is a fantasy frieze along the walls, where figures of lions and cupids, antique vases, and curls of acanthus leaves are interwoven. Then there is a low cornice decorated with palmettes, turning into a ribbon of a border of stylized acanthus leaves running along the entire ceiling. An oval in the form of a huge stucco wreath, intertwined with ribbons, is blended in the rectangular surface of the ceiling; at its corners, there are stucco sockets for lamps. Finishing works related to the creation of stucco patterns were performed by Antonio Bernasconi. In 1816, the bronze lanterns were replaced with milk glass lamps resembling Antique lamps, harmoniously completing the ensemble.

During the reign of Emperor Paul I, the strict harmony of this bright hall was complemented by the color accents of four picturesque landscapes of Pavlovsk Park, placed between pilasters on the end walls. This series with romantic views of the park with its ponds, cascades, and bridges was made in 1800 by Andrey Martynov, one of the outstanding landscape painters of the time. On the wall adjacent to the Billiard Room are the View of Pavlovsk with a bridge and a cascade and the View of Pavlovsk at the Red Valley Bridge. On the opposite side are The Valley of the Slavyanka River with the Temple of Friendship and The Pill Tower in Pavlovsk Park. These paintings complement the natural landscapes behind the hall windows very harmoniously.

A spectacular decoration of the hall is four marble vases standing in its corners, decorated by relief images of mythological characters, animals, plant ornaments, and marine motifs. In 1774, Grand Duke Pavel Petrovich commissioned French sculptor Nicolas-François Gillet to do them for Paullust, the first palace of Pavlovsk. Nicolas-François Gillet was a professor of the sculpture class of the Imperial Academy of Arts; masters such as Ivan Martos and Mikhail Kozlovsky studied under him, later doing plenty of work for Pavlovsk.

There are works of French bronze workers of the 18th century on two fireplaces (the central wall): the clocks Astronomy (1785–1800) and The Eavesdropper (the 1800s), candelabra and decorative fireplace ornaments shaped after antique oil lamps (the 1780s).

Between the windows, there are two elegant chests of drawers with a set of different types of wood (Western Europe, the 18th century), on which porcelain vases from the historical collection of Pavlovsk are placed. These unique vases were made in 1784 at the Saint Petersburg Imperial Porcelain Factory using the model of antique amphorae with high handles. In the oval medallions on both sides of the body, you can see miniature images of the first buildings of Pavlovsk. On the one side, there is Paullust, behind which there is scaffolding with small figures of the builders of the future Pavlovsk Palace; on the other side, there is a landscape with the Temple of Friendship. On the other vase, there is the now-defunct Marienthal Palace, later rebuilt into the Bip Fortress; on the other side, there is an Old Chalet, lost during the Nazi occupation of Pavlovsk.

In the late 18th century, tables were set here for lunches and dinners. Family evenings with music and games (charade and cards) were held in this large hall as well. Under the Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna, the hall was used as a living room, in which dining tables were set occasionally. Famous writers attended the dinners: Ivan Krylov, Vasily Zhukovsky, Yury Neledinsky-Meletsky, Pyotr Vyazemsky, and others.

In 1858, the hall was adapted for the Reception Room of the mistress of Pavlovsk, Grand Duchess Alexandra Iosifovna, wife of Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolaevich. A picturesque plafond appeared on the ceiling, done by Francesco Fontebasso, the 18th-century Italian artist. It was taken from the storerooms of the Winter Palace (lost in a fire of January 1944). Since 1890, the study of Grand Duke Konstantin Konstantinovich was located in this room. He wrote many poetic works here. In this study, behind the desk of his great-grandmother, Empress Maria Feodorovna, he translated Shakespeare's Hamlet for many years. He loved this study because there was a lot of light and air here. And in the summer of 1915, he died here.

When converting the Palace to the museum (1918), the function of a dining room was returned to this room, displaying the famous Parisian service on a covered table. In the post-war period, during the general restoration of the Palace, the hall was recreated on a scientific basis to the state of the late 18th century.

On the set table, there is a service made by the Imperial Porcelain Factory, purposely made for Pavlovsk in 1827 by order of Emperor Nicholas I as a gift to his mother, Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna. The service was designed for 60 people and consisted of 606 items (extant are more than 300 items) and included dining and dessert ware, served separately. The Imperial coat of arms is painted in black paint on the dishes and plates of the dinner service, hence the service is called the Heraldic Service. The service also includes bottle and glass ware, dessert bowl, and compotiers, large and small. A green board with two intertwined gold ribbons is depicted on every service piece. The dessert service plates depict various fruits and fruits as per drawings from French and English botanical atlases. A botanical name of the fruit is written in black on the back of each plate. Decorative fruit vases stand in the center of the table. Sculptural figures of ancient heroes and warriors of gilded porcelain give the vases a classic austerity and severity. The models of the sculptures were made by the famous sculptor Stepan Pimenov, then head of the model-making workshop of the plant, together with Alexey Voronikhin (nephew of the architect Andrey Voronikhin), artwork by the artist of the plant A. S. Kanunnikov.