The Blue Reception Room

The room adjacent to the Chesme Hall is not large in comparison with the state halls and apparently had some auxiliary designation. Decorated after Rastrelli's design, it was named the Blue Reception Room because of the colour of its silk lining. Among the pictures which decorate its walls, the three canvases depicting the Great Palace and the Great Cascade deserve special mention. They were painted in the first half of the 19th century, and one of them, the picture hanging on the western wall, is particularly valuable as a work by the eminent marine painter, Ivan Aivazovsky. The display in the room help visitors to form a good idea of the formal palatial interiors.