On Saturday, October 3, 2026, the Carmel Institute organized a trip to the National Gallery of Art. Professor Fedyashin gave the students an hour-long tour of the paintings acquired by Andrew Mellon from the Hermitage Museum in 1930-31. Of the twenty-one paintings that Mellon purchased, seventeen are currently on display. 

Film screenings, museum visits, concert attendance, and study trips have been part of the Carmel Institute’s programming since its inception. As Professor Fedyashin has always reminded his students, although our knowledge about the past depends primarily on reading, history must also be walked, seen, touched, smelled, and tasted. 

The tour combined the biographies of the artists, the history of Western art, and the story of the paintings’ acquisitions. The group explored Jan van Eyck’s The Annunciation (c. 1434), Sandro Botticelli’s The Adoration of the Magi (c. 1478), Perugino’s The Crucifixion with the Virgin, Saint John, Saint Jerome, and Saint Mary Magdalene (c. 1482/1485), Raphael’s Saint George and the Dragon (c. 1506), Titian’s Venus with a Mirror (c. 1555), Veronese’s The Finding of Moses (1582), Sir Anthony van Dyck’s Isabella Brant (1629) and Philip, Lord Wharton (1632); Rembrandt’s Man in Oriental Costume (c. 1635), A Polish Nobleman (1637), and Joseph and Potiphar’s Wife (1655); and finally Jean Siméon Chardin’s The House of Cards (c. 1737). The students also read two chapters of Richard Wortman’s Scenarios of Power, which placed the images and acquisition history into the context of socio-political symbolism during Catherine the Great’s reign. 

Dr. Fedyashin told the students about each painting’s acquisition by the Romanovs. The paintings explored during this trip were purchased by Alexander I, Nicholas I, and Catherine the Great. The French philosopher Denis Diderot was her official agent in Europe who identified the works on sale and then negotiated their acquisition. For example, Chardin’s quiet domestic scene was his recommendation. The addition to the Winter Palace of the Little Hermitage building that Catherine commissioned not only reflected the neoclassical architectural trend but also pointed to another side of her character—her love for quiet spaces to read and seek shelter from the bustle of the imperial court. Although not a masterpiece on the scale of the other paintings, Chardin’s canvas with its lone card player on a minimalist background reflected Catherine’s desire for quiet contemplation. 

The trip was a visual component of a holistic experience that stays with students of history for much longer. After the tour, the group went to lunch. Engaging with the history of art on the page and in the museum helped to open young minds to the importance of art history as well as the great legacy of Russian and American philanthropy.