Ernst Friedrich von Liphart

Ernst Friedrich von Liphart
Self-portrait
Born	1847 Kambja Parish, Russian Empire (now Estonia)
Died	1932 Leningrad, Soviet Union
Residence	Raadi Manor
Other names	Earnest Lipgart

Baron Ernst Friedrich von Liphart or Earnest Lipgart (1847–1932) was a painter, a noted art expert and art collector from what is now Tartu in Estonia. After living for a time in Florence, he moved to France and then to Russia, where he was a curator at the Hermitage Museum.

Liphart was born in Kambja Parish in Tartu County in 1847. His father, Karl Eduard von Liphart, came from a noble Baltic German family that was based at Raadi Manor in what is now Estonia. His family were members of the national intelligentsia and owned a significant art collection.

Liphart accompanied his father on his travels, starting in 1860. In 1862, they moved to Florence because of Liphart's weak health. His father continued his interest in art, which was financed and supported by Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna, the daughter of Tsar Nicholas I. Ernst studied painting under Franz von Lenbach before travelling to Spain with him to study paintings from 1866 to 1868. This trip was funded by Lenbach's patron Count Schack.

Liphart was disinherited by his father in 1873 after he converted to Roman Catholicism to marry Luisa Juan, a Florentine, before they moved to Paris. He studied under Gustave Boulanger and Jules Joseph Lefebvre at the Académie Julian whilst illustrating the leading magazines La vie élégante and La vie moderne.

In 1886 Liphart moved to Saint Petersburg, where he was a successful artist, painting a portrait of Tsar Nicholas II, as well as decorating the curtain and ceiling of the theatre of the Moika Palace and several imperial palaces. Liphart also took on more unusual requests, including the menu for the Tsar's coronation in 1896 and then painting 100 figures on a piano, telling the story of Orpheus. The piano was a present from the Tsar to Empress Alexandra Feodorovna.

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