Ernst von Liphart

Baron Ernst Friedrich von Liphart (August 26, 1847 – April 14, 1932), also known by his Russian name Ernst Karlovich Lipgart, and also referred to in English as Earnest Lipgart, 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.

Life 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.

Travels in Spain and Italy Liphart accompanied his father on his travels, starting in 1860.

Paris 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. and several imperial palaces.

Ernst's father died in Florence in 1904. After his death his art collection was moved back to Estonia, where it was combined with his family's collection at Raadi Manor. Liphart's home was still in Russia, where he taught at the Drawing School of the Imperial Society for the Encouragement of the Arts in Saint Petersburg in the 1890s, where his students included Eugene Lanceray. under Jan Ciągliński and Liphart.

Liphart was appointed to several Russian learned societies and he became the curator of paintings at the Hermitage Museum in 1906.

The Liphart art collection that had been at the family residence was moved after the Russian Revolution. The collection appeared first in a sale in Copenhagen in 1920. Raadi Manor was used by the Estonian National Museum in 1922–1924 after the manor came under the management of the University of Tartu.

In 1921 he was evicted from his house and his daughter was executed for harbouring a White Army officer. Before he died, Liphart wrote a novel and a play.

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