One of Catherine the Great’s Greatest Passions? Art

She was the most powerful woman in the world. An avid reader who maintained lengthy correspondence with the leading philosophers of her day. She wrote plays, works of children’s literature, and a memoir. She embraced scientific innovation and oversaw one of the first mass inoculations for smallpox. And, oh yes, she expanded the Russian empire by over 200,000 square miles. It’s no wonder Catherine the Great, who ruled Russia from 1762 to 1796, has been the subject of so much academic attention and, lately, the source of television-series inspiration (season 2 of Hulu’s The Great debuts tonight). But one of… Read Full Article