Very prim and proper Ma'am.The royal visits of Queen Elizabeth and Prince Charles to St Petersburg last year have inspired a group of Russian artists to depict their personal impressions of the English monarchy in a variety of diverse and entertaining styles.
"Monarchy -- that sweet word," currently on show at the Peter and Paul Fortress, is a collection of personal impressions and contrasts between the monarchy of the past and present.
All the artists involved have visited England in the past and their personal contemporary impressions jostle for space with material of London from the museum's own, rich store of documentary evidence of last year's momentous royal walkabout.
Given this common thread, there is surprisingly little monotony in what amounts to a series of royalist adverts. Instead there's a wry humor in many works, as in Alexey Kostroma's kitsch chocolate-egg centerpiece "Monarchiya" where each of the eggs on closer inspection reveals the queen's head nesting inside.
Post-modern perhaps, but it's clearly affectionate too as Kostroma sees the monarch as a symbol of England and a reminder of Russia's imperial past.
"There's so much suffering here at the moment that people have this feeling that they need a symbolic leader above politics, someone above scandal, a unifying force," he explained.
Another work on display by Timur Novikov emphasises this with images of the tsars. A less reverent attitude pervades other pictures, where Queen Elizabeth is seen as just one of us, albeit someone who hides up trees and goes to the seaside to do aerobics and escape intrusive media coverage of her every action.
Such trivialization would probably horrify young Gleb Bogomov, whose collage "How I want to marry Prince Andrew" puts Charles' brother on a pedestal of humorously observed unrequited love.
Much the best work though is the painting occupying the exhibition's central hall, most of it by one of the city's leading art couples, Alexander and Olga Florensky.
"One minute we were in this expensive flat in Chelsea putting on an exhibition, then it was back to the poverty of the St Petersburg underground scene," recalls Alexander Florensky on his first visit to London in the 1970s.
And their continuing love affair with England has produced for this exhibition the impressionistic maps "Hyde Park" and "World's End."
"I wanted to give a sense of my favorite walks in London and the way that things don't change from year to year in England like they do here," he explained.
Painterly styles clash in their pictures of South Kensington and Picadilly, which use bright primary colors in true folk tradition to a recognizably Russian effect.
"The Queen's Breakfast" -- a clear takeoff of A.A Milne -- uses the same light, bright colors, while the idea of a culture clash within England is confronted as other artists hangs outfits side-by-side -- the prim librarian face-to-face with the cool club kid.
Nearby hangs the exquisite "Royal Silk" and "Elizabeth's Maternity Dress" which explore the monarch's perceived wardrobe.
The emphasis on personal feelings results in such a diversity of style and subject matter that the exhibition lacks a really satisfying coherence. But reaching conclusions is not what the exhibition is trying to achieve.
Come here to be amused, puzzled and to feel transported back to the England that was, the England that is and the England that as Olga Florensky's collage proclaims, goes "Only Ahead."
A touch of 1970s flare.