 A hundred years ago, there were about a hundred and fifty valuable art collections in Estonia. Most of those were taken abroad, some perished in the two World Wars. One of the few private collections re-established after World War II is Johannes Mikkel's rich assortment of the 16th-20th century Western-European, Russian, Chinese and Estonian art.
In 1994, J. Mikkel donated his foreign art collection to the Art Museum of Estonia (over 600 items). This is the first numerous and valuable private collection to be donated to the Art Museum. In order to provide an exposition space for the collection, the renovation of the kitchen building of the Kadriorg Palace was started in 1996; the opening of the Mikkel Museum took place in June, 1997.
Johannes Mikkel was born on October 26, 1907, to a merchant's family in the township of Mäksa, Tartu county. His forefathers had been farmers in the parish of Võnnu. J. Mikkel became interested in art while studying at Tartu School of Commerce and at the Technical Secondary School. As a student of Tartu University he attended lectures on philosophy, literary and art history, folklore.
"Of course I reached out for everything beautiful created by humankind throughout the centuries - as all young people who have had good educators probably do. I had no wish to become an art historian, but, on the other hand, I have been fascinated by art history and fine arts since the last grades of secondary school, throughout my life. This has not been a hobby, but rather a necessity, just like one needs the masterpieces of literature and the most beautiful pieces of music. I consider myself a philosopher by vocation, but by profession I am a man of commerce." (J. Mikkel)
J. Mikkel began to collect art during the inter-war period. This period favoured students, who were not particularly well-off - second-hand shops were full of art works from the collections of impoverished Baltic and Russian nobles. J. Mikkel managed to obtain a number of valuable books, approximately 360 old prints (by A. Dürer, M. Schongauer, M. Raimondi, Rembrandt and others), and several valuable paintings. Unfortunately, this collection was destroyed by the fire during the war. In 1944, J. Mikkel was forced to move from Tartu to Tallinn. Until 1978, when he retired, J. Mikkel worked as the manager of several shops (Väike-Karja second-hand shop, "Heli", "Mööbel"). At the same time he continued collecting art. He now began to visit antique shops in Leningrad, Moscow, Kiev, Tbilisi, even in central Asia. Besides older prints and paintings he became interested in 18th century Chinese, Russian and Western European porcelain and ceramics. In collecting works of art J. Mikkel has neither aimed at any certain system, nor specialised in a narrower area of interest. His good collector's sense was mainly guided by intuition, erudition, and particularly his enthusiasm.
"I was once asked where and how I had managed to find and obtain paintings by well-known western artists. I answered frankly that I had never looked for them. The paintings, the most valuable in particular, have come to me themselves, saying: "Take me into your collection". Only a few roubles, but more often for no pay at all… Art has the magic ability of wandering to where it is loved." (J. Mikkel)
 J. Mikkel's porcelain collection is the most integral among his collections. There are blue-white vases and plates from the period of the emperor Kangxi's reign in China (1662-1722), beautiful goddess figures, celadon vases, as well as hollow vessels and decorative plates covered in colourful enamel (the so-called Pink Family) belonging to the Qianlong period (1736-1795).
The collection boasts samples from the workshops of Meissen, Berlin, Höchst, Ludwigsburg, Frankenthal, Gotha, Vienna, St. Petersburg - all from the heyday of European porcelain art - the 18th century. Among the items from Meissen the figures created by J. J. Kändler are especially highly valued. These are real porcelain chef-d'oeuvres The Pheasant Family 1735, Lady with Plugs 1744).
The biscuit porcelain figures by the Berlin artist Gottfried Schadow are reminiscent of white marble sculptures (Princesses Luise and Frederike, ca 1797). Faience vases from the 17th-18th century Delft and majolica from Urbino complete the collection. Stylistically, the collection covers the epochs of late Baroque, Rococo, Classicism, Empire, Romanticism, Art Nouveau.
In the 1970-s J. Mikkel managed to obtain a collection of graphic art, which used to belong to Woldemar Oldekop – one of the most notorious art collectors of the first decade of the century. At present J. Mikkel´s collection is the most comprehensive and numerous one of all the private collections. It comprises of almost 400 art prints.
The historical-cultural significance of the collection is also eminent. It includes examples of the earlier graphic technique – wood engraving, which presents the craftsmanship of masters like A. Dürer and L. Cranach from the beginning of the16th century. The engravings from the Mannerism Era can be found by the following artists: Flemish C. Cort and J. Matham, French N. Beatrizet and Italian A. Veneziano, J.Palma Junior, D. Fiorentino. There is almost a full collection (23 of 24 sheets) from one of the most famous engravers, J. Callot. The fore-mentioned etchings belong to the series called “Balli di Sfessania�. His 9 other creations enrich the collection as well.
The Baroque Era is quite substantially represented in the collection, for example by such Dutchmen as A. van Ostade, A. Waterloo, P.Potter, G. de Lairesse, etc. The jewels of the collection are naturally the 4 etchings by Rembrandt, including his self-portrait and the portrait of his father from his earlier work. The 17th century Flemish school is brought to you through the works of L. Vorsterman Senior And P.Pontius. They became famous for reproducing the works of P.P.Rubens and A. van Dyck.
Italian painters/etching artists from the same century fostered a more developed and more detailed composition. G.B. Castiglione´s and P.Testa´s extremely imaginative works illustrate it very well. The creations by S. della Bella, G. Reni and S. Rosa are added to the collection. Also the prints by C.Mellan, S. Bourdon and C. Lorrain are present and exemplify the best craftsmanship of the French Baroque Era. The works of P. Drevet demonstrate the virtuosity of reproductive copper engraving.
Mikkel´s Rococo collection is considerably smaller, but still valuable for its notorious artists. For instance, 7 large engravings represent the Italian grand master of graphic vedute, G.B. Piranesi. The era is introduced to you also by one of the most famous Venetian painters and A. Canale by his original etching.
All the well-known black-and-white graphic artists (A. de Saint-Aubin, L. Cars) and colour graphic artists (J. Fr. Janinet, Ch. M. Descourtis and L. Ph. Debucourt) from the 18th century are included. Additionally there is a pastel of a girl with a dog by an unknown artist.
The collectors value highly also the English mezzotint printings in delicate colours from the masters of that period (J. Jones, J.R. Smith, etc.) and Fr. Bartolozzi – the cultivator of dotted manner. Nevertheless, the most noted British painter and printmaker is W. Hogarth, whose 4 satirical engravings belong to the collection. There is also a variety of German graphic art with the exquisite works by D. N. Chodowieck, etc.
Modern engravings are not numerous at the exhibition as the works of Fr. Goya, J.B. Corot, Ch. Fr. Daubigny, M. Liebermann, F. Rops and C. Pissarro speak for themselves. H. Daumier has the largest amount of works in this collection – 11.
 However, J. Mikkel has been particularly fond of Western European painting. Contacts with local collectors or their heirs (Julius Seljamaa, Eduard Braman, Jaak Kask, Peeter Tauk and others), acquaintances in Russian and Georgian art circles, purchases and exchanges, have enabled him to establish a collection of around 50 works of art by various authors from the 16th-19th century.
Works by Netherlands masters (about 20 paintings) make up the larger part of the collection. The Flemish school is represented by The Portrait of Thomas Chaloner, executed by the A. van Dyck studio. The so-called little Dutch are represented by M. de Hondecoeter's Bird Yard, and by the lively views of Dordrecht with the river Rhine. The biblical works of the 17th century vedutas with views of Venice are very interesting. Special mention should be made of Jean-Franzois de Troy's composition The Finding of Moses (1714-1717).
The best of Johannes Mikkel's collection is displayed on the first floor of the palace kitchen building in Kadriorg. The history of this building goes back to the year 1721, when the predecessor of the present building was founded together with the palace and the surrounding park. It was a simple wooden outbuilding: only the cooking and baking rooms were made of stone. The kitchen was adjoined by an ice-cellar, a bread-store and special outbuilding for keeping tablecloths. Of those, only the ice-cellar is still standing.
In 1754, the palace construction master J. G. Teichert was given the task of renovating the tumbledown kitchen house. The old building was pulled down, and a single-storeyed stone house with four chimneys and a high roof was built on the same spot. The third construction round gave the building its present ground plan - the house was extended.
During his visit to Tallinn in 1827, the emperor Nikolay I ordered the whole palace ensemble to be renovated and modernised. In 1828-1832, a wooden upper floor with a mansard roof intended for living quarters was added. The building's classicist appearance, which it acquired during those years, has by now been restored and the fire-damaged mansard fully renovated.
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