1. The Russian Museum was established in 1895 by decree of Emperor Nicholas II in the building of the "Mikhailovsky Palace with all its outbuildings, services and a garden."
2. The palace itself was built in 1819-1826 for Prince Mikhail Pavlovich, the younger brother of Emperors Alexander I and Nicholas I. 
3. The architect was the famous Carl Rossi. 
4. The initial collection was based on works received by 1898 from the Academy of Arts (122 paintings), the Hermitage (80 paintings), the Winter Palace, suburban palaces - Gatchina and Alexander (95 paintings), as well as acquired in private collections. 
5. By the opening of the Russian Museum, the collection had 445 paintings, 111 sculptures, 981 drawings, engravings and watercolors, as well as about 5 thousand ancient monuments: icons and products of ancient Russian arts and crafts. 
6. In 1941, most of the collection was evacuated to Perm, the rest was removed from the exhibition, packed and hidden in the basements of the building. During the Great Patriotic War, not a single museum exhibit was damaged. 
7. At the end of the 20th - beginning of the 21st century, buildings with 92 marble sculptures, the Marble Palace, the Stroganov Palace, were included in the Russian Museum. 
8. The interiors of the palace are no less impressive than the collections contained in it. 
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11. The walls are decorated with magnificent European tapestries. 
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14. There are a couple of sculptures on the stairs. Here fragment of a statue from the roof of the Winter Palace, author J. Boumchen. 
15. Sculptor M.A. Kolo, head model for the monument to Peter I.
16. In the section of ancient Russian art, icons of the 12th-15th centuries are widely represented. 
17. These are the works of Andrei Rublev, Dionisy, Simon Ushakov and other masters. 
18. The oldest of the icons in the collection is the Golden Haired Angel, dated to the second half of the 12th century. Most experts attribute it to the Novgorod school of icon painting. 
19. The most complete is the collection of works of fine art of the 18th - the first half of the 19th centuries. 
20. Three sketches and numerous sketches for Alexander Ivanov's painting "The Appearance of Christ to the People". 
21. The epic canvas measuring 5.4 by 7.5 meters was created by Ivanov for 20 years, from 1837 to 1857. Now it is exhibited in the Tretyakov Gallery, sketches and sketches - in the Russian Museum. 
22. Also in the hall is a sculpture in antique style. V. Demut-Malinovsky, "Russian Scaevola".
23. N. Pimenov, "A young man playing money".
24. Karl Bryullov, portrait of architect Konstantin Ton, author of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior. 
25. "Christ and the Sinner", Vasily Polenov, 1888. 
26. It was written under the influence of the already mentioned "The Appearance of Christ to the People." 
27. In the painting, the author sought to tell the biblical parable “he who is without sin among you, the first to throw a stone at her” as a real historical event. 
28. The painting was exhibited at the XV Traveling Exhibition in St. Petersburg and in Moscow, where it was bought by Alexander III for his collection. 
29. Fragment of the painting “Phryne at the Feast of Poseidon in Eleusis”, G.I. Semiradsky, 1889. 
30. The Russian historical series includes works based on fairy tales. M.A. Vrubel, "Bogatyr", 1898-1899. 
31. Also Vrubel, Sadko dish, 1899-1900. 
32. The same stone with the inscription from the painting by V.M. Vasnetsov "The Knight at the Crossroads", 1882. 
33. Majolica fireplace "Volga and Mikula" from Bazhanov's house. Made according to the sketches of the same Vrubel. 
34. Positive ships from the painting by Nicholas Roerich "Slavs on the Dnieper". 
35. Leonid Posen, "Scythian", 1889-1890. 
36. A.L. Ober, "Tiger and Sepoy". 
37. Many paintings depict nature. "Wave" by Ivan Aivazovsky. 
38. Beautiful in its minimalism "Lake" by Isaac Levitan. 
39. The genius of the landscape Arkhip Kuindzhi, "Rainbow", 1900-1905. 
40. Mordvin Oaks by Ivan Shishkin. 
41. His own "Stream in a birch forest." 
42. And here is Ivan Ivanovich himself, a portrait by Ivan Kramskoy, 1880. 
43. Ilya Repin, Belorus, 1892 
44. A collection of paintings with Russian national flavor opens Boris Kustodiev. "The Merchant for Tea", written in the end, only in 1918. 
45. In the background - patriarchal Russia. 
46. F. Malyavin, "Two Girls", 1910. 
47. "Spring Sunny Day" by Konstantin Yuon - a picture of light in mood, it is good to write essays on it. 
48. A similar painting by Boris Kustodiev - "Shrovetide". 
49. A portrait of Fyodor Chaliapin in a similar style was painted by Kustodiev in 1921. 
50. Background for a great artist. 
51. Another portrait of Chaliapin, made in 1911 by K.A. Korovin, is filled with the light and ease of pre-war life. 
52. Distributed in millions of Soviet cuisines, Vasily Perov’s painting “Hunters at Rest” was written in 1871. In terms of recognition, it can be compared with the "Unknown" by Ivan Kramskoy. 
53. Part of another famous canvas - "The Capture of the Snow Town", Vasily Surikov, 1891. 
54. And this is another picture familiar to everyone since childhood. 
55. "Barge Haulers on the Volga" was written by Ilya Repin in 1870-1873. 
56. Nearby you can see one of the sketches for the painting with a completely different composition. 
57. In his other picture - a playful student. "Preparation for the exam", 1864. 
58. The picture of Vasily Petrov "Monastery meal" can be considered for a long time. 
59. It was written in 1865 and is an evil satire on the clergy. 
60. An important dignitary with a swaggering mistress and obsequiously bowing before them, the priest, counting on donations for the monastery. A beggar woman with hungry children hopelessly reaches out for alms. And below, a pop is climbing somewhere. 
61. Multi-figured canvas by K.A. Savitsky "To the War", created in 1880-1888, is dedicated to seeing off soldiers to the Russian-Turkish war. 
62. Now would you say, “a patriotic son did not find support from a liberal father”? 
63. One of the episodes of that war was portrayed by battle-painter V.V. Vereshchagin - "Skobelev near Shipka". 
64. Everyone remembers "The Girl with Peaches", the style of Valentin Serov is difficult to confuse. This picture is called "Children", in which the artist depicted his sons Sasha and Yura. 
65. The glory of Serov as a portrait painter became for him a real bondage and a curse. After 1895, he painted many portraits commissioned by the bourgeois and aristocratic nobility. This is a portrait of Alexander III with a report in his hands, 1900. 
66. Departure of Emperor Peter II and Tsesarevna Elizaveta Petrovna to hunt, 1900. 
67. In the portrait of Count F.F. Sumarokova-Elston with a dog (1903) Serov himself insisted on the image of the beloved dog of the young count, and he looks in the portrait almost more significant than his master. 
68. The same with the horse in the portrait of Prince F.F. Yusupov, but here the animal is presented completely enraged. 
69. The official work of Ilya Repin "The ceremonial meeting of the State Council on May 7, 1901 in honor of the centenary" with sketches occupies an entire hall with a skylight in the ceiling. 
70. At the beginning of the 20th century, the era changed, realism was replaced by modernity. Cubist portrait of the poetess Anna Akhmatova by Natan Altman, 1914. 
71. Also at the beginning of the century there was a flourishing of theaters. A.N. Benois, Italian Comedy, 1906. 
72. Self-portrait of V.I. Shukhaev as Pierrot, 1914. 
73. Boris Grigoriev, portrait of Meyerhold, 1916. The pose was created by the artist himself. The director was forced to pose on tiptoe for a long time, which is why he looks so haggard. 
74. K.A. Somov, "The Ridiculous Kiss", 1908. 
75. Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin, self-portrait, 1918 
76. We are transported to the art of the Soviet period. 
You can know the Hermitage expositions thoroughly, you can perfectly navigate the Tretyakov Gallery, you can be ready at any moment to give your friends an impromptu tour of the Pushkin Museum, but still do not consider yourself an expert in Russian art. And all why? Because without the Russian Museum in this case nowhere! Today we recall the history of the museum, which houses one of the largest collections of Russian art in the world.
Art lover Alexander III
On April 13, 1895, Emperor Nicholas II issued a decree according to which the "Russian Museum named after Emperor Alexander III" was to be established in St. Petersburg. And the museum was officially opened only on March 8, 1898. But the idea of creating a museum came to Alexander III's mind long before that. In his youth, the future Emperor Alexander III was fond of art and even studied painting himself with Professor Tikhobrazov. A little later, his wife, Maria Fedorovna, shared his passion, and the two of them continued their studies under the strict guidance of Academician Bogolyubov.
Alexander III with his wife and three older children. 1878 Having assumed power, the emperor realized that it was impossible to combine government and painting, and therefore abandoned his art. But he did not lose his love for art, and squandered significant sums from the treasury on the purchase of works of art that were no longer placed either in Gatchina, or in the Winter Palace, or in the Anichkov Palace. It was then that Alexander decided to create a state museum in which the paintings of Russian painters could be stored, and which would correspond to the prestige of the country, raised the patriotic mood and all that.
It is believed that for the first time the emperor expressed the idea after the 17th exhibition of the Association of the Wanderers in 1889, where he acquired Repin's painting "Nicholas of Myra saves three innocently convicted from death."
Special status of the Russian Museum
By 1895, they managed to create a project for the construction of the building of the Museum of Russian Art at the Academy of Arts and even finish the estimate, but on October 21, 1894, Alexander III died, and it seemed that the museum would never become a reality. But Nicholas II got down to business. He decided to give the Mikhailovsky Palace bought to the treasury for the needs of the museum.
The regulations on the museum in 1897 emphasized its special status. Special rules for creating a collection were fixed, for example, works by contemporary artists had to be in the museum at the Academy of Arts for 5 years first, and only then, at the choice of the manager, they could be placed in the Russian Museum.
Art objects placed in the museum were supposed to remain there forever - that is, they could not be taken away or transferred to any other place.
The manager was appointed by the highest personal decree and must necessarily belong to the Imperial House.
Charlemagne I. I., View of the Mikhailovsky Palace from the park and square. 1850s. With the world on a thread - collection to the museum
At first, the museum collection consisted of paintings collected by Alexander III, which were transferred from the Academy of Arts, the Hermitage, for example, the famous painting by Karl Bryullov “The Last Day of Pompeii”. Winter, Gatchina and Alexander Palaces. Part of the collection was purchased from private collections. As Nicholas II decided, in the future the collection was to be replenished at the expense of the treasury, which even introduced a separate paragraph for the museum, and thanks to possible donations.
Surprisingly, there were many of them, the size of the collection grew rapidly and almost doubled compared to the original 1.5 thousand works and 5000 exhibits from the Museum of Christian Antiquities. The “color of the nation” was enrolled in the first staff of the museum - the most prominent scientists, art critics and historians, for example, A.P. Benois, P.A. Bryullov, M.P. Botkin, N.N. Punin and others.
Museum life in the 20th century
Thanks to the State Museum Fund, which worked in the first years after the October Revolution, the museum's collection grew rapidly after 1917. Large gaps in the collection were filled in, for example, some trends in Russian painting were not presented at the museum for some time, and the collection of some was extremely scarce.
In 1922, the museum's exposition was built for the first time according to the scientific and historical principle, which brought the museum to a qualitatively new level. But the building of the Mikhailovsky Palace alone was not enough for the expanded collection, and gradually the museum began to "conquer the territory." In the 1930s, the Rossi wing in the Mikhailovsky Palace, which had been occupied by tenants until then, was vacated and moved to the Russian Museum, and a little later, the ethnographic department “moved out” from the parental nest of the Russian Museum, which became the State Museum of Ethnography of the Peoples of the USSR. In the 40s, the Benois building and the Mikhailovsky Palace were even connected by a special passage.
The Grand Drawing Room of the Mikhailovsky Palace in St. Petersburg Luigi Premazzi. Where to go and what to see?
At the beginning of the 21st century, the Summer Garden with a collection of marble sculptures (yes, yes, there are only copies in the Summer Garden now), as well as the Summer Palace of Peter I, the Coffee and Tea Houses located in it, passed into the possession of the Russian Museum. The house of Peter I on Petrovskaya Embankment, which also belongs to the Russian Museum, was first built of logs, but after a while it was covered with stone, and a little later with a brick cover.
Among the most famous works of art stored in the Russian Museum are the icons of Andrei Rublev and Simon Ushakov, Bryullov's paintings "Italian Noon" and "The Last Day of Pompeii", Aivazovsky's "The Ninth Wave" and "Wave", "Barge haulers on the Volga" brush Repin, "The Knight at the Crossroads" by Vanetsov, "Suvorov Crossing the Alps" by Surikov, "The Portrait of Ida Rubinstein" and "The Abduction of Europe" by Serov, "The Portrait of F. I. Chaliapin" by Kustodiev. But this is only a small part of those beautiful paintings by Russian painters that are stored in the Russian Museum.
Valentin Serov. Portrait of Ida Rubinstein It is better to see it once - if you are planning a trip to St. Petersburg, be sure to visit the Russian Museum.
Probably the Russian Museum should be put one of the main points in the list of visiting the sights of St. Petersburg. Especially if you came to the Northern capital for one, two or a little more days. "Why?" - you ask.
Firstly, here is a really wonderful collection of the best works of Russian artists, sculptors and craftsmen.
Secondly, in the Russian Museum there is no such excitement and pandemonium as in the Hermitage, and the atmosphere of the museum evokes a feeling of calm and peace of mind.
Thirdly: it is very easy to get here (no need to stand in long queues for a ticket).
Russian Museum. More recently, when pronouncing these words, both the townspeople and the guests of the city meant only a beautiful building in the Empire style on Arts Square. The first state museum of national art was opened in the Mikhailovsky Palace in 1898, and the main expositions of the museum are located here. But in recent years, the museum has included three more palaces with a significant historical and cultural past.
So, the Russian Museum has four buildings: the Stroganov Palace, the Marble Palace, the Mikhailovsky Palace and the Mikhailovsky (Engineering) Castle. All these palaces are located in different places in St. Petersburg and have the words "Russian Museum" in their names.
To avoid confusion, let's call the Main building of the Russian Museum - the Mikhailovsky Palace, located at 4 Inzhenernaya Street. It is here that the main halls and expositions of the State Russian Museum. It is here that the guests of St. Petersburg, who arrived in the Northern capital for the first time, wish to get.
How to get to the Main Building of the Russian Museum.
It is very easy to walk to the palace from the Nevsky Prospekt metro station (2nd, blue line).
After leaving the metro, follow (along the red arrow) along Mikhailovskaya Street towards the monument to Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin, located on the Square of Arts.
Immediately behind the monument you will see the main building of the Russian Museum - the Mikhailovsky Palace.
Opening hours of the Main Building of the Russian Museum:
Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday - from 10:00 to 18:00.
Thursday from 13-00 to 21-00.
Tuesday is a day off.
Ticket offices close half an hour before the closing of the museum.
No matter how pleasant it is to enter the museum through the main entrance, according to the Soviet-Russian tradition, all visitors will have to enter through the back entrance. You will be informed about this by a small sign next to the marble staircase with lions.
Below is a diagram of the Mikhailovsky Palace. It consists of three main parts: the Benois Wing, the Outbuilding of Russia and, directly, the Mikhailovsky Palace itself.
You can also get into the Main Building of the Russian Museum through the second entrance in the Benois building.
The photo below makes it possible to quickly find out where the second entrance is located - on the Griboyedov Canal Embankment, next to the Resurrection Cathedral (Church of the Savior on Blood).
Both entrances will lead you to the box office where you need to buy tickets to visit the Russian Museum.
For adult citizens of the Russian Federation and the Republic of Belarus, a ticket will cost 350 rubles, for students from 16 years old, students and pensioners - 170 rubles, for children under 16 years old (regardless of citizenship) - free of charge.
Be sure to take a free map of the layout of the expositions at the box office or from the museum staff. With it, it will be easier for you to build your route.
After the ticket office, following the signs, you get to the main staircase of the museum. Here you can meet groups of schoolchildren.
If you have come to the discovery, then you can use a little trick for a more comfortable viewing. The beginning of the exposition, according to the signs, is to the right of the stairs on the second floor. But if you go to the left side, you will be almost completely alone looking at the magnificent paintings by K. Bryulov, A. Ivanov, I. Ayvozovsky and others. Then, in any case, you will look at the beginning of the exposition.
F. Bruni "Copper Serpent".
Ivan Konstantinovich Aivazovsky "Wave".
Painting by Karl Pavlovich Bryullov "The Last Day of Pompeii". Nicholas I awarded the artist with a laurel wreath, and the latter was called "Charlemagne".
I.K. Aivazovsky "The Ninth Wave".
Grigory Ivanovich Ugryumov "The solemn entry of Alexander Nevsky into the city of Pskov after his victory over the Germans."
Pay attention to the faces of two "harmless" Europeans captured by Alexander Nevsky, who executed several thousand Russian people.
O. A. Kiprensky "Portrait of the Life Hussar Colonel Evgraf Vasilyevich Davydov." This is a relative of the famous hero of the Patriotic War of 1812, Denis Vasilievich Davydov.
P.P. Sokolov "The Milkmaid with a Broken Jug"
The interiors of the premises of the Mikhailovsky Palace.
F.I. Shubin "Catherine II Legislator".
Portraits of children.
Dmitry Grigoryevich Levitsky "Catherine II the Legislator".
Sculpture by M. I. Kozlovsky "Psyche", often called "Girl with a Butterfly". According to legend, Aphrodite herself envied the beauty of the young Psyche.
N.N. Vitali "Venus".
Tourists enthusiastically take pictures holding Catherine II by the hand.
Boris Vasilievich Sukhodolsky "Painting".
I am very pleased with the large number of children here. For them, the employees of the Russian Museum tell interesting, memorable stories.
Anton Pavlovich Losenko "Wonderful catch".
After examining the halls of the Mikhailovsky Palace, you will find yourself in the Wing of Russia, where you will see the canvases familiar from childhood.
Victor Vasnetsov "The Knight at the Crossroads"
V. I. Surikov "Stepan Razin". The artist managed to show the inner tension of the Russian rebel hero.
A small painting by Vasily Surikov "View of the monument to Peter I on the Senate Square in St. Petersburg" is fascinating.
Vasily Surikov "Suvorov Crossing the Alps" (painting size 4 by 5 meters). Here is a real military leader, together with his soldiers, storms the Alps in order to quickly help "our beloved" Europeans. Who now in Europe will remember the exploits of our soldiers?
Ilya Efimovich Repin. "Portrait of Emperor Nicholas II" 1896.
Portrait of the last emperor of Russia. It seems that Nicholas II already knows about his fate...
Ilya Efimovich Repin "The ceremonial meeting of the State Council on May 7, 1901 in honor of the centenary."
V. I. Surikov "The Conquest of Siberia by Ermak."
And this is Yermak and his comrades with muskets conquering the north.
In the painting "Letter to the Turkish Sultan" all the characters attract attention. Repin worked out the image of each Cossack separately, so each hero of the picture turned out with his own character.
Ilya Repin "Seeing the Rookie" How much tragedy in the picture. A young man is sent to the army for a long 25 years.
Opposite the painting by I. Repin "Barge Haulers on the Volga" there are always many visitors, there is a comfortable soft sofa.
At Sadko, schoolchildren were told about the painting in German.
Here is a picture of a contradiction. Viktor Vasnetsov. The painting "Battle of the Scythians with the Slavs."
First: the Scythians are the ancestors of the Slavs. Secondly: the Scythians and Slavs are separated by several centuries.
It turns out the battle between great-great-grandfather and grandson. Ever since the Middle Ages, all evidence of the ancient origin of the peoples inhabiting modern Russia was destroyed.
Here is a small excerpt from the work of Professor Anatoly Alekseevich Klyosov:
“Unfortunately, a destructive, destructive approach traditionally continues in Russian historical science, whether it concerns Normanism or other periods of Russian history. Only sources that underestimate the significance and role of the Slavs in historical processes are selectively selected and introduced into "official" circulation. There is no M. Orbini’s “Historiography” in this turnover, there are no works of the Polish Archbishop Stanislaw Bohuts (Stanislaw Bohusz, 1731-1826), an outstanding educator, in one of whose works - “Historical studies of the origin of the Slavs and Sarmatians” - describes the Slavs living in ancient times from Syria to Pontus Euxinus (Black Sea). There are no dozens of other books that have become classic in antiquity or in the Middle Ages, which tell about the Slavs of the past millennia. There is a whole library of Serbian historians of the past about this, in which Slavs are called those whom Russian (and Western) historians call "Scythians". If historians have objections to this, where are they? Or do they live by the saying “I don’t see anything, I don’t hear anything, I won’t tell anyone”?
Ilya Repin "Nicholas of Mirlikiy Saves Three Innocently Convicted from Death". It is with this picture that the Russian Museum under Alexander III begins.
Lukian Vasilyevich Popov "Handling". The girl will take care of someone else's child all her childhood ...
It feels like Leo Tolstoy is about to get up and go.
Nikolai Alexandrovich Yaroshenko
Alexey Danilovich Kivshenko "Feather Sorting". The girls stuffing pillows with feathers argued a little...
Konstantin Egorovich Makovsky "Transferring the Sacred Carpet in Cairo".
Each painting has a story in it. Here is a painting by Vladimir Makovsky "The overnight house". A cold storm is coming to St. Petersburg. The homeless try to get into a rooming house, everyone is cold and understands that there is not enough space for everyone.
In this old man in a hat and scarf with a folder in his hands, you can recognize the artist A. K. Savrasov. This remarkable painter spent the end of his life in loneliness and poverty, interrupting himself with rare orders, wandering around the corners and slums.
A little girl with bare legs in huge boots is crying, maybe this is the last night of her life. But no one can help her...
This is a good touch to the numerous modern articles "How well they lived under the king."
K.E. Makovsky "Family Portrait".
The next picture recently hung next to the "Bunkhouse", it depicts the family of Vladimir Makovsky's brother. The girls are the same age as the child in the previous picture, but their origins have earned them a well-to-do life. Now these paintings have been placed away from each other, in different rooms.
I.I. Shishkin "Ship Grove". The works of this artist are immediately recognizable.
Vasily Vereshchagin "Shipka-Sheinovo (Skobelev near Shipka)". A small fragment of the celebration of the Victory.
And here are the Russian soldiers who forever remained lying for the freedom of the Bulgarians.
Vasily Perov "Pugachev's Court". The bodies of the executed nobles lie next to the "judge".
Vasily Grigorievich Perov "Monastic meal". A good picture of the life of people in cassocks.
Henryk Semiradsky "Phryne at the Poseidon Festival in Eleusis". In the ancient Greek city of Megara, 2500 years ago, there lived a woman named Phryne. Her beauty and amazing white skin for a southern country amazed many artists and sculptors. A sculpture of Aphrodite of Cnidus was sculpted from it and Aphrodite Anadyomene was painted. In the picture, she herself throws off her clothes so that everyone can be blinded by her beauty.
K.D. Flavitsky, Christian Martyrs in the Colosseum. The first Christians were subjected to cruel tortures. The picture shows how a little boy is being dragged to the arena with wild animals. “If your god keeps you, let him save you from being torn to pieces by lions,” with these words Christians were led out to death to the jubilant exclamations of 100,000 Roman spectators.
Russian hero.
Adrian Volkov "Death of Ivan Susanin".
V. Jacobi "Ice House". A funny wedding on the orders of Anna Ivanovna in an ice palace.
A.P. Ryabushkin "Moscow street of the XVII century on a holiday". Roads… How little they have changed over several centuries in Russia.
Leonid Pozen "Skif" is a distant ancestor of the Russians, whom they want to "erasure" from our history.
In the Russian Museum, the products of Russian masters are wonderfully presented. The entire right wing on the first floor of the Mikhailovsky Palace is occupied by outstanding works by ancient and modern masters.
Just imagine how much work and skill it takes to carve such an openwork bone box.
Or here is an interesting woodwork “How mice buried a cat” (late 19th century).
In this short story about the State Russian Museum, we have shown you only a small part of the presented paintings, sculptures, works. It will take several days to carefully examine all the expositions of the museum.
A bit of history: The main building of the Russian Museum.
“In terms of the grandeur of its appearance, this palace will serve as an adornment of St. Petersburg, and in terms of the elegance of the taste of its interior decoration, it can be considered among the best European palaces ...”, wrote the Otechestvennye Zapiski magazine in 1825. That year, every self-respecting Petersburger was sure to visit here, near the newly completed Mikhailovsky Palace, built by the architect Karl Rossi for Grand Duke Mikhail Pavlovich and his wife Elena Pavlovna. Now it is the main building of the Russian Museum. The White Hall is the only room that has survived after the reconstruction of the palace for the needs of the museum exactly as it was under Rossi. Beautiful girls sitting on chariots - the Muses, daughters of the goddess of memory Mnemosyne and Zeus, are depicted on the ceiling ceiling; Grand Duchess Elena Pavlovna was fond of painting, music, and poetry. The murals were made by excellent Italian artists Giacomo Batisto Scotti and Antonio Vigi. Everything else is the fruit of the work of Russian masters: joiner Bobkov, bronzer Zakharov, furniture and parquet makers Znamensky and Tarasov, sculptor Stepan Pimenov. The White Hall is a true masterpiece in which Rossi thought of absolutely everything, from the arrangement of the columns to the smallest details of the ornament and the ceremonial service. Fortunately, all this has been preserved: picturesque wall paintings, sculptural decoration, typesetting parquet - everything is left from the time of Rossi. Even the furniture stands in the same places (its quantity and location were determined by the architect himself). The hall was so good that the English King George even asked to make a small copy of it.
But the White Hall is famous not only for its appearance. Here was the famous music salon of the Grand Duchess. The Russian Musical Society, thanks to which the first music classes were opened in 1860, and then the first conservatory in Russia, was born right here, at these evenings. Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky made his debut as a conductor in the Mikhailovsky Palace, Hector Berlioz, Franz Liszt, Mikhail Glinka performed their works here. These walls heard the voices of Vasily Zhukovsky and Ivan Krylov. The salon for many years was one of the most important climax centers of the capital.
“The musical and artistic evenings at the Grand Duchess were extremely interesting,” recalled their first participant, the famous composer and pianist Anton Rubinstein. - Positively the best artists who ended up in St. Petersburg gathered here. Often among the guests was the majestic figure of Emperor Nicholas.
The restrained and elegant building of the Mikhailovsky Palace, created by Rossi's inexhaustible fantasy, did not immediately become a museum. Initially, the palace was intended to become the residence of the youngest son of Paul I, for which four hundred thousand rubles were “set aside” from the treasury every year. By the age of the prince, a decent amount had accumulated, which made it possible to build a luxurious residence with a vast garden.
Everyone is mortal, even the royal children. The palace passed into the hands of the heirs, then the children of the heirs, then the grandchildren ... The grandchildren were all German citizens, which could not please Emperor Alexander III, who was distinguished by strong patriotic feelings. The palace was bought by the treasury.
The same Alexander III was the first to voice the idea of creating a museum that would collect the best examples of Russian art over a thousand years. The idea of a Russian museum has been in the public eye since the middle of the 19th century, so the aspirations of the monarch and the people coincided, and in 1898 The Russian Museum was opened to the public.
The modern State Russian Museum offers visitors collections of Russian painting and sculpture from the 12th to the 20th century. The entire exposition is located on two floors of the Mikhailovsky Palace and the Benois building, built specifically for the needs of the new museum. In addition to the main building, the Russian Museum invites visitors to the Stroganov, Marble and Engineering Palaces. But the museum keeps its main treasures in the former residence of Tsarevich Mikhail Pavlovich.
On the first floor of the museum are located:
Expositions of Russian folk art (17th-21st centuries), a large collection of paintings and sculptures of the 19th century. Wood carving, ceramics, weaving, art painting are presented. From the brightness and diversity of the collection, the head is spinning;
- an extensive and rich collection of paintings and sculptures by Russian masters of the 19th century.
The second floor of the museum invites you to see:
Continuation of the exhibition of masterpieces of the 19th century;
- a collection of Russian art of the 18th century.
The two-story Benois building mainly hosts temporary exhibitions of the museum, as well as rooms where works by contemporary and sculptors are placed.
The museum has a magnificent collection of ancient icons, among which there are works by Rublev, Ushakov and Dionisy.
It is difficult to name at least one famous Russian artist whose work would not be represented in the Russian Museum. 15 thousand exhibits of the museum's painting collection include all the best that has been created by Russian masters over 800 years.
The museum is located near Nevsky Prospekt, which makes it an indispensable object for visiting many tourists. The Petersburgers themselves, by the way, like to visit the Russian museum more, preferring it to the magnificent and huge one.
The museum has a lecture hall, the program of which is varied and interesting.
Temporary exhibitions of the museum have long earned the reputation of being the most visited in the city on the Neva. Most often, this is a collection of masterpieces from the museum's storerooms, united by a common theme or time of creation. Frequent guests of the museum are the best works stored in others, as well as in private collections.
A visit to the Russian Museum is not cheap: 350 rubles (for residents of Russia and Belarus - 250 rubles).
You can purchase a ticket that gives you the right to visit all branches of the Russian Museum, which is valid for three days. Such a ticket will cost 600 and 400 rubles, respectively. A combined ticket allows you to save some money.
The Russian Museum is open from 10 am to 6 pm. On Thursday, the exposition can be viewed from 1 p.m. to 9 p.m. There is only one day off - Tuesday.
A landmark for those who are unfamiliar with St. Petersburg is the Nevsky Prospekt metro station.
Continuing our acquaintance with the cultural heritage of the Northern capital, we decided to head to the State Russian Museum....
We note right away that this brand unites five buildings - the Mikhailovsky Palace with the Benois Wing, the Marble Palace, the Mikhailovsky (Engineering) Castle, the Summer Palace of Peter I , the Stroganov Palace and several park areas, including the Summer Garden and the Mikhailovsky Garden....
In this case, we will talk about the main building of this museum complex - the Mikhailovsky Palace with the Benois exhibition building, which is located at Inzhenernaya st. d.4...
The history of the world's largest museum of Russian art originates from the Named Imperial Decree of Nicholas II "On the establishment of a special institution called the Russian Museum of Emperor Alexander III "and on the provision for this purpose of the Mikhailovsky Palace acquired to the treasury with all the outbuildings, services and gardens belonging to it," signed in April 1895 ...
In 1898 the museum was officially opened. The basis of the museum's collection at that time was the donated works of art from the Winter Palace, the Hermitage, and some private collections....
Strange as it may seem, the main increase in the museum's collection was after 1917... This is primarily due to the nationalization of private property, which fully affected numerous collectors...
At present, according to official sources, the museum's collection consists of 408 thousand exhibits, which we will get to know today...
Our acquaintance begins with the lobby of the main building.... We go up the wide front staircase to the second floor....
Before us is a monument to Alexander III....
The gallery of the second floor is decorated with 18 grand Corinthian columns.
and numerous sculptures.
In the corner is a model of the monument to the famous historiographer N.M. Karamzin, made by S.I. Galberg for Simbirsk...
In order not to get lost in the numerous halls of the museum, we carefully study its plan
and head to the first hall, which presents icons of the 12th-13th centuries...
Here we can get acquainted with the works of various icon-painting schools: Moscow, Novgorod, Pskov, etc...
Here, for example, we have a fresco "Prophet Samuel" (1112) from St. Michael's Golden-Domed Monastery in Kyiv....
In the next exhibition hall, we have the opportunity to get acquainted with the icons of the Russian North....
"St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, with life" (14th century) - came here from the St. Nicholas Church in the village. Ozerovo Leningrad region....
Icon from the Church of Varvara in Pskov "St. Demetrius of Thessalonica" (15th century)....
The Royal Doors with the image of the Annunciation and Saints Basil the Great and John Chrysostom from St. Nicholas Church in the distant village of Gostinopolye on the river. Volkhov (15th century).....
Another exhibit of the Novgorod school of icon painting is "St. Nicholas the Wonderworker with Selected Saints" (13th century)...
The next room displays icons from the 15th-16th centuries. Among them are the works of Andrei Rublev "The Apostle Paul" and "The Apostle Peter", which are located in the center of the hall....
Hall No. 4... Icons of the 16th-17th centuries have already been placed here. ....
"I believe ..." (1668) from the Church of St. Gregory of Neokessaria on Polyanka in Moscow....
"Prophet Daniel" .... (from the iconostasis of the Transfiguration Cathedral in Tver)
The icons are over and we move on to the next room, which is associated with a new period in the history of Russia...
This is the end of the 17th - beginning of the 18th centuries. The reign of Peter I ... The time of great changes not only in politics, but also in art .... Icon painting is leaving the background, and preference is given to the portrait genre .... Peter I sends a number of artists to study in Italy, among whom was Ivan Nikitich Nikitin....
It is his work that is presented in this room ...
Before us is one of his famous works - a portrait of Princess Natalya Alekseevna. (1716)...
Also during this period, the art of sculpture began to develop rapidly .... The largest master of this period is B.K. Rastrelli. Therefore, it is no coincidence that in this hall there is a cast-iron bust of Peter I, cast in the author's form in 1810...
We see the continuation of the Petrine era in the next hall of the museum....
These are, first of all, the works of Ivan Vishnyakov - portraits of brother and sister Fermor...
Painting by B.V. Sukhodolsky "Painting" (1754)....
Among the works exhibited in this hall is the "Head of an old man" (Master Matvey Vasiliev, 1769)....
In the center of the next hall, we meet the monumental sculptural group "Anna Ioannovna with a black child" - the work of B.K. Rastrelli...
The walls of the hall are decorated with magnificent tapestries (trellises) of the St. Petersburg Tapestry Manufactory, founded on the initiative of Peter I in 1716...
The portrait genre has been especially popular in Russia for many centuries. A prominent representative of this trend in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. was Fedor Rokotov, whose works are presented in the next room...
The portrait genre is being replaced by the historical one... It was this genre that was established by the Russian Academy of Arts from the middle of the 18th century...
One of the first representatives of this genre in Russia was A.P. Losenko with his famous painting "Vladimir and Rogneda", which reflects a completely historical fact: Prince Vladimir is trying to marry the daughter of the Polotsk prince Rogneda ...
And here is his other work - "Wonderful Catch", which he made in Paris during an internship .... The painting of the same name by J. Jouvenet (kept in the Louvre) was taken as the basis .... The plot of the painting is directly related to the Bible and reflects the process of Christ's participation in the unprecedented fishing on the boat of Simon Peter....
The exposition of the next room is dedicated to the work of Dmitry Levitsky - according to experts - the brightest Russian portrait painter of the era of enlightenment classicism....
But before we get acquainted with his work, let's take a quick look at the ceiling of this room.
and on the sculpture located in its center....
The Russian Museum has a unique collection of works by Fedot Ivanovich Shubin, an outstanding master of sculptural portraits of the 2nd half of the 18th century. In 1789, by order of Prince G.A. Potemkin-Tavrichesky sculptor made a ceremonial portrait-statue of Catherine II for the Tauride Palace...
Here she is in front of us - "Catherine II - legislator...
Well, now you can return to Levitsky ....
Portrait of Ekaterina Ivanovna Molchanova (1776)...
Portrait of Alexandra Petrovna Levitskaya.....
Our further path passes through the White (White Column) Hall....
Once upon a time there was a music salon in which the Grand Duchess Elena Pavlovna (Princess Frederick Charlotte Maria of Württemberg) arranged musical and poetic evenings....
Today, this hall presents a unique palace interior of the early 19th century, to which K.I. Rossi, A. Vigi, J.B. Scotty and other famous sculptors and painters...
The White Hall is one of the few rooms in the palace that has retained its original decoration to this day...
From the White Hall we get to the exhibition of works by V. L. Borovikovsky, a recognized master of portraiture....
However, the artist prefers chamber portraits, in which, in his opinion, it is possible to convey the variety of innermost feelings and experiences of the depicted person...
In the same hall, armchairs from a furniture set for the Karamzin living room of the Mikhailovsky Palace, designed by K.I. Russia......
Well, now we get into hall number 14 .... Remember these numbers. In our opinion, this is one of the best halls of the museum in terms of the paintings presented in it.
The famous works of Aivazovsky and Bryullov are exhibited here...
Let's start with the works of I.K. Aivazovsky - the world-famous Russian marine painter ...
Before us is one of his famous paintings of his "The Ninth Wave" .... People were shipwrecked after a severe storm and are trying to escape on the wreckage of the mast, but the biggest wave is ready to fall on them - the ninth wave ...
The size of the picture is 221x332 cm, and therefore it is better to look at it comfortably sitting on a soft sofa, standing in the center of the hall....
But to see how clearly all the details are drawn, you have to use the optics of the camera...
The next painting by Aivazovsky, which we see in this room - "Wave" (1889)...
In the last years of his life, Aivazovsky was completely absorbed in creating the image of the sea element. Many of his paintings of this period are essentially a variant of the same plot, but nevertheless, each of them has something special, individual...
Picture details....
Here we can also find earlier works by the master, for example, "Russian squadron in the Sevastopol roadstead" (1846) ..
or "Brig" Mercury "after defeating two Turkish ships meets with the Russian squadron" (1848)....
The second half of the hall is dedicated to the works of another famous artist - Karl Pavlovich Bryullov - a representative of academicism in art...
The central place in the exhibition rightfully belongs to the canvas "The Last Day of Pompeii" - a plot from ancient history (the eruption of Mount Vesuvius and the death of the city of Pompeii) (1833)....
The painting "Crucifixion" (1838)... The image was painted for the Lutheran Church of St. Peter and Paul, which was built according to the project of the artist's brother - Alexander Pavlovich...
Portrait of Yu.P. Samoilova with her adopted daughter Amalia (1842)...
Portrait of Grand Duchess Elena Pavlovna with her daughter (1830).....
Portrait of U.M. Smirnova (1837)....
Portrait of Princess E.P. Saltykova (1841)....
"The appearance of three angels to Abraham at the oak of Mamre" (1821) .... This painting was painted by Bryullov on the instructions of the Academy of Arts and was awarded a gold medal...
In general, in hall No. 14 you can sit comfortably on the couch and enjoy the works of our great masters for hours....
Of course, it’s good to sit, but the museum does not end in this hall .... So we continue to explore further ...
In the next room, we offer to our attention the works of professors of the Academy of Arts of the first half of the 19th century...
Among the presented exhibits, the work of A.A. Ivanov "The Appearance of Christ to the People"
This is a kind of reporting work of the author for the state pension in Italy ...
The plot of the picture is based on the events from the 3rd chapter of the Gospel of Matthew ... We see a crowd of Jews who came to the banks of the Jordan after the prophet John the Baptist to be baptized .... Pointing to the figure of Christ that appeared in the distance, John explains to the audience that this man brings them a new truth, a new dogma...
While preparing for his masterpiece, which we talked about above, Ivanov paints a series of sketches of naked boys against a diverse landscape... The painting "Three Naked Boys", which is shown below, is one of them...
Another work of A.A., full of subtle harmony. Ivanova - "Apollo, Hyacinth and Cypress, engaged in music and singing" (1831)...
The picture of F.A. is also impressive. Bruni "The Bronze Serpent" (1841), which also presents a biblical story related to the 40-year wandering of the people of Israel in the desert .... People doubted the ability of Moses to lead them out of the desert, then God sent a rain of poisonous serpent .... After many people died, the Lord ordered Moses to put out a bronze serpent and those who looked at him with faith remained to live ...
Before us is his creation "Socrates in the battle of Potidaea defends Alquiad" (1828)....
"Dmitry Donskoy on the Kulikovo field" (1824) - the author is a former serf Count N.P. Rumyantsev - V.K. Sazonov...
By the way, in this hall, as well as in the previous one, you can get acquainted with a closed (in the truest sense of the word) exposition... If you have noticed, there are small tables covered with velvet along the walls of the hall... So, if you lift this rag , then under it you will see various sketches, drawings of famous masters from private collections ... Many visitors do not know about this and pass by ... And they close all this from prying eyes with only one purpose - so as not to take pictures ... It’s worth it just lift the curtain - the caretaker of the hall in the pose of an attacking cobra will relentlessly follow your movements ...
Following the paintings by S. Shchedrin and M. Lebedev
we fall "into the hands" of O. Kiprensky and a collection of his portraits...
Portrait of O.A. Ryumina (1826)...
In the same room, a model of the statue for the fountain in the Catherine Park of Tsarskoe Selo "The Milkmaid with a Broken Jug" by P.P. Sokolova (1807-1810)....
In the next room, we are witnessing the work of A.G. Venetsianov... If before that the heroes of the canvases were famous or noble people, then Venetsianov's images of peasants, their way of life and everyday life come to the fore...
Paintings "Peeling the Beets" (1820),
"Reaper" (1826) and
"Fortune-telling on the cards" (1842) is a vivid confirmation of the above....
At the window we see the project of the tombstone of the monument to M.I. Kozlovsky by S.S. Pimenov (1802)...
We get acquainted with the work of Vasily Grigorievich Perov in the next room....
We see the plot relevant to the present time in his work "Hunters at Rest" (1877)...
The procedure of the monastery dinner is reflected in all details by Perov in his work "Meal" (1865)...
The aspirations of a lonely person, his thoughts, problems and ways to solve them are reflected in the painting "Guitarist-bobyl" (1865)...
Before us are the works of the famous landscape painter - I.I. Shishkin...
"Pine Forest" (1883),
"Forest (Shmetsk near Narva)" (1888)...,
"Ship Grove"....
In the neighborhood with Shishkin, we see the works of M.K. Klodt - masters of realistic landscapes of the Russian village.....
Here is one of his works - "A herd by the river at noon" (1869)....
The "gaps" between the paintings are filled with the works of E.A. Lansere - Russian sculptor-animalist...
All his life he was fascinated by horses, so it is no coincidence that these animals are present in many of his creations....
Before us is the ebb of the bronze "Arab with lion cubs" (1879)....
In the second half of the 19th century, the neo-Greek style became popular in painting, which is expressed in the form of spectacular multi-figure spectacles, bloody dramas, etc.
This is exactly what we had to face in the next hall of the museum...
Picture G.I. Semiradsky "Phryna at the festival of Poseidon in Eleusis" (1889) is a vivid example of this trend in art...
From the same "series" and full of dramatic expression, the painting by K.D. Flavitsky "Christian martyrs in the Colosseum" (1862)....
On the way to the next room, we again come across the work of E.A. Lansere - "Kyrgyz shoal on vacation" (1880)...
After some time, we find ourselves in the "captivity" of the Russian folk epic .... And all this thanks to the fairy-tale battle works of V.M. Vasnetsov:
- "Battle of the Scythians with the Slavs" (1882)
and "The Knight at the Crossroads" (1882)...
We are going to get acquainted with the work of our next famous artist - V.I. Surikov...
Slowly we pass by "Stepan Razin" ....
We linger a bit at the painting "Salome brings the head of John the Baptist to her mother Herodias" (1872) (it is not so often to see a head on a tray...)
and stop at the canvas "View of the monument to Peter I on the Senate Square in St. Petersburg" (1870)
We pass to the next hall - here is the continuation of Surikov's exposition....
We sit comfortably on the sofa so that we can slowly, in silence, admire "Suvorov's Crossing the Alps" and "Ermak's Conquest of Siberia"
but then a gang of Nakhimovites appeared from somewhere ....
We had to hurriedly retreat to another hall and we already examined the details of these paintings in the hotel through the camera ....
We did it in a timely manner, because in the next, small hall, a monumental painting by I.E. Repin with a "short" title "Ceremonial meeting of the State Council on May 7, 1901, on the day of the centennial anniversary of its establishment" (1903).
To fulfill this government order, the artist first individually painted 60 portraits of statesmen, and then, with the help of his students (B.M. Kustodiev and I.S. Kulikov), transferred them to a large canvas ...
Our acquaintance with Repin's work continues in the following rooms....
Painting "Seeing the recruit",
"Nicholas of Myra saves three innocently condemned from death" (1888),
"Barge haulers on the Volga" (1870),
"On a turf bench" (1876),
"Cossacks" (1880) - all this is only a small part of the works of the outstanding artist of his era, Ilya Efimovich Repin ...
The next room and in front of us are the works of not only a unique painter, but also a traveler, a man who relentlessly accompanied the Russian army in military operations in Japan, Central Asia and other "hot spots" - V.V. Vereshchagin...
The painting "At the door of the mosque" (1873) is one of the numerous works of the Turkestan series, reflecting the customs of the Central Asian states...
During one of his last travels, and it was Japan, Vereshchagin was struck by its monuments of classical culture, originality, originality of costumes...
The canvas "Japan. Shinto shrine in Nikko" (1904) was just written based on the impressions received....
By the way, when the Russo-Japanese War began, the artist rushed into the thick of things and tragically died on March 31, 1904, together with Vice Admiral Makarov, while on the flagship Petropavlovsk (the ship was blown up by a mine on the roadstead of Port Arthur) ...
Continuing our further journey through the Russian Museum, we find ourselves in a hall with works by I.I. Levitan - masters of "mood landscape"...
"Golden Autumn. Slobodka" (1889),
"Gloomy Day" (1895),
"Lake. Rus'" (the main work of the late Levitan: the artist died, leaving it unfinished...),
"Early Spring" (1898)....
Of course, these are not his masterpieces like "March", "Golden Autumn" or a series of works about Plyos, but still ....
In the same hall we see the works of K.A. Korovin "Lilac" (1915),
and K.F. Bogaevsky "Ships. Evening sun"....
The next hall of the museum....
I.I. Brodsky "Portrait of the Artist's Wife" (1908),
A.N. Benois "Flora's Pool" ....
K.A.Somov and his most famous painting "Winter Skating Rink" (1915)... (According to experts in painting, this picture perfectly executed the landscape, which can really be seen in St. Petersburg in winter...)
Exposition of works by Andrey Petrovich Ryabushkin - a representative of the historical genre...
One of his best works: "Moscow street XVII century on a holiday "(1895),
"They are coming! (The people of Moscow during the entry of a foreign embassy into Moscow at the end XVII century)"
Somehow, obviously deep in thought and deeply immersed in art, we did not notice how we ended up in some kind of corridor ...
But even here the walls were not empty...
In addition to any advertising posters, there were also historical photographs (for example, this one is called "The war is over. The rise of the sculpture of B.K. Rastrelli "Anna Ioanovna with a black-haired child" from a hiding place in the Mikhailovsky Garden, 1945.")
and even sculptures that could not find a place in the main halls of the museum ("Alexander III "work by M.M. Antokolsky 1897)
Realizing that there was nothing more to see in the corridor, we returned to the main halls of the museum and ended up at an exhibition of works by A.I. Kuindzhi, one of the famous Russian landscape painters, a student of Aivazovsky...
"Sea. Crimea" (1898),
"Moonlit night on the Dnieper",
"Sunset"....
How great is this??? As they say, there are no comrades for taste and color ... Experts have their own opinion, but we, as people far from high matters, have a slightly different opinion: if you like a picture, then it is good, but look for strokes, nuances of mood in the canvas artist, his vision of what is happening is not for us .... Sorry if someone was offended ...
According to the plan - we are in room number 32 ...
Here sits thoughtfully "Spinoza" by M.M. Antokolsky...
Well, we are "captured" by V.D. Polenov - one of the outstanding Wanderers artists....
The central place in his exposition is occupied by the painting "Christ and the Sinner" (1888), in which he depicted a plot from the Gospel....
In order for everything to turn out realistically, Polenov had to visit Syria, Egypt, Palestine ...
Less large-scale works of the artist: "Sick" (1879),
And he returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit...
The next room presents the works of G.G. Myasoedov - "a bright representative of Russian realism of the second half of the 19th century, the founder of the Association of Traveling Art Exhibitions" (quote from Wikipedia)
All right. What is not realistic about his painting "The Passionate Time. Mowers"?
Here we can also see the works of K.A. Savitsky (the painting "To the War" - reflects the events associated with the beginning of the Russian-Turkish war of 1877),
and I.M. Pryanishnikov ("The procession"),
and K.E. Makovsky: ("The overnight house" 1889),
"Family portrait",
"People's festivities during Shrove Tuesday on Admiralteyskaya Square in St. Petersburg" (1869);
and H.P. Platonov "Naymichka", and N.P. Bogdanov-Belsky "At the door of the school" (1897)...
When moving to another building, we come across the works of M.M. Antokolsky "Ermak"
and "Tiger and Sinai" by A.L. Ober....
From the Mikhailovsky Palace we move to the Benois building ...
In the first hall of this building, M.A. is "waiting" for us. Vrubel is "... one of the brilliant creators of Russian modernity, whose work is marked by high artistic skill and the desire to create works of great style. According to the master, art should "awake the soul from the details of everyday life with majestic images" (quote from the annotation to his work, posted in the exhibition hall)....
After such a "briefing" it's time to look at the paintings of the master...
Work "Bogatyr" (1898)....
Art connoisseurs call Vrubel the mysterious genius of painting...
His masterpiece is "Morning"....
"The atmosphere of mystery is also saturated with his painting" Flying Demon "..." (opinion of experts...)
Again, we are not experts. Maybe everything in Vrubel's works is mysterious, but for some reason they did not wake our "soul from everyday little things" ....
In the next hall of the museum, paintings by M.V. Nesterov...
Before proceeding with their inspection, we get acquainted with the opinion of professionals ...
"Mikhail Nesterov creates images of great spiritual power and significance. They are saturated with subtle lyricism, detached from earthly concerns, full of contemplation and religious reflection. The artist shows the complex spiritual life of his heroes, the richness of their intellectual and moral abilities, the harmonious coexistence of man and nature. Definition" Nesterovsky landscape" - peaceful, quiet, pale green - has entered the modern Russian lexicon".
Let's look at all this with the eyes of the layman ....
Painting "Great tonsure" (1898)...,
"Holy Rus'" (1905),
"Reverend Sergius of Radonezh" (1899)...,
"Thoughts" (1900)...
In this case, oddly enough, but our opinion about Nesterov's work almost coincided with the opinions of experts ...
Hall number .... Already lost count ....
In general, this room housed the works of V.A. Serov...
"The largest Russian portraitist V.A. Serov created a brilliant pictorial gallery of his contemporaries, diverse in character and social status. In the second half of the 1880s - 1890s, he painted lyrical contemplative portraits using the techniques of impressionistic writing. The artist is objective and truthful in the image, careful in choosing a pose, gesture, turning the head of the model .... "
It's time to put it all into practice...
"Portrait of Princess Zinaida Nikolaevna Yusupova" (1902),
"Portrait of S.M. Botkina, wife of P.D. Botkin" (1899),
"Portrait of Princess O.K. Orlova" (1911)
And this is already a work from the "other opera" ....
Bathing horses...
In our opinion, after all, Serov's portraits look more attractive than the works of another genre (at least when compared with those paintings exhibited in the Russian Museum)...
In the next room, we have the opportunity to get acquainted with the work of Boris Kustodiev...
"Portrait of F.I. Chaliapin" (1922) (The artist did this work already being paralyzed. He painted in parts, while the canvas was tilted over his chair)
"Merchant for tea" (1918)...
"Balagany" (1917)...
In the works of B.M. Kustodiev, for the most part, displays the originality of provincial life with its significant moments: bazaars, folk festivals, fairs, etc.
The next pair of halls (exhibition of works by B.D. Grigoriev, I.I. Mashkov) we examined quickly and fluently ...
Of course, when the number of halls examined exceeds the seventh dozen, one feels a certain tiredness, weariness, a desire to finish all this as soon as possible...
In our opinion, the organizers of the expositions, having obviously foreseen all these human factors, also met the visitors of the museum halfway: the closer to the exit, the softer and more cultured it would be to say... In general, the paintings become simpler in terms of the traditional perception of the surrounding reality.. .
Especially from the last exhibitions, we were heartily pleased with the direction in art called "primitivism"...
The museum staff describe this direction as follows: "the involvement of Russian peasant art, urban folklore in the circle of current artistic traditions, a deep interest in the art of self-taught artists was almost ubiquitous in the 1910s. The conscious simplification of the art form did not have the character of imitation, but it was an attempt to give the images of the reality transformed by the artist that clarity, simplicity and at the same time semantic capacity, with which folk art was endowed by its nature ... "
Now let's see how it all looks....
For example, a series of paintings by M.F. Larionov (as he painted in his youth)....
And here is his later masterpiece - "Venus" .... (You will, of course, excuse us, but at the sight of this canvas, for some reason, indecently loud laughter burst out of us simultaneously. It's good that there were few visitors ...) Probably specialists from painting at the sight of this work, they will take on a thoughtful look, make a smart facial expression, after which, for several tens of minutes, using professional slang, they will enthusiastically tell you that this is a true masterpiece...
In our unenlightened view, in kindergarten, children will draw more beautifully ...
"Cyclist" by N.S. Goncharova ... (all tangled in silks, threads and thoughts of the artist ...)
Another masterpiece .... Haven't you guessed who is in front of you? Yes, this is the "Portrait of a Philosopher" by L.S. Popov. Something reminiscent of the "checkered" from the movie "The Adventures of Prince Florizel."
It seems that we are not the only ones in this hall who are "enthusiastic" ....
Well, now we have to evaluate the most grandiose masterpieces of primitivism with you ... Although no, it is already called differently - Suprematism (which means, translated into simple Russian, "an early manifestation of abstract art of modern times")
We are standing in front of the works of the classic of this genre K.S. Malevich ... Paintings "Black Circle" (1923), "Black Cross" (1923) and "White Radiator" ... (Sorry, the radiator turned out to be real. - I was confused by the plate located on it, where indicated, that it can not be photographed with a flash) ...
It is a pity that the "Black Square" is not represented here.... After all, as Malevich said: "The square is the germ of all possibilities..."
Some time later, colored paints apparently appeared in Malevich's arsenal. In 1928, he was already beginning to use them ....
At least in the picture "To the Harvest (Martha and Vanka)" this is already visible ...
By the way, in Malevich's arsenal there is one more phrase: "He who feels painting sees the object less, who sees the object, he feels the picturesque less ..." So, regarding his "cool" works, everything is elementary - you see the object (for example, a square, circle), but the painting does not "smell" ...
And finally, the great theoretician of the new art once said: "Art must renounce yesterday." Here he (Malevich) renounced real art...
In the same room, canvases in 3 D picture....
In the paintings exhibited in this room, one can already find the beginnings of realism....
"Three at the table" P.N. Filonov (1914)...
Next room....
Here we can get acquainted with the works of K.S. Petrov-Vodkin...
"Herring" (1918),...
"Fantasy" (1925),
Then we find ourselves in the art of the 1920s - 1930s, which "reflected the political and social changes in society. The themes of labor and sports become dominant. The portrait in which the image of a contemporary acquires a collective character is just as relevant. In its desire to embody in picturesque canvases, the ideals of the new time, artists widely refer to the traditions of monumental art - panels and frescoes .... "
The collective nature of the Russian woman of that time can be seen in the painting "Woman with Buckets" (V.V. Pakulin, 1928)
And here is a picture about sports
and his admirers (A.N. Samokhvalov "Girl in a T-shirt" 1932)...
Very relevant for that era, the painting "Paramilitary Komsomol" (A.N. Samokhvalov 1932) (Now it is clear where we see such things from Chinese or Korean colleagues)
The following halls - and a new temporary era in art ...
Famous painting by A.A. Deineka "Defense of Sevastopol" (1942)
More "peaceful" canvases:
"Noon" A.A. Plastov 1961,
"Morning" A.A. Mylnikov 1972,
"Buffoons" O.V. Bulgakova 1979....
"Collectors" Ya.I. Krestovsky 1975,
A very topical topic for the late 80s, early 90s of the last century was reflected in the picture of A.A. Sundukov "Queue" (1986)
And again an attempt to return to primitive things ....
V.N. Nemukhin "Interior No. 3. Diptych" (1997)
"Point in its own space" F. Infante-Arana (1964)
Well, it seems we have reached the right point in the space of the Russian Museum, which is called exit...
A breath of fresh air won't hurt us....
