A handwritten message about the Tretyakov Gallery. Tretyakov Gallery and the history of its origin
The State Tretyakov Gallery is one of the most famous art museums in the Russian capital, and throughout the country. It was founded in 1856 by merchant and philanthropist Pavel Tretyakov. It is here that one of the world's largest collections of Russian fine art is kept.
History of the gallery's creation
The State Tretyakov Gallery actually began to take shape in the mid-1850s. The official year of its opening is considered to be 1856. It was then that Tretyakov acquired two paintings domestic artists- “A skirmish with Finnish smugglers” by Khudyakov and “Temptation” by Schilder. They became the basis for the formation of the collection.
Although his interest in art began to appear even earlier. So, two years earlier, Tretyakov had already taken possession of 9 paintings by ancient Dutch masters and 11 graphic sheets.
The first prototype of the State Tretyakov Gallery was the Moscow City Gallery of Pavel and Sergei Tretyakov. It first opened its doors in 1867, and contained more than a thousand paintings, as well as sculptures and drawings by Russian artists. 84 works were presented by foreign masters.
Moscow as a gift
An important event for the State Tretyakov Gallery took place in 1892, when it was actually donated to Moscow. By that time, the collection of works of art had expanded significantly. A year later, the gallery officially opened.
At the same time, Pavel Tretyakov remained its official manager until his death. In 1898, a board of trustees was created to manage the gallery, headed by Ostroukhov. They began to support it with a percentage of the capital of 125,000 rubles, which was bequeathed to the Tretyakov by its founder himself. Additionally, a certain amount was allocated annually by the City Duma.
Location
The building in which the State Tretyakov Gallery was located in Moscow was acquired by the merchant's family in 1851. As the collection grew, new rooms were constantly added to the mansion, in which works of art were displayed and stored. The first such building was erected back in 1873, and from 1902 to 1904 the façade, famous throughout the capital, appeared, which was designed by the architect Bashkirov based on Vasnetsov’s drawings. Architect Kalmykov directly supervised the construction.
Tragedy with Repin's painting
Many works of the State Tretyakov Gallery were of great value for Russian and world culture. Therefore, the whole world was shocked by an incident that occurred in 1913. A vandal attacked Ilya Repin's painting "Ivan the Terrible and His Son Ivan." She was seriously injured by the knife. Because of this, the artist had to actually recreate the faces in the image. Khruslov, who at that time was the custodian of the Tretyakov Gallery, upon learning about this incident, threw himself under the train. Soon after this, the city duma elected Igor Grabar as the new trustee of the gallery.
Soon after the victory October revolution The gallery was declared the property of the Soviet Republic, and it was then that it received the name 1st State Tretyakov Gallery. Grabar was appointed its director. With his direct participation, a museum fund was created, which until 1927 remained one of the key sources for the full replenishment of the collection.
In 1926, the gallery changed its director. It becomes academician of architecture Shchusev. On next year certain part the collection moves to a house on Maly Tolmachevy Lane, located next door. A large-scale reconstruction was carried out here, after which the administration was located here, as well as a library, scientific departments, funds, and manuscript departments.
Already by 1985-1994, the administrative building was built according to the design of the architect Bernstein, after which its height was equal to the exhibition halls. In 1929, electricity was installed in the gallery.
During the Great Patriotic War
When the Great Patriotic War began, urgent dismantling of the exhibition began in the gallery, as in most other museums in Moscow. She was being prepared for evacuation. The canvases were transferred to special wooden shafts, covered with tissue paper, and stored in waterproof boxes. Already in the middle of the summer of 1941, 17 carriages left Moscow for Novosibirsk. Works of art were evacuated until the autumn of 1942. When the turning point in the war became obvious, the collection began to be returned. In May 1945, the exhibition reopened to Muscovites and guests of the capital.
Expansion of the exhibition area
In the post-war period, Korolev, who became head of the Tretyakov Gallery in 1980, played an important role in expanding the exhibition area. Already in 1983, he began active construction, and two years later the depository was put into operation. This is a specialized storage facility for works of art; it also housed restoration workshops.
Since 1986, a full-scale reconstruction of the main building has been carried out. And in 1989, a new building was even built, in which an information and computing center, a conference room, a children's studio, and additional exhibition halls were opened. The building began to be called the Engineering Building because the main engineering services and systems were concentrated in it.
But the buildings located in Lavrushinsky Lane were closed completely from 1986 to 1995 due to major reconstruction. For a whole decade at that time, the only exhibition space remained in the building located on Krymsky Val. In 1985 it was officially merged with the Tretyakov Gallery.
Tretyakov collection
The collection of exhibits of this museum is considered the most extensive in our country and one of the most significant in the world in general. The State Tretyakov Gallery, whose collection already numbered about four thousand works by 1917, was perhaps the richest in Russia. That is why it aroused such interest among numerous visitors.
In the future, it only replenished. By 1975, the State Tretyakov Gallery, whose collection already numbered about 55 thousand works, was one of the largest in Europe. It was regularly replenished through government procurement. Nowadays, in the collection of the State Tretyakov Gallery you can find a collection of Russian painting, sculpture, graphics, works of foreign authors, as well as works of decorative and applied art from the 11th to 21st centuries.
The collection of icons is worth mentioning separately. Icons from the 11th to 17th centuries are presented here, including works by Simon Ushakov, Dionysius, and the famous “Trinity” by Andrei Rublev.
Many famous paintings of the second half of the 19th century centuries can be found in the Tretyakov Gallery. Here is the richest collection of Peredvizhniki. Among them are works by Kramskoy, Perov, Savitsky, Makovsky, Savrasov, Polenov, Shishkin, Vasnetsov.
There are many paintings by Ilya Repin, among the lower ones already mentioned in this article “Ivan the Terrible and his son Ivan”, “They Didn’t Expect”. Many are familiar with Surikov’s creations “Menshikov in Berezovo”, “Boyarina Morozova”, “Morning Streltsy execution", as well as works by Antokolsky and Vereshchagin.
Widely represented soviet art. Here, everyone knows Grabar, Kukryniksy, Konenkov, Serov, Mukhina, Brodsky.
The State Tretyakov Gallery, whose collection numbers more than 60 thousand works today, remains the most attractive place for numerous art fans from all over the world.
Tretyakov Gallery in philately
Stamps from the State Tretyakov Gallery have long become valuable for philatelists. For example, a 1949 stamp is considered especially valuable, on which a monument to Joseph Stalin is depicted in front of the Tretyakov Gallery building, which was later demolished. In 1956, a postage stamp was issued to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the founding of the State Tretyakov Gallery. And in 2006, a whole postal block appeared in circulation, which was issued for the 150th anniversary of the gallery.
How to get there?
The main building of the Tretyakov Gallery, which is worth a visit if you hope to get acquainted with the rich collection collected here, is located in Moscow at Lavrushinsky Lane, 10.
The gallery's opening hours are as follows: Monday is a day off; on Tuesday, Wednesday and Sunday it is open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., and on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays from 10:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. Please note that the box office closes one hour before the gallery closes.
The Tretyakov Gallery is located almost in the very center of Moscow, so getting to it is not difficult. a lot of work. The easiest way to do this is to use the capital's metro. To do this, you need to get to the Polyanka or Tretyakovskaya stations, which are located on the Kalininskaya line, or to the Oktyabrskaya or Novokuznetskaya stations of the Kaluzhsko-Rizhskaya line. Another option is to get off the car at the Oktyabrskaya station. Circle line.
Ticket prices
For adult visitors, a ticket to the Tretyakov Gallery will cost exactly 500 rubles. These prices are determined in the gallery for 2018. Russian students and pensioners will have to pay 200 rubles. Admission for minors under 18 years of age is free.
Please note that the gallery offers free admission for Russian students on the first and second Sunday of the month.
After visiting the Tretyakov Gallery, take time to explore the attractions located nearby. This is the Church of St. Nicholas, Shmelev Square, Tretyakovsky Pier, the Kadashevskaya Sloboda Museum, Yakimansky Square, and the Ore Petrographic Museum.
If you are planning to visit the Tretyakov Gallery, then do not try to embrace the immensity. Don’t set yourself the task of seeing all the collections in one day. It’s better to decide in advance on two or three masters or areas on which you will concentrate your attention this time. Leave the rest until your next visit.
A free guide will also help you find your way, which you can install on your phone and use it to see the most interesting things without spending too much time.
In the museum itself you can be offered an official audio guide, the use of which will cost you 350 rubles. Such audio guides exist in Russian, Italian, English, French, German, Chinese and Spanish. Remember, to use it, you will have to leave a deposit of two thousand rubles. An alternative to money as collateral can be any document proving your identity. The only exception is that you cannot leave your passport.
The history of the creation of the Tretyakov Gallery began a long time ago. In 1832, the founder of the famous art museum, Pavel Mikhailovich Tretyakov, was born. He received an excellent education due to the fact that his family was a merchant, and his parents owned a factory, the income of which grew every year. Pavel Mikhailovich was always interested in art, although he worked with his father, over time he began to think about creating a pavilion that would house paintings by all Russian artists. It was their creativity that most inspired the patron of art.
At first, the paintings hung in Tretyakov’s house; in the process of collecting the collection, extensions began to be made to the house, which in 1870 became available to the general public. When the philanthropist realized that all the canvases simply would not fit in the extensions, he ordered the construction of a special building - the Tretyakov Gallery, which opened its doors in 1875 and is located to this day in the oldest quarter of Moscow in Zamoskvorechye. From this moment the history of the creation of the Tretyakov Gallery began.
In 1892, the collection was donated to Moscow; even then it consisted of more than 1,300 paintings by Russian authors, most of whom not only sold their creations to Tretyakov, but were proud that the patron had chosen them, and were grateful for the help he provided to all those in need. After the death of Pavel Mikhailovich, the Tretyakov Gallery was not abandoned; on the contrary, it began to be replenished with new works, and by 1917 it contained more than canvases, as well as a collection of icons, maps and other Russian creations.
Paintings from the Tretyakov Gallery: Ivan Shishkin – “Morning in a Pine Forest” V.V. Vereshchagin – “Apotheosis of War” I.N. Kramskoy – “Unknown” I.E. Repin – “Ivan the Terrible and His Son Ivan” Valentin Serov – “Girl with Peaches” V.V. Pukirev – “Unequal Marriage” R.F. Pavlovich – “Deuce Again” B.K. Pavlovich – “Horsewoman”
State Tretyakov Gallery, Tretyakov Gallery (also known as Tretyakov Gallery) - Art Museum in Moscow, founded in 1856 by merchant Pavel Tretyakov and having one of the largest collections of Russian fine art in the world. The exhibition in the engineering building “Russian painting of the 11th - early 20th centuries” (Lavrushinsky Lane, 10) is part of the All-Russian museum association “State Tretyakov Gallery”, formed in 1986.
Pavel Tretyakov began collecting his painting collection in the mid-1850s. This, after some time, led to the fact that in 1867 the “Moscow City Gallery of Pavel and Sergei Tretyakov” was opened to the general public in Zamoskvorechye. Her collection consisted of 1276 paintings, 471 drawings and 10 sculptures by Russian artists, as well as 84 paintings by foreign masters. In 1892, Tretyakov bequeathed his gallery to the city of Moscow. The facades of the gallery building were designed in 1900-1903 by the architect V. N. Bashkirov based on the drawings of the artist V. M. Vasnetsov. The construction was managed by the architect A. M. Kalmykov.
In August 1892 Pavel Mikhailovich transferred his art gallery as a gift to Moscow. By this time, the collection included 1,287 paintings and 518 graphic works of the Russian school, 75 paintings and 8 drawings of the European school, 15 sculptures and a collection of icons. On August 15, 1893, the official opening of the museum took place under the name “Moscow City Gallery of Pavel and Sergei Mikhailovich Tretyakov.”
On June 3, 1918, the Tretyakov Gallery was declared “state property of the Russian Federative Soviet Republic"and was named the State Tretyakov Gallery. Igor Grabar was appointed director of the museum. With his active participation, the State Museum Fund was created in the same year, which until 1927 remained one of the most important sources of replenishment of the Tretyakov Gallery collection.
Ilya Efimovich Repin, Portrait of Pavel Mikhailovich Tretyakov
From the first days of the Great Patriotic War dismantling of the exhibition began in the Gallery - like other museums in Moscow, the Tretyakov Gallery was preparing for evacuation. In mid-summer 1941, a train of 17 carriages departed from Moscow and delivered the collection to Novosibirsk. Only on May 17, 1945, the State Tretyakov Gallery was reopened in Moscow.
In 1985, State Art Gallery, located on Krymsky Val, 10, was combined with the Tretyakov Gallery into a single museum complex under the general name of the State Tretyakov Gallery. Now the building houses the updated permanent exhibition “Art of the 20th Century”.
Part of the Tretyakov Gallery is the Museum-Church of St. Nicholas in Tolmachi, which represents a unique combination of a museum exhibition and a working temple. The museum complex on Lavrushinsky Lane includes the Engineering Building and Showroom in Tolmachi.
The federal state cultural institution All-Russian Museum Association State Tretyakov Gallery (FGUC VMO Tretyakov Gallery) includes: Museum-workshop of the sculptor A.S. Golubkina, House-Museum of V.M. Vasnetsov, Museum-Apartment of A.M. Vasnetsov, House-Museum of P.D. Korina, Exhibition Hall in Tolmachi.
Paintings from the collection of the State Tretyakov Gallery
Ivan Kramskoy. Unknown, 1883.
This is perhaps Kramskoy’s most famous work, the most intriguing, remaining to this day incomprehensible and unsolved. By calling his painting “Unknown,” Kramskoy forever attached to it an aura of mystery. Contemporaries were literally at a loss. Her image evoked concern and anxiety, a vague premonition of a depressing and dubious new thing - the appearance of a type of woman who did not fit into the previous system of values. “It is unknown who this lady is, but a whole era sits inside her,” some stated. In our time, Kramskoy’s “Unknown” has become the embodiment of aristocracy and secular sophistication. Like a queen, she rises above the foggy white cold city, driving in an open carriage along the Anichkov Bridge. Her outfit is a “Francis” hat, trimmed with elegant light feathers, “Swedish” gloves made of the finest leather, a “Skobelev” coat, decorated with sable fur and blue satin ribbons, a muff, a gold bracelet - all these are fashionable details women's suit 1880s, claiming to be expensive elegance. However, this did not mean belonging to high society, rather the opposite - the code of unwritten rules excluded strict adherence to fashion in the highest circles of Russian society.
I.E. Repin. Autumn bouquet, 1892
In the painting, the artist depicted his daughter, Vera Ilyinichna Repina. She collected the last autumn flowers while walking in the vicinity of Abramtsevo. The heroine of the picture herself is full vital energy. She only stopped for a moment, turning her beautiful face to the viewer. bright face. Vera's eyes narrow slightly. It seems that she is about to smile, giving us the warmth of her soul. Against the backdrop of fading nature, the girl looks like a beautiful, fragrant flower, cheerful youth and beauty emanate from her strong and stately figure. The artist skillfully and truthfully depicted her in full height– radiating energy, optimism and health.
Repin wrote:
I begin with a portrait of Vera, in the middle of the garden with a large bouquet of rough autumn flowers, with a boutonniere of thin, graceful ones; wearing a beret, expressing a feeling of life, youth, bliss.
Looking at this blooming girl, one believes in the eternal triumph of life, its infinity and renewal. Painting by I.E. Repin's "Autumn Bouquet" gives hope for the inevitable victory of good over evil, beauty over decay and the immortality of human talent.
The portrait occupies a prominent place in the legacy of Ilya Efimovich Repin. Everything attracted the artist in his models - the expressiveness of the face, poses, temperament, clothing... And each work is distinguished by its fullness of life and versatility of characteristics. The artist’s artistic vigilance made it possible not only to convey the characteristics of the person depicted, but also to create a generalized image - an image of the time in which he lives.
Valentin Aleksandrovich Serov. Girl with peaches, 1887.
Valentin Aleksandrovich Serov stayed for a long time in Abramtsevo, the estate of Savva Ivanovich Mamontov near Moscow. Here, in the dining room of the manor house, the famous painting “Girl with Peaches” was painted - a portrait of Vera Mamontova (1875–1907), the twelve-year-old daughter of a philanthropist. This is one of the first works of impressionistic painting in Russia. Pure colors and lively, energetic brush strokes give rise to an image of youth, full of poetry and happiness. Unlike French impressionists Serov does not dissolve the objective world in light and air, but takes care of conveying its materiality. This revealed the artist’s closeness to the realists, his predecessors and teachers – I.E. Repin and P.A. Chistyakov. He pays special attention to the girl’s face, admiring the clarity and seriousness of its expression. By combining a portrait with an image of an interior, the artist created a new type of portrait-picture.
Valentin Serov spoke about the work on this picture:
All I was striving for was freshness, that special freshness that you always feel in nature and don’t see in paintings. I painted for more than a month and exhausted her, poor thing, to death, I really wanted to preserve the freshness of the painting and complete completion - just like the old masters
Mikhail Alexandrovich Vrubel. Swan Princess, 1900.
The prototype of the image was the artist’s wife Nadezhda Ivanovna Zabela-Vrubel. The master was amazed by her stage performance of the role of the Swan Princess in Rimsky-Korsakov’s opera “The Tale of Tsar Saltan.” Nadezhda Ivanovna, famous singer and the artist’s muse, brought the charm of feminine charm into the artist’s inner world. The art of Vrubel and the work of Zabela were connected by invisible but strong threads. The source of inspiration for Mikhail Alexandrovich was also the Russian epic epic and national folklore traditions. Based on legend, myth, epic, the artist did not illustrate them, but created his own poetic world, colorful and intense, full of triumphant beauty and at the same time disturbing mystery, a world fairy-tale heroes with their earthly melancholy and human suffering.
The wide-open, enchanting “velvet” eyes of the princess peer into the very depths of our soul. It's like she sees everything. That’s why, perhaps, the sable eyebrows are raised so sadly and a little surprised, and the lips are closed. It's like she's under a spell. But you hear the heartbeat of a Russian fairy tale, you are captivated by the princess’s gaze and are ready to endlessly look into her sad, kind eyes, admire her charming, sweet face, beautiful and mysterious. The artist conveyed the play of emerald semi-precious stones on the princess’s kokoshnik and the position of the feathers on her wings with rhythmic strokes and strokes similar to a mosaic. This rhythmicity gives the image a musical quality. It is “heard” in the flickering and shimmer of airy, weightless colors in the foreground, in the finest gradations of gray-pink, in the truly immaterial pictorial matter of the canvas, “transforming”, melting. All the languid, sad beauty of the image is expressed in this special pictorial matter.
...There is a princess beyond the sea,
What you can't take your eyes off:
During the day the light of God is eclipsed,
At night it illuminates the earth.
The moon shines under the scythe,
And in the forehead the star is burning...
Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin
Ivan Shishkin, Konstantin Savitsky. Morning in pine forest, 1889.
The film is popular due to its entertaining plot. However true value The work is a beautifully expressed state of nature. It is not a dense forest that is shown, but sunlight breaking through the columns of giants. You can feel the depth of the ravines and the power of centuries-old trees. And the sunlight seems to timidly peek into this dense forest. The frolicking cubs feel the approach of morning. We are observers of wildlife and its inhabitants.
The idea for the painting was suggested to Shishkin by Savitsky K.A. Savitsky painted the bears in the film itself. These bears, with some differences in poses and numbers (at first there were two of them), appear in preparatory drawings and sketches. Savitsky turned out the bears so well that he even signed the painting together with Shishkin. And when Tretyakov acquired this painting, he removed Savitsky’s signature, leaving the authorship to Shishkin.
Victor Vasnetsov. Alyonushka, 1881.
The artist began work on the painting in 1880. At first he painted landscape sketches on the banks of the Vori in Abramtsevo, near the pond in Akhtyrka. Many sketches from this time have survived.
Painting "Alyonushka" by V.M. Vasnetsova became one of his most touching and poetic creations. A girl sits on the shore of a dark pool, sadly bowing her head in her hands. Around her, yellowing birch trees shed their leaves into the still water, and behind her, a dense wall of spruce forest stood.
The image of Alyonushka is both real and fabulous at the same time. The sad appearance and shabby, poor clothes of the young heroine are recreated in memory life study artist, made from a peasant orphan girl in the year the painting was painted. The vitality of the image is combined here with fairy-tale and poetic symbolism. Above the head of Alyonushka, sitting on a gray cold stone, a thin branch with chirping swallows arched. According to information famous explorer Russian folk tale A.N. Afanasyev, whom Vasnetsov knew through the Abramtsevo circle, the swallow brings good news, consolation in misfortune. In ancient beliefs, a dark forest, a pool and loose hair were identified with misfortune, danger and heavy thoughts, and a birch tree growing near the water was a sign of healing.
Even if the artist did not put such detailed symbolism into the canvas, it does not give the impression of hopelessness, perhaps because we remember a fairy tale with a happy ending.
Vasnetsov himself spoke about his painting this way: “Alyonushka” seemed to have been living in my head for a long time, but I really saw it in Akhtyrka, when I met one simple-haired girl who captured my imagination. There was so much melancholy, loneliness and purely Russian sadness in her eyes... Some special Russian spirit wafted from her.
Critic I.E. Grabar called the painting one of the best paintings of the Russian school.
Alexey Kondratievich Savrasov. The rooks have arrived, 1871.
“The Rooks Have Arrived” is a famous painting by Russian artist Alexei Savrasov, created in 1871. The painting is Savrasov’s most famous work; in fact, he remained “an artist of one painting.”
Sketches for this painting were painted in the village of Molvitino (now Susanino) in the Kostroma province. The finalization of the painting took place in Moscow, in the artist’s studio. At the end of 1871, the painting “The Rooks Have Arrived” was first presented to the public at the first exhibition of the Association of Traveling Art Exhibitions. “Rooks” became a discovery in painting. The static landscapes of Kuindzhi and Shishkin immediately lost their innovative status.
The work was immediately purchased by Pavel Tretyakov for his collection.
Konstantin Dmitrievich Flavitsky. Princess Tarakanova, 1864.
The basis for the creation of the picture was the story of Princess Tarakanova, an adventuress who pretended to be the daughter of Empress Elizabeth Petrovna and the sister of Emelyan Pugachev. By order of Empress Catherine II, she was arrested and in May 1775 she was taken to the Peter and Paul Fortress, subjected to a lengthy interrogation by Field Marshal Prince Golitsyn, during which she gave various testimonies. She died of consumption on December 4, 1775, hiding the secret of her birth even from the priest.
The painting was painted in 1864, and in the same year it was exhibited for the first time at the Academy of Arts. V. V. Stasov, famous critic of that time, who highly valued the painting, called Flavitsky’s painting:
“a wonderful painting, the glory of our school, the most brilliant creation of Russian painting”
The painting was acquired by Pavel Tretyakov for his collection after the artist’s death.
The plot for the picture was the legend about the death of Tarakanova during a flood in St. Petersburg on September 21, 1777 (historical data suggests that she died two years earlier than this event). The canvas depicts a casemate of the Peter and Paul Fortress, outside of which a flood is raging. A young woman stands on the bed, trying to escape the water rushing through the barred window. The wet rats climb out of the water, approaching the prisoner's feet.
For the painting “Princess Tarakanova” the artist Konstantin Flavitsky was awarded the title of professor of historical painting.
Vasily Vladimirovich Pukirev. Unequal marriage, 1862.
The work was painted in 1862, immediately after graduating from the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture. The painting “Unequal Marriage” was delivered to the academic exhibition in 1863, its general idea, with its strong expression, unusual size for an everyday subject and masterful execution, which immediately propelled the artist to one of the most prominent places among Russian painters. For her, the Academy awarded him the title of professor.
The plot of the picture - unequal marriage young beautiful girl and a decrepit rich old man. There are indifferent faces around, only one young man, with his arms crossed, looks accusingly at the couple. It is believed that the artist depicted himself in this man, as if expressing his protest.
Isaac Levitan. March, 1895.
The whole picture is filled with that special human joy that comes in spring. The unlocked door and the horse Dianka left at the porch speak of the invisible presence of people. Isaac Ilyich knew how to talk about a person through the landscape, he knew how to “search and discover in nature - in the words of Mikhail Mikhailovich Prishvin (1873-1954) - the beautiful sides of the human soul.”
The canvas was painted in 1895 in the Tver province on the estate of the Turchaninovs’ acquaintances, Gorki. Isaac Ilyich observed and wrote the first days of spring, and its rapid approach forced him to hurry. In several sessions, without any sketch preparation, the master painted his radiant March entirely from life. What is shown on the canvas? The backyard of an ordinary estate, warmed and illuminated by the sun, melting snow with blue shadows, thin tree branches against the sky, a bright wall of a house... There is so much spring melody in all this!
The revival of nature in this composition is revealed through the poetry of light, the dazzlingly bright March sun, and only then reinforced by loose snow. We used to call it “white”, but for keen eye landscape painter whiteness is created from many color shades. The snow in Levitan’s painting lives – breathes, flickers, reflects the blue sky. The picturesque range with its color shadows is built on an impressionistic combination of complementary colors. If the impressionists dissolve color in light, then Levitan sought to preserve the color of the depicted object. The canvas March is written in bright, joyful colors. An unpretentious, everyday motif drawn from village life, the author managed to impart emotional richness and charm the viewer with the spontaneity of conveying lyrical feelings. The means of painting evoke not only visual, but also other sensations. We hear all the rustles and sounds of nature: the rustling of tree branches, the singing of raindrops. Levitan created a landscape full of life, sun, filled with light and air.
Ivan Kramskoy. Christ in the desert, 1872.
Conceived in 1868, the painting required several years of intense internal work. The completed work was immediately purchased directly from the artist’s studio by Pavel Tretyakov. "In my opinion, this is the most best picture at our school for Lately", he wrote.
Presented on the Second traveling exhibition"Christ in the Desert" became a sensation. Heated discussions flared up in front of the picture, the public was looking for a certain hidden meaning in this strong but hopelessly lonely figure, lost in a barren stone desert. Kramskoy managed to create a time of exceptional expressiveness equal, perhaps, to the most tragic pages gospel history. The asceticism of color and painting techniques only strengthens the focus on the moral side of the content of the work. The difficult spiritual experiences of Christ, perhaps for the first time in Russian fine art, make us think about the problem personal choice. In this deep drama, the inadequacy of the expectation of Christ and human possibilities is already revealed from the very beginning.
“I see clearly that there is one moment in the life of every person, more or less created in the image and likeness of God, whether to take a ruble for the Lord God or not to yield a single step to evil. We all know how such hesitation usually ends,” the artist wrote .
Kuzma Sergeevich Petrov-Vodkin. Bathing the red horse, 1912.
The most famous picture artist Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin. Painted in 1912, it became a milestone for the artist and brought him world fame.
In 1912, Petrov-Vodkin lived in the south of Russia, on an estate near Kamyshin. It was then that he made the first sketches for the painting. And also the first, unpreserved version of the canvas, known from black and white photography, was painted. The picture was a work of everyday life rather than symbolic, as happened with the second version; it depicted simply several boys with horses. This first version was destroyed by the author, probably soon after his return to St. Petersburg.
Petrov-Vodkin based the horse on a real stallion named Boy, who lived on the estate. To create the image of a teenager sitting astride him, the artist used the features of his nephew Shura.
The large, almost square canvas depicts a lake of cold bluish shades, which serves as the background for the semantic dominant of the work - the horse and rider. The figure of the red stallion occupies the entire foreground of the picture almost completely. He is given so large that his ears, croup and legs below the knees are cut off by the picture frame. The rich scarlet color of the animal seems even brighter in comparison with the cool color of the landscape and the light body of the boy.
Waves of a slightly greenish tint, compared to the rest of the surface of the lake, scatter from the front leg of the horse entering the water. The entire canvas is an excellent illustration of the spherical perspective so beloved by Petrov-Vodkin: the lake is round, which is emphasized by a fragment of the shore in the upper right corner, the optical perception is slightly distorted.
In total, the painting depicts 3 horses and 3 boys - one in the foreground riding a red horse, the other two behind him with the left and right side. One leads a white horse by the bridle, the other, visible from the back, riding an orange one, rides into the depths of the picture. These three groups form a dynamic curve, emphasized by the same curve of the red horse's front leg, the same curve of the boy rider's leg, and the pattern of the waves.
It is believed that the horse was originally bay (red), and that the master changed its color after becoming acquainted with the color scheme of Novgorod icons, which he was shocked by.
From the very beginning, the picture caused numerous disputes, in which it was invariably mentioned that such horses do not exist. However, the artist claimed that he adopted this color from ancient Russian icon painters: for example, in the icon “The Miracle of the Archangel Michael” the horse is depicted completely red. As in the icons, in this picture there is no mixing of colors; the colors are contrasting and seem to collide in confrontation.
The painting so impressed contemporaries with its monumentality and fate that it was reflected in the works of many masters of brush and words. This is how Sergei Yesenin came up with the following lines:
“I have now become more stingy in my desires.
My life! Or did I dream about you!
As if I were a booming early spring
He rode on a pink horse."
The red horse acts as the Fate of Russia, which the fragile and young rider is unable to hold. According to another version, the Red Horse is Russia itself, identified with Blokov’s “steppe mare.” In this case, one cannot help but note the prophetic gift of the artist, who symbolically predicted with his painting the “red” fate of Russia in the 20th century.
The fate of the picture was extraordinary.
The painting was first shown at the World of Art exhibition in 1912 and was a stunning success.
In 1914, she was at the “Baltic Exhibition” in Malmo (Sweden). For participation in this exhibition, K. Petrov-Vodkin was awarded a medal and a certificate by the Swedish king.
The outbreak of the First World War, then the revolution and Civil War led to the fact that the picture for a long time stayed in Sweden.
After the end of World War II and after stubborn and grueling negotiations, finally, in 1950, Petrov-Vodkin’s works, including this painting, were returned to their homeland.
The artist’s widow donated the painting to the collection of the famous collector K.K. Basevich, and she donated it to the Tretyakov Gallery in 1961.
F. Malyavin. Whirlwind, 1906.
The painting “Whirlwind” - the pinnacle of the work of Philip Andreevich Malyavin - was conceived by him in 1905 (the sketch for it from the collection of the Tretyakov Gallery is dated this year). The events of the first Russian revolution of 1905–1907 influenced the choice of subject and the pictorial style of the huge monumental canvas. The scale of the canvas emphasizes the significance of the concept. The entire field of the picture is filled with a riotous whirlwind of colors, skirts and shawls fluttering as they dance, among which the heated faces of peasant women flash. The predominant red color, due to the expression of the brush and the intensity of the intensity, loses the properties of indicating the objective world, but acquires symbolic meaning. It is associated with fire, fire, and uncontrollable elements. This is a harbinger of an impending popular revolt and at the same time an element of the Russian soul. Malyavin’s symbolic perception of color largely comes from the icon - as a child, he studied icon painting for several years at the Athos Monastery in Greece, where he was noticed by the sculptor V.A. Beklemishev and sent by him to the Academy of Arts in St. Petersburg.
Kazimir Malevich. Black Square, 1915.
The black square is the most famous work Kazimir Malevich, created in 1915. It is a canvas measuring 79.5 by 79.5 centimeters, which depicts a black square on a white background.
The work was completed by Malevich in the summer and autumn of 1915. According to the artist, he wrote it for several months.
The work was exhibited at the last futurist exhibition “0.10”, which opened in St. Petersburg on December 19, 1915. Among the thirty-nine paintings exhibited by Malevich in the most prominent place, in the so-called “red corner”, where icons are usually hung, hung “Black Square”.
Subsequently, Malevich made several copies of “Black Square” (according to some sources, seven). It is reliably known that in the period from 1915 to the early 1930s, Malevich created four versions of the “Black Square”, which differ in design, texture and color. One of the “Squares”, although dated by the author in 1913, is usually attributed to the turn of the 1920s-1930s. He also painted the paintings “Red Square” (in two copies) and “White Square” (“Suprematist composition” - “White on White”) - one.
There is a version that “Square” was written for the exhibition - since the huge hall needed to be filled with something. This interpretation is based on a letter from one of the exhibition organizers to Malevich:
I need to write a lot now. The room is very large, and if we, 10 people, paint 25 paintings, then it will only be possible.
Initially, Malevich’s famous square first appeared in the scenery for the opera “Victory over the Sun” as a plastic expression of the victory of active human creativity over the passive form of nature: a black square instead of a solar circle. This was the famous set for the fifth scene of Act 1, which was a square within a square, divided into two areas: black and white. Then this square migrated from decoration to easel work.
The largest at that time art critic, founder of the World of Art association Alexander Benois wrote immediately after the exhibition:
Undoubtedly, this is the icon that the Futurists are putting up to replace Madonna.
At the landmark exhibition of 2004 in the Warsaw gallery "Zachęta" "Warsaw - Moscow, 1900-2000", where more than 300 paintings, sculptures, installations were exhibited (in particular, many paintings of the Russian avant-garde) "Square" from the Tretyakov Gallery was presented as the central exhibit of the exhibition. At the same time, it was hung in the “red corner”, as at the exhibition “0.10”.
IN present time in Russia there are four “Black Squares”: in Moscow and St. Petersburg there are two “Squares” each: two in the Tretyakov Gallery, one in the Russian Museum and one in the Hermitage. One of the works belongs to the Russian billionaire Vladimir Potanin, who purchased it from Inkombank in 2002 for 1 million US dollars (30 million rubles) and transferred this first existing version of the canvas with the image of the “Black Square” by the founder of Suprematism for indefinite storage to the Hermitage.
One of the "Black Squares", painted in 1923, is part of a triptych that also includes "Black Cross" and "Black Circle".
In 1893, a similar painting by Alphonse Allais, entitled “The Battle of the Negroes in deep cave dark night."
Yuri Pimenov. New Moscow, 1937.
The painting is part of a series of works about Moscow, which the artist has been working on since the mid-1930s. The artist depicted Sverdlov Square (now Teatralnaya), located in the city center, not far from the Kremlin. The House of Unions and the Moscow Hotel are visible. The subject of the picture is a woman driving a car - a rather rare phenomenon for those years. This image was perceived by contemporaries as a symbol of new life. The compositional solution is also unusual, when the image looks like a frame captured by a camera lens. Pimenov focuses the viewer’s attention on the figure of a woman, shown from the back, and, as it were, invites the viewer to look at the morning city through her eyes. This creates a feeling of joy, freshness and spring mood. All this is facilitated by the artist’s impressionistic brushwork and the delicate coloring of the painting.
Tretyakov Gallery
State Tretyakov Gallery(Moscow city). Lavrushinsky Lane, 10) is an art museum containing one of the world's largest collections of Russian fine art. The gallery was founded by merchant and philanthropist Pavel Tretyakov in 1856. During the Soviet period it expanded into a large museum complex. Currently, in addition to the museum complex in Lavrushinsky and Maly Tolmachevsky lanes, the All-Russian museum association "State Tretyakov Gallery" includes the large exhibition complex Tretyakov Gallery on Krymsky Val ( Krymsky Val, 10), museum-apartment of A.M. Vasnetsov (Furmanny lane, 6), house-museum of V.M. Vasnetsov (Vasnetsova lane, 13).
Official website of the Tretyakov Gallery:
1874- Vereshchagin is holding an exhibition of paintings from the Turkestan campaign and travel through Central Asia. Pavel Tretyakov admires Vereshchagin’s work and strives to purchase the entire exhibition (the entire series of paintings) for his gallery for mandatory permanent display. Tretyakov bought the exhibition for 92,000 rubles, which was very at a high price for that time.
1874- The construction of the first two museum halls of the gallery has been completed and they are open to permanent visitors.
1876 - Pavel Tretyakov becomes a supporter of the “Peredvizhniki” (Association of Traveling Art Exhibitions - TPHV) and begins to patronize their work, buying and ordering a large number of paintings by I.N. Kramskoy, I.I. Shishkina, A.K. Savrasova, N.N. Ge et al.
1882- 6 new halls have been added to the gallery.
1885- 7 more rooms are being added to the house. paintings by V.I. were purchased Surikov, paintings by I.E. Repin, works by V.M. Vasnetsova, I.I. Shishkin, I.N. Kramskoy, I.I. Levitan, V.D. Polenova and others.
1892- Pavel Tretyakov transfers the gallery with the building and the entire collection to the ownership of the Moscow City Duma. Tretyakov himself received the title of Honorary Citizen of Moscow and was appointed a lifelong trustee of the gallery.
December 4 (16), 1898 Pavel Mikhailovich Tretyakov died in Moscow. Last words his relatives were like: “Take care of the gallery and be healthy.”
1904- construction of the famous facade of the Tretyakov Gallery, designed according to the drawings of the artist V. M. Vasnetsov, has been completed.
January 16, 1913- a tragic event occurred in the gallery. Ilya Repin’s painting “Ivan the Terrible and his son Ivan November 16, 1581” was attacked by a vandal with a knife. Having learned about the damage to the painting, the curator of the Tretyakov Gallery (E.M. Khruslov) committed suicide by throwing himself under a train. Ilya Repin restored the painting with his own hands, practically re-drawing the faces.
1913- the Moscow City Duma elects Igor Grabar as a trustee of the Tretyakov Gallery.
1918 - after the revolution, the gallery was declared “state property of the Russian Federative Soviet Republic” and became state owned.
1926- Academician A.V. Shchusev became the director of the museum.
1928- major repairs were made to the building, the heating system, ventilation was organized, and electricity was installed.
1932- the building of the closed church of St. Nicholas in Tolmachi was transferred to the Tretyakov Gallery for storage.
1936- a new two-story building was opened, work is underway to organize a continuous visiting route. The gallery is popular, and some paintings by the Wanderers are used Soviet power for ideological education.
1941- in the summer, an urgent evacuation of the exhibition to Novosibirsk begins. A train of 17 wagons was required.
1956- the 100th anniversary of the Tretyakov Gallery was celebrated.
1985- the depository has been completed - restoration workshops and storage of works.
The building at 10 Krymsky Val was combined with the Tretyakov Gallery into a single museum complex.
1989- a new “Engineering building” was added to the main building of the gallery (to the left of the front facade). It houses most of the modern engineering systems museum.
The Tretyakov Gallery is one of the most famous museums in Russia, and throughout the world. The extensive exhibition covers the period from the eleventh century to today. It is difficult to imagine that the Tretyakov Gallery, whose halls have become a reflection of Russian art from antiquity to the present, began with a private collection.
Home collection
The Tretyakovs purchased the house on Lavrushinsky Lane in 1851. The head of the family, Pavel Mikhailovich, was a successful businessman, but at the same time he was a well-known philanthropist who invested in many charitable programs. He was a passionate collector, collecting paintings, sculptures, icons and other works of art.
He had a global goal - to create a national gallery, and not just a museum. The collection began with ten paintings written by Dutch masters. Initially, the Tretyakov Gallery, whose halls were open only to family members and guests, was in the house where the Tretyakovs lived. But the collection grew very quickly, and there was not enough space for display. During the owner's lifetime, numerous reconstructions were carried out. And even under Pavel Mikhailovich, townspeople had the opportunity to visit such a cultural institution as the Tretyakov Gallery. The halls expanded, and the exhibition grew constantly. The popularity of the museum is evidenced by the fact that in the first four years its visitors exceeded 30 thousand people.
40 years after the collection was started, he donated it to Moscow. The collection was supplemented by works of art kept by the second brother, Sergei. This is how the “Paul and Sergei Tretyakov Gallery” appeared in Moscow. Another famous philanthropist Morozov handed over masterpieces by Renoir, Van Gogh, and Monet. Despite the transfer to the city, both patrons continued to add to the collection. After the death of the Tretyakovs, the entire house in Lavrushinsky Lane came under the jurisdiction of the city.
New life for the collection
In 1913, I. E. Grabar was appointed trustee and director of the gallery. He was not only talented artist, an architect and art historian, but also an organizer. It was he who carried out the colossal work of systematizing the collection. He distributed the canvases according to historical periods so that visitors have the opportunity to trace the path of development of Russian art. A restoration workshop was also founded under him. At the end of the year, the works hanging in the hall of the Tretyakov Gallery were available for viewing by the general public.
After the revolution, the entire collection was nationalized and transferred to the young republic. The State Tretyakov Gallery was created, the halls of which became accessible to all segments of the population. The collection has expanded significantly through mergers with other museums and the transfer of private collections that were nationalized during the years of Soviet power.
During the war, museum funds were taken to Novosibirsk. The Nazis bombed the capital mercilessly. In 1941, two high-explosive bombs hit the Tretyakov Gallery, causing significant damage. But the very next year, the restoration of the museum began, and by 1944, the doors of the gallery, beloved by the residents of the capital, were again opened to the public.
Halls of the Tretyakov Gallery
Since the gallery's founding, the building has been rebuilt many times. New passages and additional rooms were created so that the collection could be presented in all its glory. Today the exhibition is located in 106 halls. Most are located in a building on Lavrushinsky Lane, there are 62 of them. The complex also includes the museum-temple of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, the Golubkina workshop-museum, the Vasnetsov house-museum and the Korin house-museum. Each room in the Tretyakov Gallery is an opportunity to touch art and see brilliant masterpieces. The collection contains over 150 thousand exhibits, most of which are familiar to everyone from childhood. Reproductions of many paintings were included in school textbooks throughout the country. You can get to know Russia from these paintings. After all, our sea is like forests - like Shishkin's, nature is like Levitan's. Even the best portrait of Pushkin, known to every schoolchild, is exhibited here.
Hall of Icon Painting
In every corner of the Tretyakov Gallery there are canvases that will take your breath away. But perhaps one of the most mysterious halls is the hall of icon painting. When handing over the collection, Pavel Mikhailovich, along with the paintings, also handed over 62 icons from his collection. Now there are several hundred of them in the museum. Each of them reflects the path of Orthodoxy on Russian soil. Among them are works by Rublev, Theophanes the Greek and other famous icon painters. And in the Tretyakov house church one of the most revered and ancient images is exhibited - Vladimirskaya Mother of God. She is already more than 900 years old.
Exhibition in Lavrushinsky Lane
The building on Lavrushinsky Lane, with the famous Vasnetsovsky facade, houses the bulk of the collection. In 62 halls, divided into 7 zones, chronological order works exhibited the best masters Russia and not only. How large and diverse the Tretyakov Gallery is. A description of the halls would take several volumes of the printed publication. When going on an excursion, it is better to choose a specific artist or painting to devote most of your time to. Otherwise, your acquaintance with the galleries will be very superficial and incomplete. The names of the halls of the Tretyakov Gallery correspond to the collections exhibited in them.
Thus, ancient Russian art is represented by iconography.
And in the halls of the 18th-19th centuries, paintings by the great masters Levitsky, Rokotov, Ivanov, and Bryullov are exhibited. A special room was built to display Ivanov’s painting “The Appearance of Christ to the People.” And Rokotov became famous most big amount portraits of unknown people. It was important for him to capture and convey on canvas the features and character of a person, but at the same time he did not necessarily have to be famous. Among Bryullov’s works, one can note the masterfully executed work “Horsewoman,” where a young girl with amazing grace sits astride a magnificent stallion.
Also captivating is the hall where works by artists of the second half of the 19th century are presented. Here you can dive into Magic world realistic art, where every detail is executed with amazing care. In Repin’s paintings, you can physically feel how the sun is baking on the lawn, how every leaf is swaying in the wind. And Vasnetsov’s “Three Heroes” seem to be protecting the country’s borders from uninvited invaders even today. By the way, here you can also see the works of Vasnetsov Jr.
Surikov’s paintings “Boyaryna Morozova” or “Morning of the Streltsy Execution” convey the emotional intensity of each participant in those events. There is not a single indifferent face or random character here. Everything is described with an authenticity that boggles the imagination.
In the section reflecting painting turn of XIX-XX centuries, works of such geniuses as Serov, Vrubel, as well as representatives of the Union of Russian Artists are presented.
Treasures of Russian art
The Tretyakov Gallery is large and diverse. The halls, paintings, sculptures, graphics will not leave anyone indifferent. A separate part of the exhibition is the “Treasury”, where objects from precious metals and gems. The fine work of the jewelers is mesmerizing.
Graphic arts
A separate room is dedicated to graphic art. All works presented in this technique are very afraid of light; these are fragile creations. Therefore, special lighting, slightly dimmed, was installed to demonstrate them. The largest collection of Russian graphics is exhibited here. And also a small, but no less valuable collection of porter miniatures.
Modern Art
The building on the Tretyakov Gallery displays art from the Soviet period to the present day. Visitors observe with interest how ideology influences the artist.
Halls of Masters
The collection includes individual works, but there are also entire collections of paintings by one master. The hall dedicated to the artist in the Tretyakov Gallery contains only his works from different periods. This is the exhibition of Shishkin’s works. But other masters of the brush received a similar honor.
Since its opening, the Tretyakov Gallery has become the richest collection of paintings and art objects. Even the Russian Museum, created at the state level, was inferior in popularity to this private collection.
