When was the Tretyakov Gallery opened? State Tretyakov Gallery

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Introduction

The State Tretyakov Gallery is one of the largest museums in the world. Her popularity is almost legendary. To see its treasures, hundreds of thousands of people come every year to the quiet Lavrushinsky Lane, which is located in one of the oldest districts of Moscow, Zamoskvorechye. The Tretyakov Gallery's collection is dedicated exclusively to national Russian art, to those artists who contributed to the history of Russian art or who were closely associated with it. This is how the gallery was conceived by its founder, Moscow merchant and industrialist Pavel Mikhailovich Tretyakov 1832-1898, and this is how it has remained to this day.

Pavel Mikhailovich Tretyakov

Pavel Tretyakov was born on December 15 (27), 1832 in Moscow, into a merchant family. He was educated at home and began a career in commerce, working with his father. Developing the family business, Pavel, together with his brother Sergei, built paper spinning factories that employed several thousand people. P. M. Tretyakov’s fortune at the time of his death was estimated at 3.8 million rubles.

Pavel Mikhailovich did not marry for a long time. Only in August 1865 did his wedding take place with Vera Nikolaevna Mamontova, cousin of the famous philanthropist Savva Ivanovich Mamontov. In 1866, the eldest daughter Vera (1866-1940) was born, then Alexandra (1867-1959), Lyubov (1870-1928), Mikhail (1871-1912), Maria (1875-1952), Ivan (1878 --1887). In 1887, Ivan, everyone’s favorite and his father’s hope, died of scarlet fever complicated by meningitis. Pavel Mikhailovich's grief knew no bounds. The eldest son, Mikhail, was born sick, weak-minded and never brought joy to his parents.

In the 1850s, Pavel Tretyakov began collecting a collection of Russian art, which almost from the very beginning he intended to give to the city. It is believed that he acquired his first paintings in 1856 - these were the works “Temptation” by N. G. Schilder and “Skirmish with Finnish Smugglers” (1853) by V. G. Khudyakov. Then the collection was replenished with paintings by I. P. Trutnev, A. K. Savrasov, K. A. Trutovsky, F. A. Bruni, L. F. Lagorio and other masters. Already in 1860, the philanthropist drew up a will, which stated: “For me, who truly and ardently loves painting, there can be no better desire than to lay the foundation for a public, accessible repository of fine arts, bringing benefit to many and pleasure to all.”

In the 1860s, Tretyakov acquired the paintings “The Prisoners’ Halt” by V. I. Jacobi, “The Last Spring” by M. P. Klodt, “Grandmother’s Tales” by V. M. Maksimov and others. Pavel Mikhailovich highly appreciated the work of V. G. Perov, to whom he wrote in October 1860: “Take care of yourself for the service of art and for your friends.” In the 1860s, such works by Perov as “Rural Procession at Easter”, “Troika” and “Amateur” were acquired; Subsequently, Tretyakov continued to acquire paintings by Perov, commissioned portraits from him, and actively participated in organizing a posthumous exhibition of the artist’s works.

In 1864, the first painting based on the plot of Russian history appeared in the collection - “Princess Tarakanova” by K. D. Flavitsky. At the end of the 1860s, Pavel Mikhailovich commissioned F.A. Bronnikov to paint a work that later became Vera Nikolaevna Tretyakova’s favorite painting, “The Pythagorean Hymn to the Rising Sun.”

In 1874, Tretyakov built a building for the collected collection - a gallery, which in 1881 was open to the public. In 1892, Tretyakov transferred his collection, along with the gallery building, to the ownership of the Moscow City Duma. A year later, this institution received the name “City Art Gallery of Pavel and Sergei Mikhailovich Tretyakov.” Pavel Tretyakov was appointed a lifelong trustee of the gallery and received the title of Honorary Citizen of Moscow. Shareholder of the Moscow Merchant Bank.

By the end of his life, Tretyakov received the title of commerce advisor, was a member of the Moscow branch of the Council of Trade and Manufactures, and also a full member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts (since 1893). He died on December 4 (16), 1898 in Moscow. His last words to his relatives were: “Take care of the gallery and be healthy.” He was buried at the Danilovsky cemetery in Moscow next to his parents and brother Sergei, who died in 1892. In 1948, the ashes of the Tretyakov brothers were reburied at the Novodevichy cemetery.

Tretyakov gallery history art Russian

Gallery history

Pavel Tretyakov began collecting his collection of paintings in the mid-1850s. The year of foundation of the Tretyakov Gallery is considered to be 1856, when Pavel Tretyakov acquired two paintings by Russian artists: “Temptation” by N. G. Schilder and “Skirmish with Finnish Smugglers” by V. G. Khudyakov, although earlier in 1854-1855 he bought 11 graphic sheets and 9 paintings by old Dutch masters. In 1867, the “Moscow City Gallery of Pavel and Sergei Tretyakov” was opened to the general public in Zamoskvorechye on Lavrushinsky Lane in Zamoskvorechye, in the house that the Tretyakov family bought in 1851. The collection in the gallery included 1276 paintings, 471 drawings and 10 sculptures by Russian artists, as well as 84 paintings by foreign masters.

In August 1892, Pavel Mikhailovich donated his art gallery to the city of 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.”

Since the growth of the collection constantly exceeded the exhibition capabilities of the Gallery, new premises were gradually added to the residential part of the mansion, necessary for storing and displaying works of art. Similar extensions were made in 1873, 1882, 1885, 1892 and finally in 1902-1904, when the famous facade appeared, designed 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. This facade became the emblem of the Tretyakov Gallery.

On January 16, 1913, Ilya Repin’s painting “Ivan the Terrible and his son Ivan on November 16, 1581”, located in the Tretyakov Gallery, was damaged by a vandal’s knife. The artist had to virtually recreate the faces of those depicted. The curator of the Tretyakov Gallery E. M. Khruslov, having learned about the damage to the painting, threw himself under the train.

On April 2, 1913, the Moscow City Duma elected Igor Emmanuilovich Grabar, a prominent artist, architect and art historian, as a trustee of the Tretyakov Gallery. The main thing that marked Grabar’s activity was the reforms that turned the Tretyakov Gallery into a European-style museum with an exhibition organized according to a chronological principle. In early December 1913, on the fifteenth anniversary of the death of the Gallery's founder, the reformed museum was opened to the public.

On June 3, 1918, the Council of People's Commissars issued a Decree that declared the Tretyakov Gallery the state property of the Russian Federative Soviet Republic. From that moment on, the museum began to be called the State Tretyakov Gallery. After nationalization, Igor Emmanuilovich Grabarm was appointed director of the Gallery. During the first years of Soviet power, the Gallery's collection increased significantly, which again raised the question of expanding its space. 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 museum’s collection.

Academician of architecture A.V. Shchusev, who became director in 1926, did a lot to expand the existing premises and add a new one. In 1927, the Gallery received a neighboring house on Maly Tolmachevsky Lane (the former Sokolikov house). After reconstruction in 1928, it turned into an office building that housed the Gallery's administration, scientific departments, library, manuscript department, and graphic collections. This building was connected to the Gallery by a special extension. In 1928, heating and ventilation were radically re-equipped. In 1929, the Gallery was electrified (previously it was open to visitors only during the daytime).

In 1929, the Church of St. Nicholas in Tolmachi was closed, and in 1932 its building was transferred to the Gallery and became a repository of paintings and sculpture. Later it was connected to the exhibition halls by a newly built two-story building, the upper floor of which was specially designed for exhibiting the painting by A.A. Ivanov “The Appearance of Christ to the People (The Appearance of the Messiah)” (1837-1857). A passage was also built between the halls located on both sides of the main staircase, which ensured continuity of view. As a result of these changes, the exhibition area of ​​the museum increased and work began on creating a new concept for displaying works.

In 1936, the construction of a new two-story building on the northern side of the main building was completed - the so-called “Shusevsky building”, whose spacious halls were first used for exhibitions, and since 1940 have been included in the main exhibition route.

From the first days of the Great Patriotic War, dismantling of the exhibition began in the Gallery - like other museums in Moscow, it was preparing for evacuation. The canvases were rolled onto wooden shafts, covered with tissue paper, and placed in boxes lined with waterproof material. In mid-summer 1941, a train of 17 carriages departed from Moscow and delivered the collection to Novosibirsk. The evacuation of works of art continued until September 1942; part of the exhibition was evacuated to the city of Molotov. Only on May 17, 1945, the Gallery was reopened in Moscow. .

The Gallery building was noticeably damaged by bombing during the Great Patriotic War (1941-1945): two high-explosive bombs that fell as a result of a German air raid in several places destroyed the glass roof covering, the interfloor covering of some halls, and the main passages were damaged.

The restoration of the Gallery began already in 1942 and by 1944, 40 of the 52 halls had been renovated, which made it possible to return exhibits from evacuation. In honor of the 100th anniversary of the Tretyakov Gallery, celebrated in 1956, the A.A. Ivanov Hall was completed. By this time the collection consisted of more than 35,000 works of art.

By the mid-1980s, the increased number of visitors, excursions, and school groups could hardly fit into the museum’s halls. The need to expand the exhibition area once again arose. This issue was taken up by Yu.K. Korolev (1929-1992), who headed the Tretyakov Gallery for a decade and a half (1980-1992).

Construction work began in 1983. Two years later, a depository was put into operation - a repository of works of art, where restoration workshops were also located.

Later, in 1985-1994, the administrative building was built on 2 floors according to the design of the architect A.L. Bernstein and was equal in height to the exhibition halls.

In 1986, reconstruction of the main building of the Tretyakov Gallery began (architects I.M. Vinogradsky, G.V. Astafiev, B.A. Klimov and others), based on the idea of ​​preserving the historical appearance of the building.

In 1989, a new building was built on the south side of the main building, housing a conference room, information and computing center, children's studio and exhibition halls. In 1992-1994, they hosted an exhibition of masterpieces from the Gallery’s collection. Most of the engineering systems and services were concentrated in this building, which is why it was called the Engineering Building.

A fundamental feature of the reconstruction plan was the inclusion of the Church of St. Nicholas in Tolmachi (an architectural monument of the 17th century) into the museum ensemble after its restoration and consecration. The temple was approved as a house church-museum at the Tretyakov Gallery.

From 1986 to 1995, the Tretyakov Gallery on Lavrushinsky Lane was closed to visitors due to major reconstruction. The only exhibition area of ​​the museum for this decade was the building on Krymsky Val, 10, which in 1985 was merged with the Tretyakov Gallery.

Construction on Lavrushinsky Lane took almost ten long years: from 1985 to 1995.

Nowadays, the Tretyakov Gallery building complex, located between Lavrushinsky and Maly Tolmachevsky lanes, is a favorite place not only for Muscovites, but also for many guests of the capital.

Composition of the All-Russian Museum Association "State Tretyakov Gallery". Gallery Managers

· Tretyakov Gallery in Lavrushinsky Lane, 10

· Museum-Church of St. Nicholas in Tolmachi

· Tretyakov Gallery on Krymsky Val, 10

· Museum-workshop of A. S. Golubkina

· House-museum of V. M. Vasnetsov

· Museum-apartment of A. M. Vasnetsov

· House-Museum of P. D. Korin.

In 1985, the State Art Gallery, located on Krymsky Val, 10, was merged with the Tretyakov Gallery into a single museum complex under the general name “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 the Exhibition Hall in Tolmachi intended for temporary exhibitions. The museum offers audio guide services.

Gallery Managers

· Tregulova, Zelfira Ismailovna (2015-present)

· Lebedeva, Irina Vladimirovna (2009--2015)

· Rodionov, Valentin Alekseevich (1993--2009)

· Korolev, Yuri Konstantinovich (1980--1992)

· Lebedev, Polikarp Ivanovich (1954--1979)

· Zamoshkin, Alexander Ivanovich (1941--1951)

· Lebedev, Polikarp Ivanovich (1939--1941)

· Christie, Mikhail Nikolaevich (1930--1939)

· Shchusev, Alexey Viktorovich (1926--1929)

Shchekotov, Nikolai Mikhailovich (1925-1926)

· Grabar, Igor Emmanuilovich (1913--1925)

· Ostroukhov, Ilya Semenovich (1905 - 1913)

Faith in the school of Russian painting

Tretyakov's enormous historical merit is his unshakable faith in the triumph of the Russian national school of painting - a faith that arose in the late 50s of the last century and carried through his entire life, through all the difficulties and trials. It is safe to say that in the triumph of Russian painting that came at the end of the 19th century, P.M. Tretyakov’s personal merit was exceptionally great and invaluable.

Tretyakov’s letters preserve evidence of this ardent faith of his. Here's one of them. In a letter to the artist Rizzoni dated February 18, 1865, he wrote: “In the last letter to you, my expression may seem incomprehensible: “Then we would talk with non-believers” - I will explain it to you: many positively do not want to believe in the good future of the Russian art and they assure that if sometimes our artist writes a good thing, it is somehow by accident, and that he will then increase the number of mediocrities. You know, I have a different opinion, otherwise I would not have collected a collection of Russian paintings, but sometimes I could not help but agree with the facts presented; and every success, every step forward is very dear to me, and I would be very happy if I waited for a holiday on our street.” And about a month later, returning to the same thought, Tretyakov writes: “I somehow involuntarily believe in my hope: our Russian school will not be the last - it was indeed a cloudy time, and for quite a long time, but now the fog is clearing.”

This faith of Tretyakov was not a blind premonition; it was based on thoughtful observation of the development of Russian painting, on a deep, subtle understanding of national ideals being formed on a democratic basis.

So, back in 1857, P.M. Tretyakov wrote to the landscape artist A.G. Goravsky: “About my landscape, I humbly ask you to leave it and write me a new one someday instead. I don’t need rich nature, no magnificent composition, no spectacular lighting, no miracles.” Instead, Tretyakov asked to depict simple nature, even the most inconspicuous, “so that there is truth in it, poetry, and there can be poetry in everything, this is the work of the artist.”

This note expresses the same aesthetic principle of the formation of the gallery, which arose as a result of thinking through the ways of development of Russian national painting, guessing its progressive trends long before the appearance of Savrasov’s painting “The Rooks Have Arrived”, the landscapes of Vasiliev, Levitan, Sery, Ostroukhov and Nesterov - artists who managed to a truthful depiction of Russian nature to convey its inherent poetry and charm.

Tretyakov the collector was something of a phenomenon. Contemporaries were quite surprised at the natural intelligence and impeccable taste of this hereditary merchant. “I must admit,” wrote the artist I. N. Kramskoy in 1873, “that this is a man with some kind of devilish instinct.” Having never studied anywhere, he nevertheless possessed broad knowledge, especially in the fields of literature, painting, theater and music. “Tretyakov was a scientist by nature and knowledge,” the artist and critic A. N. Benois said in 1902 in his “History of Russian Art.”

Tretyakov never worked with "prompters". Being closely acquainted with a huge number of artists, writers, musicians and very friendly with many, Tretyakov willingly listened to their advice and comments, but he always acted in his own way and, as a rule, did not change his decisions. He did not tolerate interference in his affairs. Kramskoy, who undeniably enjoyed Tretyakov’s greatest favor and respect, was forced to note: “I have known him for a long time and have long been convinced that no one has influence on Tretyakov, both in the choice of paintings and in his personal opinions... If there were artists, those who believed that it was possible to influence him, they had to then abandon their delusion." Over time, high taste, strict selection and, of course, nobility of intentions brought Tretyakov well-deserved and undeniable authority and gave him “privileges” that no other collector had: Tretyakov received the right to be the first to view new works of artists either directly in their studios, or at exhibitions, but, as a rule, before their public opening.

Pavel Mikhailovich’s visit to the artists was always an exciting event, and not without trepidation, all of them, venerable and beginners, waited from Tretyakov for his quiet: “I ask you to consider the painting for me.” Which was tantamount to public recognition for everyone. “I confess to you frankly,” I. E. Repin wrote to P. M. Tretyakov in 1877, “that if we sell it (we were talking about Repin’s painting “Protodeacon.” - L. I.), then only into your hands, I don’t mind going to your gallery, because I say without flattery, I consider it a great honor for me to see my things there.” Artists often made concessions to Tretyakov, but Tretyakov never bought without haggling, and lowered their prices for him, thereby providing all possible support for his endeavor. But the support here was mutual.

Artists and art historians have long noticed that “if P. M. Tretyakov had not appeared in his time, if he had not given himself entirely to a big idea, if he had not begun to put together Russian Art, his fate would have been different: perhaps we would not have known “Boyarina Morozova”, nor “Procession. . . ", nor all those large and small paintings that now adorn the famous State Tretyakov Gallery. (M. Nesterov). Or: ". . . Without his help, Russian painting would never have taken an open and free path, since Tretyakov was the only one (or almost the only one) who supported everything that was new, fresh and practical in Russian art" (A. Benois)

Gallery today

In April 1995, an updated exhibition of classical Russian art opened for visitors in the main building on Lavrushinsky Lane. The exhibition area has increased. In the reconstructed main building of the Tretyakov Gallery, it became possible to significantly expand the exhibition of ancient Russian art, to allocate halls for sculpture of the 18th - first half of the 19th centuries and the turn of the 19th - 20th centuries.

Graphics that require a special lighting regime are now exhibited in specially equipped halls; a “Treasury” has appeared, where you can see works of applied ancient Russian art, miniatures, and icons in precious frames.

The construction of the courtyards made it possible to create new halls for paintings by the greatest masters of painting of the 19th century - K.P. Bryullov, A.A. Ivanov, I.N. Kramskoy, A.I. Kuindzhi. The largest of them was specially designed for the huge decorative panel “Princess of Dreams” by M.A. Vrubel (1896).

Back in 1953, I.E. Repin’s five-meter canvas “Reception of the volost elders by Alexander III in the Peter’s Palace in Moscow” (1886), created according to the “highest” order, was transferred from the Grand Palace of the Moscow Kremlin to the Tretyakov Gallery. It was also included in the new exhibition.

In order to show the art of the 20th century as fully as possible, corresponding to the scale and level of the museum’s collection, it was decided to divide the exhibition into two buildings and in the Gallery building, located on Krymsky Val, to create a general exhibition of art of the 20th century, from the avant-garde to the latest movements.

On December 16, 1998, on the 100th anniversary of the death of P.M. Tretyakov, the first permanent exhibition of art of the twentieth century, built according to historical, chronological and monographic principles, opened on Krymsky Val. For the first time, it became possible to see the work of major artists as a whole, unbroken for the period before 1917 and after. In the anniversary year of 2006-2007, viewers were offered a new version of the exhibition.

The main emphasis is now on the variety of stylistic trends in painting in the first half of the twentieth century. Non-objectivity and neoclassicism of the 1910s, monumentalism and chamber lyricism of the 1920s, socialist realism and post-avant-garde painting of the 1930s form an expressive contrast and enrich the understanding of the artistic process and the evolution of masters in Soviet times. For the first time, works by Russian artists abroad are shown alongside the works of Soviet artists of the 1930s - 1950s. In addition to traditional exhibits, the new exhibition includes reconstructions. Viewers can see the famous counter-reliefs of V.E. Tatlin, “spatial objects” of the constructivists, that have not survived to this day; The image of the 20s is complemented by photographs of A. Rodchenko.

The exhibition activities of the Gallery are becoming more and more diverse and interesting. Every year, exhibitions are organized that arouse great public interest, including the exhibitions “Revived Treasures of Russia” (1995), “To the 150th Anniversary of I.E. Tsvetkov” (1995), “Treasures of Museums of the Moscow Region” (1996), “ Unforgettable Russia. Russia and Russians through the eyes of British artists. XVIII - first half of the XIX century" (1997), "M. Larionov - N. Goncharova. Masterpieces from the Parisian heritage. Painting" (1999), "K.P. Bryullov. To the 200th anniversary of his birth" (2000), "Western European art of the 16th-18th centuries from the collection of the Tula Museum of Fine Arts" (2000), "Let's return the museum to Grozny" (2002), works by N.N. Sapunov (2003) , “Prophet and dreamer. M.A.Vrubel, V.E.Borisov-Musatov. Graphics" (2005).

Works from the Gallery's collection are regularly exhibited at both international and domestic exhibitions in different cities.

Since the mid-1990s, the Tretyakov Gallery has been conducting serious research work to prepare and publish a consolidated catalog of the collection. This is a scientific and most complete multi-volume publication representing the entire collection of the Gallery.

The Tretyakov Gallery carries out extensive publishing and popularization work: books, albums, and other printed materials are published. In 2004, an innovative department of multimedia and Internet projects was created, working to create a modern website for the Tretyakov Gallery and publish electronic catalogs of exhibitions.

The Tretyakov Gallery's collection now includes more than 170 thousand works.

Conclusion

Turning to the situation in modern Russia, it is difficult to imagine a person who could do something like create a gallery. And the point is not even that this, as many will say, is “not really necessary,” but that now is simply a different time, different problems, different tasks that need to be solved. Although this statement is not indisputable.

In terms of cultural heritage, scientific and technological progress every day reveals to us more and more new forms and results of human activity in the field of culture and art. And we, in our time, need to take care of them, preserve and increase them, at the same time not forgetting about the past, in order to leave to our descendants our vision of the world, our life, as did a truly great man - Pavel Mikhailovich Tretyakov.

Bibliography

1. Botkina, A.P. Pavel Mikhailovich Tretyakov / A.P. Botkin - M: State Tretyakov Gallery, 1951. - 310 p.

2. [Electronic resource] - Access mode: http://www.tretyakovgallery.ru/ - Access date: 10/30/2015

3. [Electronic resource] - Access mode: https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_Tretyakov_Gallery - Access date: 10/29/2015.

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The State Tretyakov Gallery, the national gallery of Russian painting, is an art museum of world significance. The very formation of the Gallery was at the same time the process of the formation of Russian national art, moreover, Russian national self-awareness. The very fact of the existence of this amazing gallery turned out to be a powerful incentive for artists, contributing to the creation of works addressed to the people, imbued with the truth of life and a sense of beauty.

In 1918 V.I. Lenin, signing the decree on the nationalization of the Gallery, gave it the name of the State Tretyakov Gallery, thereby appreciating the merit of the founder of the Gallery, Pavel Mikhailovich Tretyakov.

The year of foundation of the Tretyakov Gallery is considered to be 1856. It was then that Pavel Mikhailovich acquired the first two paintings by Russian artists: “Temptation” by N.G. Schilder and “Clash with Finnish Smugglers” by V.G. Khudyakova. Earlier in 1854 - 1855 P.M. Tretyakov bought 11 graphic sheets and 9 paintings by old Dutch masters. These paintings decorated the rooms in Tolmachi. When Pavel Mikhailovich began collecting paintings by Russian artists, he first hung them in his office. Over time, when it became crowded, the paintings were hung in the dining room, then in the living room. He sent the old Dutchmen to Ilyinsky Lane, where his mother had lived since 1865. When the first gallery was built and the paintings from the living rooms were hung in a new place, the Dutch returned to the empty walls and remained there until the end of Pavel Mikhailovich’s life. It is difficult to say whether all these paintings were originals. Subsequently, Pavel Mikhailovich said that, having bought them, he immediately realized that he had too little knowledge and experience to risk buying unmistakably works by old Western masters, and decided to purchase only paintings by Russian artists from exhibitions or from the authors themselves. In 1853, a description of the Pryanishnikov Gallery appeared. Pavel Mikhailovich could not help but become interested in this meeting and, of course, having seen it, he could not help but be carried away by the desire to follow Pryanishnikov’s example. But Pryanishnikov collected works by his contemporaries, our oldest and best masters. Young Pavel Mikhailovich was unable to do this at that time, and he began collecting from his contemporaries.

Pavel Mikhailovich calls Schilder’s “Temptation” the beginning of his collection, the first painting by Russian artists. He lists this acquisition in the catalog as 1856. Based on Schilder's letter, a different date can be established (July 1858). This difference in dates can be explained by assuming that the painting was just begun or even in sketch when Pavel Mikhailovich saw it for the first time, and that it was completed by the artist for Pavel Mikhailovich. Apparently, Pavel Mikhailovich noted the name of the artist Schilder, since this was the first artist to whom he made an order.

According to documentary data, Pavel Mikhailovich’s first purchase was Khudyakov’s painting “Finnish Smugglers.” The painting was painted in 1853, and he bought it in 1856, after visiting Khudyakov’s studio in St. Petersburg. During his stay in St. Petersburg in 1856, Pavel Tretyakov ordered paintings from several artists: N.G. Schilder, N.E. Sverchkov, I.I. Sokolov, A.S. Bogomolov-Romanovich, A.G. Goravsky.

In the spring of 1856, Pavel Mikhailovich met Khudyakov and the Goravsky brothers, Apollinaris and Ippolit, in St. Petersburg. Since 1857, several artists have been visiting the Tretyakovs; they become close and enthusiastic friends of the whole family. The Muscovites were Nevrev, Trutnev, who after some time moved to St. Petersburg, and Khudyakov, who settled in Moscow after traveling abroad. Among the visitors were the Goravskys, K.A. Trutovsky, L.F. Lagorio.

At the end of the 1850s, the paintings “Cherry Picking” by I.I. appeared in his collection. Sokolova, “The Peddler” by V.I. Jacobi, “View in the vicinity of Oranienbaum” A.K. Savrasova, “The Sick Musician” by M.P. Klodt. Probably, even then Tretyakov planned to create a museum where the national Russian school of painting would be presented.

Pavel Mikhailovich began purchasing from Trutovsky in 1859. Tretyakov gets the famous “Round Dance,” one of Trutovsky’s best works. On the acquisition of “The Dying Musician” by M.P. Nothing was found in Klodt's letters. The painting was painted in 1859 and was probably purchased at the same time.

In the 1860s, Tretyakov acquired the paintings “The Prisoners’ Halt” by V.I. Jacobi, “The Last Spring” by M.P. Klodt, “Grandma’s Dreams” by V.M. Maksimov and others. Pavel Mikhailovich highly appreciated the work of V.G. Perov, to whom he wrote in October 1860: “Take care of yourself for the service of art and for your friends.” In the 1860s, such works by Perov as “Rural Procession at Easter”, “Troika” and “Amateur” were acquired; Subsequently, Tretyakov continued to acquire paintings by Perov, commissioned portraits from him, and actively participated in organizing a posthumous exhibition of the artist’s works.

In 1862, Bogolyubov sent Pavel Mikhailovich the “Ipatiev Monastery”.

At the same time, Perov’s “Rural Procession at Easter” and Pukirev’s “Unequal Marriage” came to Pavel Mikhailovich Tretyakov.

In 1864, the first painting based on the plot of Russian history appeared in the collection - “Princess Tarakanova” by K.D. Flavitsky. At the end of the 1860s, Pavel Mikhailovich orders F.A. Bronnikov’s work, which later became Vera Nikolaevna Tretyakova’s favorite painting, is “The Pythagoreans’ Hymn to the Rising Sun.”

P.M. Tretyakov loved nature and subtly understood it, so the acquisition of landscapes was always not accidental. In the 1860s, paintings by L.F. appeared in his collection. Lagorio, A.P. Bogolyubova, M.K. Klodt, I.I. Shishkina. Ordering A.G. Goravsky execution of the landscape, P.M. Tretyakov wrote: “I don’t need rich nature, no magnificent composition, no spectacular lighting, no miracles, give me even a dirty puddle, but so that there is truth in it, poetry, and there can be poetry in everything, this is the work of the artist.”

The portrait gallery occupied a special place in Tretyakov’s collection. In the 1860s, a portrait of the Italian archaeologist M.A. was acquired in Italy. Lunches by K.P. Bryullov, a little later portraits of architects A.M. Gornostaeva, I.A. Monighetti, poet V.A. Zhukovsky and others, also by Bryullov. In the same years, a portrait of V.A. was received. Dental work by V.A. Tropinina. Pavel Mikhailovich's idea of ​​collecting portraits of outstanding people in the field of art and science developed especially strongly from 1869 to 1870. Before this, portraits were acquired, for the most part, as works of great artists that interested him. Now Pavel Mikhailovich Tretyakov decided to create a portrait gallery of outstanding figures of Russian culture - composers, writers, artists. He began not only to buy already created works, but also to order portraits. So, V.G. Perov, at the request of P.M. Tretyakov, painted portraits of A.N. Ostrovsky, F.M. Dostoevsky, A.N. Maykova, M.P. Pogodina, V.I. Dalia, I.S. Turgenev; I.N. Kramskoy - portraits of L.N. Tolstoy, M.E. Saltykova-Shchedrina, S.T. Aksakov and N.A. Nekrasova.

In 1870, Pavel Mikhailovich was lucky enough to receive a portrait of Gogol, painted from life by F.A. Moller. In the same year, Perov painted a portrait of N.G. for Tretyakov. Rubinstein and in 1871 - A.N. Ostrovsky; Kramskoy wrote Shevchenko, Vasiliev, Antokolsky and M.K. Klodt.

In 1872, Pavel Mikhailovich received a whole series of portraits of writers painted by Perov: Dostoevsky, Maikov, Turgenev, Dal, Pogodin.

In portraits of Turgenev, Pavel Mikhailovich sought a similarity, one that would convey Turgenev as he himself saw and understood him. He met him, was familiar with him, and not a single portrait completely satisfied him. He wanted Turgenev to be written by Gun, who lived in Paris at the same time as the writer, but this did not happen - Gun did not dare to write him. Turgenev was painted by Perov after all, although Pavel Mikhailovich did not want to have so many portraits by one brush.

Orders for portraits were often associated with great unrest for Pavel Mikhailovich: either the portraits did not work out, or the originals did not agree to pose, or even worse - people got sick and died.

In 1869, Tretyakov asked A.A. Fet to petition L.N. Tolstoy agreed to pose. On October 25, Afanasy Afanasievich informed Pavel Mikhailovich that Tolstoy positively and definitely refused. Four years have passed. Pavel Mikhailovich finds out that I.N. Kramskoy lives five miles from Tolstoy’s estate, in the estate where he is going to paint the painting “Inspection of an Old House.” Pavel Tretyakov asks Kramskoy to use all efforts to obtain Lev Nikolaevich’s consent. And in a letter dated September 5, Kramskoy writes to Pavel Mikhailovich about the consent of Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy.

Pavel Mikhailovich highly appreciated the talent of I.N. Kramskoy, with whom he became especially close in 1876. At this time, the artist lived with Tretyakov in a house on Lavrushinsky Lane, where he painted a portrait of Vera Nikolaevna Tretyakova. Taking advantage of the illness and forced inaction of the always busy Tretyakov, the artist began to paint his portrait. Since then, family friendship began. The rapprochement was facilitated by common artistic views and a conviction in the social, civic mission of art. At this time, Tretyakov became a sincere supporter of the newly established Association of Traveling Art Exhibitions (TPHV). Pavel Mikhailovich attends all exhibitions of the TPHV, provides material and moral support to the Peredvizhniki artists. From now on, most of the paintings for the gallery are bought at TPHV exhibitions or even before them, directly from the artists’ studios. In the 1870s, paintings “Christ in the Desert” by I.N. appeared in the Tretyakov collection. Kramskoy, “Pine Forest” by I.I. Shishkina, “Wet Meadow” by F.A. Vasilyeva, “The Rooks Have Arrived” by A.K. Savrasov, “Peter I interrogates Tsarevich Alexei Petrovich” N.N. Ge and others.

After Dostoevsky’s advice, conveyed by Perov, that there should be a portrait of Tyutchev, Pavel Mikhailovich probably had this in mind, especially since he himself valued Tyutchev very highly. In 1873, Pavel Mikhailovich was in a hurry. There was a rumor about Tyutchev's illness. Repin did not have time to paint a portrait of Fyodor Ivanovich. Tyutchev for Pavel Mikhailovich was made in 1876 by Aleksandrovsky from a photograph.

At the second Traveling Exhibition, Tretyakov purchased the painting “The Mouth of the Neva” by Bogolyubov, for which he thanked Kramskoy for pointing out. Perov's works belonging to him were also exhibited there - portraits of Turgenev, Dahl, Pogodin, Dostoevsky and Maykov; Myasoedov - “Zemstvo is having lunch”, Klodt - “On the arable land”, “Stream in the forest” and “Noon” - Shishkin.

The name of Vereshchagin first sounded loudly in 1868, when he, having gone as an artist during the expedition of General Kaufman, distinguished himself and received George. In 1869, Kaufman returned to St. Petersburg, and on the initiative of Vereshchagin, a nationwide exhibition was organized with zoological and mineralogical collections, with paintings and sketches by Vereshchagin. Although there are no traces of Pavel Mikhailovich visiting this exhibition, one must think that he did not miss it. But there were no items purchased on it.

In the autumn of 1872, Pavel Mikhailovich visited Vereshchagin's workshop in Munich, from which he came out an ardent admirer of his talent.

In the spring of 1874, Vereshchagin organized an exhibition of his works completed after the Turkestan campaign and travel through Central Asia. From the very beginning, Pavel Mikhailovich wanted to acquire the entire collection without fragmentation, place it in Moscow, in a separate gallery, conveniently arrange it (with overhead lighting) on ​​a large street and constantly open to the public. Having overcome various obstacles, Tretyakov bought the paintings for a very high price - 92,000 rubles in order to donate everything to the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture, but the school council rejected the gift due to the lack of premises and funds for its construction. Pavel Mikhailovich decided to transfer the collection to the Moscow Society of Art Lovers on the condition that it be open for inspection. The society had to find funds for this within three years, which was not possible, and Vereshchagin’s Turkestan series returned to Tretyakov, who by that time had a collection of the artist’s sketches executed in India.

Pavel Mikhailovich placed the purchased paintings in his house on Lavrushinsky Lane. There wasn't enough space. In 1872, construction began on the first two museum halls proper; they were ready in 1874. The halls communicated with the living quarters. The construction work was supervised by the husband of one of Tretyakov’s sisters, architect A.S. Kaminsky. Turkestan series V.V. Vereshchagin made me think about a new perestroika. In 1882, after her return to the gallery, 6 new rooms were added. In the 1880s, the Tretyakov collection expanded significantly.

Paintings by V.I. were purchased. Surikov “The Morning of the Streltsy Execution”, “Menshikov in Berezovo”, “Boyaryna Morozova”; works by I.E. Repin “Religious Procession in the Kursk Province”, “They Didn’t Expect”, “Tsar Ivan the Terrible and His Son Ivan”; works by V.M. Vasnetsov “After the massacre of Igor Svyatoslavovich with the Polovtsy”, I.I. Shishkina “Morning in a pine forest”, I.N. Kramskoy “Inconsolable Grief”, N.A. Yaroshenko “Life Everywhere” and others. Paintings by V.D. appear in the gallery. Polenova, I.I. Levitan, A.M. Vasnetsova, I.S. Ostroukhova. In 1885, 7 more halls were added to the house in Lavrushinsky. By this time, Pavel Mikhailovich, when choosing works, was already completely relying on his own taste, despite the objections and sometimes the indignation of famous artists. In 1888 he buys a painting by V.A. Serov's "Girl Illuminated by the Sun", which was received ambiguously by the public. In the late 1880s and early 1890s, the gallery also received paintings by the young M.V., unappreciated by some experts. Nesterov “The Hermit” and “Vision to the Youth Bartholomew”, as well as “After the Rain. Ples" I.I. Levitan. Once again the exhibition space had to be expanded, and in 1892 another 6 halls were added.

1892 was a significant year for the gallery; this year Pavel Mikhailovich Tretyakov donated it to the city of Moscow.

In the list of famous art museums in the world State Tretyakov Gallery occupies one of the highest places. Today, its collection includes more than 180 thousand exhibits, including paintings, sculpture and jewelry. The exhibited masterpieces were created during the historical period dating from the 11th to the 20th centuries. The building housing the main collection was built in 1906, and today is included in the register of cultural heritage sites of the Russian Federation.

More than one and a half million people visit the museum every year.

History of the gallery's creation

May 22, 1856 philanthropist and successful industrialist Pavel Tretyakov I bought a painting by Vasily Khudyakov “Skirmish with Finnish Smugglers.” This day is considered the founding date of the museum, which Tretyakov and his brother planned to create a long time ago. He dreamed of presenting to people the works of Russian artists. Soon the collection was replenished with paintings “The Procession at Easter” by V. Perov, “Peter I interrogating Tsarevich Alexei Petrovich in Peterhof” by N. Ge and many others. The collection grew and multiplied, and Tretyakov decided to show the paintings to viewers. In 1867, he opened the first gallery on his own estate in Lavrushinsky Lane. At that time, the collection included 1,276 paintings, almost five hundred drawings, a small collection of sculpture and several dozen works by foreign artists.

Tretyakov supported many little-known artists and, thanks to his patronage, Vasnetsov and Makovsky became famous. By purchasing paintings that were objectionable to the authorities, the founder of the gallery inspired painters to have freedom of thought and courage in dealing with censors.

The Tretyakov Gallery became a national museum at the end of the 19th century, and from that moment on, anyone could visit it absolutely free of charge. In 1892, after the death of his brother, Pavel Tretyakov donated the collection to the city. This is how an art gallery appears in Moscow, which over time becomes one of the largest collections of works of art on the planet.

When the Tretyakovs first began collecting paintings, their collection was housed in the rooms of the mansion where the brothers lived. But in 1860 they decided to build a separate building to store the collection, which by that time had grown into a substantial art collection. The two-story extension to the Tretyakov mansion received a separate entrance for visitors, and the paintings received two spacious halls.

New paintings continued to arrive, and the gallery was expanded and completed. After the death of the owners, the mansion was reconstructed, and at the beginning of the twentieth century it was combined with the halls of the gallery. The facade in the form of an ancient mansion was designed by the artist Vasnetsov.

Tretyakov Golden Fund

You will see the oldest exhibits of the museum in the collection of icon paintings of the 12th-17th centuries. For example, image of the Vladimir Icon of the Mother of God, brought at the beginning of the 12th century from Constantinople. After the persecution of the Russian Orthodox Church during the formation of Soviet power, the icon ended up in a museum.

Rublevskaya "Trinity"- another world-famous masterpiece of Russian icon painting. The author created it in memory of Sergei of Radonezh in the first third of the 15th century.

Master Dionysius is an equally famous icon painter, and his work “Metropolitan Alexei,” written at the end of the 15th century, is also on the list of the most valuable exhibits in the Tretyakov collection.

At the beginning of the 12th century, unknown craftsmen of the St. Michael's Golden-Domed Monastery made mosaic depicting St. Demetrius of Thessalonica. They used matte colored stones and gold smalt in their work. The work is exhibited in the department of Russian icon painting.

Among the many paintings of the State Tretyakov Gallery, the most famous paintings usually receive special attention from visitors.

The 18th century is represented by works Dmitry Levitsky, Vladimir Borovikovsky and Fyodor Rokotov. The most famous works of this era are portraits of Gabriel Golovkin, a former associate of Peter I, and Empress Elizabeth Petrovna. The first was painted by Ivan Nikitin, and the queen was drawn by Georg Groot.

The 19th century that followed gave the world new artists, especially widely represented in the museum:

Outstanding Masterpiece I. Kramskoy “Stranger” depicts a young woman riding in an open carriage along Nevsky Prospekt. Neither the artist’s letters nor his diaries contain even a hint of the model’s identity, and her name remains a mystery for all time.

- “Princess Tarakanova” by Konstantin Flavitsky depicts the death of an adventuress who pretended to be the daughter of Empress Elizaveta Petrovna and Pugachev’s sister. After exposure, the woman was thrown into the casemates of the Peter and Paul Fortress, where, as legend has it, she died from the flood. The painting was painted by Flavitsky in 1864. The critic Stasov called it “the most brilliant creation of Russian painting.”

Another amazingly beautiful female portrait exhibited at the Tretyakov Gallery - "Girl with Peaches". The painting depicts the daughter of Savva Mamontov, but attracts viewers to the canvas V. Serova completely different. The work is permeated with amazing light and filled with freshness that does not disappear over time.

The work is called a textbook landscape A. Savrasova “The rooks have arrived”. Critics consider the painting an important stage in the development of landscape painting in Russia. Despite the simplicity of the plot, the picture seems especially close to the heart of any Russian person.

- "Moonlit Night on Capri" depicts a seascape of the Gulf of Naples. Its author is a famous Russian marine painter I. Aivazovsky, painter of the Main Naval Staff and author of amazing works dedicated to the sea.

There is an opinion that "Hunters at Rest" were written V. Perov based on the stories of I. Turgenev. The plot composition presented by the author to the viewer depicts three landowners stopping to rest after a successful hunt. Perov managed to portray the characters and their surroundings so vividly that the viewer becomes an involuntary participant in the hunters’ conversation.

- “Unequal marriage” by V. Pukirev, as his contemporaries claimed, was written by the artist at a time of his own torment: Pukirev’s beloved girl was given in an arranged marriage. The picture was made with great love, and the moods of the characters are conveyed masterfully. You can also see the artist’s self-portrait on the canvas - he stands behind the bride, arms crossed over his chest.

Three more famous paintings of the 19th century. The Tretyakov Gallery invariably attracts enthusiastic spectators:

Painting “Ivan the Terrible and his son Ivan November 16, 1581” by Ilya Repin better known to the public under the title “Ivan the Terrible Kills His Son.” The artist depicts the moment that occurred a couple of seconds after the fatal blow that the Tsar dealt to Tsarevich Ivan. The tyrant, distraught with grief, and the failed heir, who accepts his fate with meekness, are depicted so skillfully that the picture still evokes the brightest feelings and emotions in viewers.

- “The Appearance of Christ to the People” A. Ivanov I wrote for about 20 years. During his work, he created several hundred sketches and called the plot of his canvas “worldwide.” Ivanov believed that he was depicting a moment in time that played a decisive role in the fate of all humanity. The huge canvas is exhibited in a separate room, built for it in the 30s of the last century.

- “Bogatyrs” by Vasnetsov depict three heroes of Russian epics on powerful horses in military armor. They inspect the surroundings and with all their appearance demonstrate their readiness to defend the Russian land from enemies. According to the author, he sought to “denote the continuity of the heroic past of the Russian people with its great future.”

The 20th century is represented by works by Petrov-Vodkin, Benois, Krymov, Chagall, Konchalovsky, Korovin, as well as sculptures by Vera Mukhina. Authors of the Soviet period, whose paintings were honored to take their place on the walls of the Tretyakov Gallery - Isaac Brodsky, the Kukryniksy team, Tatyana Yablonskaya, Evgeniy Vuchetich and many others.

Branches of the Tretyakov Gallery

The main building of the gallery is located at: Lavrushinsky lane, 10. It represents the permanent exhibition of the museum and periodically introduces visitors to temporary exhibitions. Recently, the Engineering Building was added to the main building, where collections of regional museums are presented to residents and guests of the capital. In addition, the Tretyakov Gallery has several branches:

- New Tretyakov Gallery on Krymsky Val was built near the place where P. Tretyakov, who founded the museum, was born. The branch displays works in a modern style, written in the 20th-11th centuries.

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 the present day. 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 painted 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 donated 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 a talented artist, architect and art historian, but also an organizer. It was he who carried out the colossal work of systematizing the collection. He distributed the paintings by historical periods so that visitors had the opportunity to trace the 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 - the Vladimir 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, works by the best masters of Russia and beyond are exhibited in chronological order. 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 for the largest number of 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 immerse yourself in the magical world of realistic art, where every detail is made 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.

The section reflecting painting at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries presents works by such geniuses as Serov, Vrubel, as well as representatives of the Union of Russian Artists.

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 made of precious metals and gems are exhibited. 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.

The State Tretyakov Gallery, Tretyakov Gallery (also known as the Tretyakov Gallery) is an art museum in Moscow, founded in 1856 by merchant Pavel Tretyakov and has one of the world's largest collections of Russian fine art. 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 donated his art gallery 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 received the name 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, the 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, the State Art Gallery, located on Krymsky Val, 10, was merged 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 the Exhibition Hall in Tolmachi intended for temporary exhibitions.

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 - 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 of a women’s costume of the 1880s years, claiming 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 of vital energy. She only stopped for a moment, turning her beautiful bright face towards the viewer. 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 growth - 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 the 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, a famous singer and muse of the artist, 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. Mikhail Alexandrovich’s source of inspiration was also the Russian 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, the world of 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 a pine forest, 1889.

The film is popular due to its entertaining plot. However, the true value of the work is the 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 the 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 recreate in memory the artist’s full-scale sketch made of an orphan peasant girl in the year the picture 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 the famous researcher of Russian folk tales 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, a famous critic of the 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 presented at the academic exhibition in 1863; its general idea, strong expression, unusual size for an everyday subject and masterful execution 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 film is the unequal marriage of a 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 are used to calling it “white,” but for the keen eye of a 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. The author managed to impart emotional richness to an unpretentious, everyday motif, drawn from village life, and charm the viewer with the immediacy 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 best picture in our school in recent times,” he wrote.

Presented at 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 some 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 to, perhaps, the most tragic pages of 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 of 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 painting by 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 on the left and right sides. 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 painting remained in Sweden for a long time.

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 its properties of indicating the objective world, but acquires a 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.

Black Square is the most famous work of 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 art critic at that time, founder of the World of Art association, Alexandre 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. Moreover, it was hung in the “red corner”, as at the “0.10” exhibition.

Currently, there are four “Black Squares” in Russia: 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 “Battle of Negroes in a Deep Cave on a Dark Night,” was already exhibited.

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.