Description of the attraction
The Cherepovets Museum Association includes the famous Vereshchagin House Museum, which has a fairly ancient history. Back in the 1920s, the workers of the Cherepovets Museum submitted a petition to the Glavnauk for the registration of the Vereshchagins' previously existing estate, which is inextricably linked with significant names in the historical development of Russia: an artist and a cooperator.
Vereshchagin Vasily Vasilyevich was a very famous artist who was born in the house where the museum is now located. The future artist received a military education and took part in many hostilities. A person with a fine mental organization could not be indifferent to everything he saw. By nature, Vasily Vereshchagin was a documentary artist, whose talent manifested itself on the "scenes" of military operations. The artist saw his own vocation in becoming a real historian of our time and telling people the whole truth about the real image of war, arousing human hatred towards it. It is worth noting that the real glory of Vereshchagin was brought by works of a battle orientation. Among the numerous works of the master, a large number of successful porters and wonderful landscapes can be noted. Vasily Vasilyevich himself defined himself not as a battle painter, but as a critical realist.
Already in the early 1930s, the work of the local museum began, concerning the collection of items that were associated with the Vereshchagin family. The work was intensified also because the estate called Pertovka, located in the Myaksinsky district of the Cherepovets district, had exceptional paintings, drawings, family portraits, some part of the library and many other things of the Vereshchagin family. It is worth considering that all these things were of great museum value, but, unfortunately, they all ended up in the territorial zone, which was flooded by the Rybinsk reservoir.
For the centenary of Vereshchagin, a memorial corner was opened in the premises of the local history museum. In 1957, the art department was opened, and part of the area was taken over by an exhibition dedicated to Vereshchagin.
The management of the museum in 1937 raised the question of the organizational component of the Vereshchagin museum. The People's Commissariat of Education decided to move the Vereshchagins' house from the flooded territory outside the city limits. There was an assumption that the transferred house would already be restored on the territory of the museum, creating a museum named after Vereshchagin. According to the old residents, the Perth house was dismantled and transported to the city with the help of rafts. Since this event took place shortly before the start of the war, they forgot about the dismantled estate.
The Vereshchagin estate is a beautiful wooden house that can be easily found among the nearby high-rise buildings. The mansion was built in the 30s of the 19th century; for almost 50 years, the house was in the possession of the leader of the nobility - Vasily Vereshchagin.
The 1980s saw a turning point in the historical development of the manor house. According to the architectural plan, where the modern museum is now located, multi-storey buildings should have been located, but a large public actively stood up for the historical past. The residents of Cherepovets won, and in 1984 the long-awaited opening of the Vereshchagin House-Museum took place. In order to restore the interior, it was necessary to recreate the documents of 1902, as well as the memoirs of Vasily Vasilyevich himself, which were published in an autobiographical book called Childhood and Adolescence. Among the most valuable family items are a chair, which was made of elk - an important trophy for hunting, upholstered furniture, embroidered by the mother's hands, books, a sofa, a mirror, a sideboard, a gun, wardrobes and much more. A museum complex was opened in 1992 from the memorial house, as well as the adjacent building made of stone. In the Vereshchagin family mansion, all visitors can get acquainted with the life foundations of society of the 19th century, and the exposition of the nearby house is dedicated to the whole life and work of the famous artist Vasily Vereshchagin.
