Description of the attraction
Museum-apartment of A. I. Kuindzhi is located in St. Petersburg, in Birzhev lane, in a house often called the House of Artists, since many famous Russian painters lived in it at different times: I. N. Kramskoy, M. P. Klodt, A. I. Korzukhin, A. K. Beggrov, N. A. Bruni, I. I. Shishkin, brothers G. G. and N. G. Chernetsov, G. G. Myasoedov; scientists N. E. Vvedensky, V. I. Vernadsky and others. It is a branch of the Museum of the Russian Academy of Arts, as well as the museum-apartments of P. P. Chistyakova, I. E. Repin, I. A. Brodsky.
Museum-apartment of A. I. Kuindzhi is a memorial museum, which completely recreates the environment that surrounded the talented artist for many years, who became famous for his magnificent picturesque landscapes.
Arkhip Ivanovich Kuindzhi (1842-1910) is one of the best Russian landscape painters. A lot connected him with St. Petersburg. It was here that he experienced his first success, became famous, here he met his future wife. Kuindzhi spent all his "Petersburg" years on Vasilievsky Island.
Having changed a large number of apartments, the young couple chose a house in Birzheviy Lane. The apartment, located on the top floor, attracted the artist's attention, first of all, by its extensive attic-workshop. From here a beautiful view of St. Petersburg, the Petrogradskaya side and the Spit of Vasilievsky Island opened up. The workshop was very comfortable to work with. Here in the evenings his students came to Arkhip Ivanovich, with whom he talked, passed on their experience to them. N. Roerich, K. Bogaevsky and A. Rylov are distinguished among especially famous students. Also interesting in their own way are J. Brovar, A. Borisov, K. Wroblevsky, P. Wagner, G. Kalmykov, V. Zarubin, A. Kandaurov, A. Kurbatov, P. Krause, V. Purvit, M. Latri, E Capital, F. Ruschitz, A. Chumakov, N. Himona.
In this apartment A. I. Kuindzhi lived for 13 years. Here he died in 1910. After the death of the master, his student N. Roerich proposed to create a museum in the historical workshop. But this idea was implemented only on the 150th anniversary of the birth of Kuindzhi.
Currently, in the museum, visitors can visit the study, dining room, living room and workshop, restored in the 1980s. You can get into it from the apartment by going up the stairs.
The artist's workshop is represented by an exposition dedicated to his teaching activities at the Academy of Arts, where from 1894 to 1897 he was a professor of landscape painting. Here you can see a large number of works by the master's students, both of a very young period and a more mature period. In addition to the permanent exhibition, the workshop also hosts temporary exhibitions.
Kuindzhi left a very noticeable mark in the history of the Academy of Arts. Regular Spring Exhibitions were held with his donations, at which young painters were awarded prizes for the most successful work. In 1909, on the initiative of the artist and at his expense, a community of painters appeared, which was named the A. I. Kuindzhi. The center of government of this creative union was Kuindzhi's students. The artist bequeathed to the "Society" an impressive amount of land on the coast of Crimea and all the works left after his death. The society worked until 1929, and after that it was closed, and its entire collection of paintings ended up in the Russian Museum.
The house itself, in which the Kuindzhi museum-apartment is located, is the same age as its famous talented tenant. The building was designed by A. Pelya in 1842 for the merchant Menyaev. Later the house was bought by the Eliseev family. In 1870 it was reconstructed according to the project of L. Sperer. In 1879, the fourth floor appeared, and 8 years later, the same huge attic workshop was built over the fourth floor.
