Description of the attraction
The museum complex "Chambers" is located in the building of the Public Places, which was built in 1785-1790 (the author of the project is the architect Blank) in the classical style. It is located in the center of the city, in the depths of an old park with alleys and a fountain, between ancient cathedrals. The building was intended for the needs of the provincial administration, it remained bureaucratic until the 1990s.
The building of the museum complex houses the Art Gallery, the Children's Museum Center and an exposition dedicated to the manor culture of Vladimir.
"The charm of bygone days …" - with these lines V. A. Zhukovsky is called an exposition about the Vladimir noble estate. It is located on the second floor of the museum. The exposition is permeated with a sense of poetic sadness, it is made in the form of a memory of an elderly lady who is sitting by the fireplace. Above it is a painting by the artist V. Maksimov with the appropriate title “Everything in the Past”.
A house with cannons at the gates and white columns, an openwork fence, granite steps, garden alleys - all this reminds of the former beauty of a noble estate. And here is a corner of the garden, a gazebo, a young lady next to a rocking chair, a blossoming apple tree, a canary in a cage. Faces in powdered wigs are staring at us from the walls. This is a famous portrait gallery in the village of Andreevskoye of the Counts Vorontsovs. Andreevskoe was an example of an 18th century estate, with Meissen porcelain, Baroque furniture, embroidered camisoles.
Here you can also see a living room traditional for a noble rural house: a table set for dinner, a French tapestry on the wall, a striped sofa, a violin and a mandolin for children's music. The artistic solution of this exposition is quite delicate, but at the same time expressive, the effect of mirrors and mannequins is used here, a complex historical theme here is easily clothed in a fascinating art form.
The Children's Museum Center is located on the ground floor of the museum complex. The first surprise that meets the kids at the entrance is the furry Mikhailo Potapych. Amusing Baba Yaga is next to him. The smallest visitors to the museum will find the Toy Land, which presents toys from rattles, whistles, clay figurines found during archaeological excavations and traditional Dymkovo, Gorodetsky, Polhovo-Maidanovsky toys to aristocratic porcelain dolls of the early 20th century.
Together with the toy, you can make not only a trip in time, but also around the planet: here is France with its Eiffel Tower painted on the vaults and walls of the hall, Lapland with its Santa Claus, amazing Japan with cherry blossoms and pagodas. And everywhere - toys traditional for this or that country. Here you can "ride" on the high-speed highway from Germany or look into the little kingdom of Barbie.
The museum also houses the Art Gallery. Its collection began to form back in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, when members of the Provincial Archival Scientific Commission launched an active collection and study of artistic and historical materials. Among the gallery's works, the paintings of the Italian S. Tonchi, the rich collection of popular prints by I. Golyshev, and the family portraits of the Akinfov family deserve special attention.
The collection of the gallery was greatly replenished after 1917 due to the received during the nationalization of art objects from Andreevskoe - the estate of the Vorontsov-Dashkovs, Muromtsevo - V. S. Khrapovitsky, Fetinino - Leontyevs, etc. The greatest value in the Art Gallery is represented by the works of such outstanding masters as V. Tropinin, A. Savrasov, V. Makovsky, the Vasnetsov brothers, V. Serov and others.
In the 1980s, the museum's collection was replenished with paintings by famous Russian artists through acquisitions from Moscow and Leningrad art salons and private collections. The collection was also enriched after the research and technological expertise of the Vorontsov portrait gallery.
The Vorontsovs' portrait gallery is represented by family portraits by A. Antropov, D. Levitsky, F. Rokotov, A. Roslin. Genre portraits of V. Tropinin, works of A. Venetsianov's students are widely represented here. Here you can also see landscapes by I. Aivazovsky, L. Lagorio, A. Bogolyubov.
There are not so many paintings by Itinerant artists, who largely determined the further development of Russian art. In the portraits of I. Kramskoy, A. Korzukhin, V. Perov, V. Makovsky, new discoveries of this genre appeared, which attain special psychological expressiveness here.
The true decoration of the collection is the landscape "Spring Day" by A. Savrasov. Along with the lyrics of Savrasov's motives in the landscape art of the 19th century, there was also an epic beginning, which is embodied in the work of I. Shishkin, and is also presented in the Art Gallery of the museum complex.
The collection of the museum vividly presents the realistic school. Here you can see paintings by A. Vasnetsov, L. Turzhansky, P. Petrovichev, S. Zhukovsky and others. The exposition of works of Russian art of the 18th - early 20th centuries allows the visitor to the gallery to fully experience the power of artistic traditions prevailing in a particular historical period …
The main stages in the development of art after October 1917 are presented in the exhibition “Contemporary Art. XX century . Among the paintings of this time, the museum presents works by V. Kostyanitsyn, K. Redko, V. Lebedev, E. Lansere, L. Turzhansky, K. Korovin, P. Konchalovsky, K. Yuon, P. Kuznetsov, V. Meshkov, R. Falk …
The gallery did not ignore the period of the Great Patriotic War and the modern stage of the development of fine arts. The paintings by P. Krivonogov, B. Karpov, E. Zubekhin created during the war years are distinguished by their authenticity and strong emotional impact on the viewer.
The works of the last few decades reflect all the diversity of the artistic process; the Vladimir school of landscape has become an integral part of it. Which is represented by the works of K. Britov, V. Kokurin, V. Yukin, N. Mokrov, N. Modorov.
