Description of the attraction
Foreign art is presented in Moscow at the State Museum of Fine Arts. A. S. Pushkin. Founded in 1912 the museum has at least 700 thousand items of storage today … Among the exhibits of the Pushkin Museum are archaeological finds, works by artists from around the world, a collection of ancient Egyptian and Roman rarities. The museum is in the register of especially valuable objects of cultural heritage of the peoples of the Russian Federation.
History of the Museum. Pushkin
The founder of the Moscow Museum of Foreign Art is the father of the Russian poet Marina Tsvetaeva. In 1894 g. Ivan Tsvetaev made a proposal to create an educational museum at the First Congress of Russian Artists. The exhibition was supposed to help present all stages of the development of world art: from the Ancient World through the Middle Ages to the times of the Renaissance.
Tsvetaev showed the layout of the future building to the Emperor Nicholas II, who immediately allocated 200 thousand rubles for the implementation of the project. Soon other investors joined in: the Yusupov princes, the merchant Alekseeva, the industrialist Nechaev and the architect Fyodor Shekhtel. Soon the foundation stone of the building was laid, and His Imperial Highness took over the patronage of the future museum. Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich.
It was decided to place the exposition of the museum in a mansion specially built for this purpose. In 1896 a competition was announced, the victory in which was won by Roman Klein and Ivan Rerberg … But after eight years, the main building was badly damaged in a fire. It was restored by 1912.
After the completion of all the work, the mansion was a neoclassical structure, similar to an ancient temple. The façade was accentuated by Ionic columns, and the glass vaults on the ceiling allowed the exhibits to look particularly advantageous in natural light. The interiors were decorated with murals and panels made by a group of artists led by I. Nivinsky … The artists provided invaluable assistance in the design of the exposition. Korovin, Grabar and Polenov … Famous scientists took part in the creation of the museum: Egyptologist V. Golenishchev, historian and archaeologist N. Kondakov and author of "History of Russia" D. Ilovaisky.
Difficult twentieth century
The collection was formed during the period from 1909 to 1911. Then the museum was replenished with ancient Egyptian rarities, paintings by masters of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, and some canvases by Russian painters. The museum acquired archaeological finds from Ancient Egypt from V. Golenishcheva, a well-known orientalist and explorer of ancient civilizations at that time. Italian painting and sculpture appeared in the Pushkin Museum thanks to Princess Elizaveta Fyodorovna and a diplomat M. Shchekin … The archaeologist donated part of the exhibits to the museum. A. Bobrinsky, other works of art were bought by the organizers from well-known Russian scientists. It was impossible to acquire genuine antique sculptures, and therefore the museum was replenished with plaster copies and casts from the most famous antique works of art.
The official opening took place on May 31, 1912. The ceremony was attended by Emperor Nicholas II with his mother and daughters … The museum quickly became very popular and began to enjoy particular success among students and teachers of higher educational institutions and the capital's intelligentsia. Until 1917, the Museum of Fine Arts at Moscow University was named after Alexander III.
The revolution suspended work for a long time, and the Museum of Fine Arts at Moscow University, which had lost the name of the tsar in its name, reopened only in 1920. His new mission was to exhibit projects of the Liberated Labor monument. Soon, a workshop was opened at the museum, where Soviet sculptors worked on the creation of works intended to revitalize parks, squares and other public spaces. In particular, the famous "Girl with a Paddle" for the Park of Culture and Leisure named after Gorky was born in the building on Volkhonka, 12. The name of the great Russian poet was given to the museum in 1937.
The war years were a difficult test for the staff of the Pushkin Museum. Pushkin. The collection was evacuated to Siberia, and the building on Volkhonka was damaged by enemy bombing. The museum reopened after renovation and reconstruction in 1946. Three years later, its area was given over to an exhibition of gifts that arrived in Moscow for the 70th anniversary of Stalin. The exhibits of the museum were removed to the storerooms for a long eight years and were again presented to the public only after the death of the leader of the Soviet state.
In the Pushkin Museum. Pushkin, exhibitions of famous works of world art began to take place. At first, the public was shown the paintings taken out from the Dresden Gallery after the victory in the Great Patriotic War. In 1956, Muscovites and guests of the capital were able to visit an exhibition of paintings Picasso, and in 1985 see Gioconda Leonardo and works brought to Moscow from the New York Metropolitan Museum.
The centenary of the Pushkin Museum. Pushkin was marked by the release of a series of commemorative medals and a postage stamp.
What to see in the Pushkin Museum in Moscow
Exposition of the Pushkin Museum. Pushkin is divided into several thematic parts: a collection of casts from antique works of art, a collection of sculptural compositions, an art collection, halls of ancient Egyptian exhibits, an engraving study, and a numismatic department.
The collection of casts from works of art of antiquity and the Middle Ages began to be collected even before the opening of the museum … Among others in the Pushkin Museum. Pushkin presents casts of the reliquary of St. Gertrude from the church in Nivelles destroyed during the Second World War, copies of the courtyard of the Florentine Palazzo Bargello and columns in the Egyptian temple in Karnak and many sculptures, including Nika of Samothrace, Michelangelo's Pieta and David, and many others.
The collection of Western European sculpture includes almost six hundred works by masters who worked from the 16th to the 21st centuries … Sculptures by Rodin, J.-B. Lemoine, Clodion and E. Bourdelle.
More than 350 thousand paintings include a pictorial collection of the Pushkin Museum. Pushkin. The paintings are displayed in chronological order, and the exposition opens in the 1st century hall, in which Fayum portraitsmade in the technique of easel painting. You can see works in the museum Durer and Rembrandt, Bryullov and Vrubel, Callot and Mantegna … Flemish art is represented by canvases Pieter Bruegel the Younger, Rubens and Van Dyck, and among the works of famous Italians there are paintings Caravaggio, Strozzi and Guido Reni … Many paintings depict biblical scenes; there are also hagiographic icons in the museum's collection, the authors of which created in the 13th century. in Naples, Florence and Siena. The most famous picturesque masterpieces of the Pushkin Museum - "Girl on a ball" Picasso, "Portrait of Jeanne Samary" Renoir, "Madonna in the Vineyard" Lucas Cranach the Elder, "Blue Dancers" Degas, "Breakfast on the Grass" Monet and "Artaxerxes, Haman and Esther" Rembrandt.
The oldest collection of Egyptian rarities contains exhibits dating from the IV century. BC NS. until the IV century. On the stands of the museum there are burial sarcophagi and sculptural compositions, papyri and figurines, amulets and stone tools.
Collection of the engraving cabinet of the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts Pushkin moved here from the Rumyantsev Museum … It was collected by Dmitry Rovinsky, a Russian lawyer and art historian. The museum displays engravings from the 16th-19th centuries. and, including drawings by Benoit, Serov, Vrubel and Repin.
One of the richest numismatic collections in the world, Pushkin's collection of coins, medals and casts from carved stones consists of more than 200 thousand items. The numismatic department presents four collections - Antique, Eastern, Western European and Russian.
Branches and departments of the museum
In addition to the main building on Volkhonka, 12 Pushkin Museum im. Pushkin has several branches:
- In the former Golitsyn estate on Volkhonka, 14, a gallery was opened in 2006, where you can see paintings by modern masters from Western Europe … The collection features the work of Delacroix, Rousseau and Delaroche. Several rooms of the mansion are dedicated to French fine art of the 19th-20th centuries. They contain works by Monet, Cézanne, Gauguin, Manet, Picasso and Matisse. Fans of the Russian avant-garde will meet in the halls of the gallery with paintings by Kandinsky and Chagall.
- House of Countess Shuvalova on Volkhonka, 10 presents to the viewer the collections collected by famous Russian art critics and figures of culture. In the museum you can get acquainted with the private collections of Svyatoslav Richter, Fyodor Lemkul and the Vereisky family.
- An old mansion from the end of the 18th century. became in 2006 another department of the Pushkin Museum im. Pushkin. The house number 6 in Kolymazhny lane was opened Center for Aesthetic Education of Children and Youth "Museion".
- He was named after the founder of the museum branch on the street Chayanova, 15. Educational Art Museum. Ivan Tsvetaeva was opened in 1996 at the Russian State University for the Humanities. Its halls display more than 750 casts of antique sculptures stored in world museums.
- V the estate of the Vyazemsky-Dolgorukovs in the house 3/5 in Maly Znamensky lane after the reconstruction, a collection of paintings by old masters - Boucher, Murillo, Rembrandt, Rubens and Titian will be placed.
- Everything related to printing will be presented to the viewer in House of Text in Maly Znamensky Lane, 8/1 … In this branch of the museum, visitors can also get acquainted with rare books and become readers of the scientific library.
In the near future, a depository with restoration workshops and an exposition in Tarusadedicated to non-conformist artists.
On a note
- Location: Moscow, Volkhonka, 12, phones: (495) 697-9578, (495) 609-9520, (495) 697-7412.
- The nearest metro stations are "Biblioteka im. Lenin", "Kropotkinskaya", "Borovitskaya".
- Official site: arts-museum.ru
- Opening hours: Tue-Wed, Sat-Sun 11.00–20.00, Thu, Fri 11.00–21.00, ticket office closes one hour earlier. Monday is a day off.
- Tickets: entrance 200-600 rubles, for children under 16 years old admission is free.
