TRETYAKOV GALLERY AND PUSHKIN FINE ARTS MUSEUM TOUR

The Tretyakov Gallery houses the greatest collection of the Russian art in the world (totalling 50 000 paintings) presented to the city of Moscow by the merchant P.M.Tretyakov in 1892.

The Tretyakov Gallery houses a first-class collection of works of Old Russian art which includes unique mosaics, frescoes, icons, miniatures and objects of decorative arts. Many of them have become historical relics, an integral part of the national spiritual tradition. The tradition of icon-painting came to Rus from Byzantium along with acceptance of Christianity. However, the selection of the ideological and artistic legacy of Byzantium led to the creative interpretation of their models.

Russian painting of the XVIII and first half of the XIXth centuries is distinguished by its profound content and devotion to humanistic ideals, an original national style and consummate mastery. In the beginning of this period painting took on a clearly expressed secular character, striving to achieve an accurate reproduction of reality.

The Tretyalkov Gallery possesses the most extensive and remarkable collection of Russian paintings from the second half of the XIXth century. Tretyakov’s aim in assembling his vast collection was to tell the complete story of Russian art but, inevitably, it is artists from his own, second half of the XIXth century that are most to the fore. Russian art of this time made great achievements in the depiction of the life of man and society, native scenery and the historical past of the country.

The late XIXth and early XXth centuries collection reflects the innovative spirit of the period which is often called the “renaissance” of the Russian art. Having absorbed the best traditions of world and national art, the work of Michael Vrubel, Valentin Serov, Vasily Kandinsky, Marc Chagal to this day illustrates the artistic and conceptual searchings of the turn of the century.

The Pushkin Fine Arts Museum is renowned for its collection of French painting, especially of the Impressionists and Post-impressionists Schools. In 1918 the canvases belonging to two great private collectors, S.Shchukin and I.Morozov, were nationalised. For a time they were housed together in Morozov’s former mansion, then in 1930s, part of the collection was presented to the Hermitage in Leningrad and the other part was moved to Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts. But for many years until Stalin’s death in 1953, the paintings were kept out of the public gaze.

Pushkin Museum boasts to have a remarkable collection of the Italian Renaissance and post-Renaissance, Flemish and Dutch schools.

The Pushkin Museum was founded in 1912 by I.V.Tsvetaev, professor of Art History at Moscow University. It originally housed a large collection of copies of great classical sculptures and antiquities which can still be seen on the ground floor.