Museum

The Stroganov Academy Museum is one of the most fascinating and unique museums in Russia. Founded in 1864, during Viktor Butovsky’s tenure as director of the Stroganov School of Technical Drawing (later to be renamed “academy”), the museum served to “advance the development of original creative talent and skills among the working classes.” The museum, located in a separate building at 24 Myasnitskaya Ulitsa, opened its doors on April 171868 and became Russia’s first museum to focus on the history of decorative and applied arts throughout the world, from antiquity to modern times. Still, the museum’s primary goal was to collect the works of Russian decorative art, in line with the Stroganov Academy’s original purpose to preserve and advance Russia’s rich artistic tradition.

The collection of the Serpukhov Art and History Museum (SAHM) was shaped largely thanks to the efforts of the Maraev family of industrialists in the late 19th- early 20th century. It is traditionally assumed that it was started by Anna Maraeva; she was the first in the family to buy art and historical objects, and effectively became a founder of the Serpukhov museum. Nevertheless, she had no full level of proper education and could not be aware or formulate clearly the nature and aims of the collector's activity.

The history of Russia's oldest museum, now named the "Moscow Kremlin" Historical and Cultural Museum-Reserve has a long history. Its numerous collections originated in the 14th-early 15th centuries, during the reign of the first Grand Princes of Muscovy – Ivan Kalita, Dmitry Donskoi and Vasily I. In their wills, they bequeathed to their offspring golden caps, sabres, tableware and jewelled waist-belts, which soon came to be regarded by their contemporaries as ancestral relics that "protected the family" and symbolized its political power.

By lending 50 masterpieces of Western European art to the Fondation Pierre Gianadda the world-famous Metropolitan Museum is sending out a clear message: it trusts the foundation implicitly. The memory of the mysterious story (with a happy ending) when the collection of French paintings from Moscow’s Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts was arrested after the closure of the exhibition remains fresh in the minds of many. At the time, some Russian journalists and museum officials said in no uncertain terms that the Swiss partner did not quite live up to the standards of the Pushkin museum.

The exhibition “Masterpieces of Russian Graphics from the Collection of the Historical Museum. Drawings and Watercolours, 18th-19th Century” at the Tretyakov Gallery showcases the volume and quality of the graphic art held by this unique Moscow institution. It offers a comprehensive and lively overview of a vast and diverse collection, tracing the evolution of Russian graphic art from its inception in the 18th century through to the end of the 19th century.