Tretyakov Gallery

4 December 1898 was a sad day for the whole of Russia, not least for its cultural and intellectual circles: Pavel Tretyakov died at ten o'clock that morning. Reactions to the news brought grief not only from his family, but also from many Russian people. An endless flow of condolences, flowers and wreaths arrived at the Tretyakov house. When the funeral was over, the time came for the reading of the will of the deceased. But it turned out that brought up unexpected complications, as Yevdokia Konstantinovna Dmitrieva, Pavel Tretyakov's niece, recalled: "First, it took a long time to find the will! And when it was found at last, stuck under one of the drawers in the writing desk, and handed over to a most respected Moscow solicitor, Mikhail Petrovich Minin, he, almost at once, found a major mistake in its text ... It made it not only impossible for the Moscow district court to legalize the document, but practically declared it invalid. The family were shocked!”

The next volume of the Tretyakov Gallery's comprehensive catalogue devoted to early 19th-century panting is scheduled to appear in the nearest future. Even today, in the context of swiftly developing electronic means of collecting and storing information, the book is a major event. It is a fundamental illustrated edition with full and detailed information about painters and their works, and it will certainly attract the attention of both experts and a wider general readership of art lovers.

2006 was announced as the “Year of Russia in China”. These two countries have a long history of relations, and in the 21st century, they not only want to benefit from economic cooperation, but also aim to establish scientific and cultural contacts, and to study one another’s historical heritage. To celebrate the event, a rich cultural programme has been developed, including theatre performances, a film festival, various exhibitions and concerts.

The Tretyakov Gallery is one of the major museums of national art in Russia. Evolving from a private collection, today it boasts an art collection unique in its characteristics, diversity and scope. Its significance and its place in the contemporary art scene is defined by its special mission, one that combines two very important functions. One of them is traditional - to preserve, study and popularize the vast pool of works of Russian art of the i2th-20th centuries, assembled during the 150 years of the museum’s existence. Another function, a very important one today, is to address topical issues of the contemporary art scene.

Running through to February 2019, the Arkhip Kuindzhi exhibition at the Engineering Wing of the Tretyakov Gallery pays tribute, on the occasion of the 175th anniversary of his birth, to one of the greatest Russian landscape painters of the second half of the 19th century. A contemporary of Vasily Polenov, Ivan Shishkin and Mikhail Klodt, Kuindzhi (1842-1910) could “singularly examine” nature to find a mysterious, captivating beauty in it, an ability that would contribute considerably to the rise of the genre of the symbolist landscape. The artist was especially attracted to scenes with arresting natural lighting effects - moonlit nights that beckoned in mystery, fiery sunsets, or the heat of the noonday sun. He set his sights on the earth and sea, mountains and sky, but most of all on space, which he regarded as the fulcrum of the Universe. Full of musical and poetic allusions, Kuindzhi’s works draw viewers in, taking them towards philosophy.