Tretyakov Gallery

I came across the idea of this article by sheer chance, when a group of reporters from Grozny “descended” upon the Tretyakov Gallery. Unprepared, I was to give an interview about the art of Pyotr Zakharov-Chechenets. In the introductory room, my attention was caught by an old photograph featuring the interior of the gallery in 1898, which showed that Zakharov-Chechenets’s portraits fitted in perfectly with those hanging beside them, including masterpieces of Russian art of the 1830s-1840s by Karl Briullov and Fyodor Brum. Almost all of his best works in the collection were purchased by Pavel Tretyakov. What was it that attracted the demanding collector? Images of the people who were “dear to the nation’s heart”? Or the quality of the artist’s craftsmanship? How, and under what circumstances, were his paintings acquired by the Tretyakov Gallery? Looking for answers, I researched at the department of manuscripts of the Tretyakov Gallery, and in the newspaper and dissertation departments of the Russian National Library.

"Bonjour, la Patrie" is the largest exhibition of the work of Marc Chagall (1887-1985) ever to be held in Russia. The name comes from one of Chagall's own paintings. It is of great significance not just as a long-awaited encounter of the celebrated master's work and Russian art-lovers (major Chagall exhibitions to be held here were in 1973 at the Tretyakov Gallery, in 1987 at the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts, in 1992 at the Tretyakov Gallery), but because of the importance that the theme of the motherland played in Chagall's life and work, the motherland both large and small, lost and regained, constantly present in his art and nourishing the unique originality of his creative world

THE GREAT PATRIOTIC WAR WAS A TREMENDOUS UPHEAVAL FOR BOTH THE TRETYAKOV GALLERY AND THE ENTIRE COUNTRY. MARKING THE 70TH ANNIVERSARY OF VICTORY, WE ALSO CELEBRATE THE ANNIVERSARY OF THE GALLERY'S RE-OPENING AFTER ITS RETURN TO MOSCOW FROM EVACUATION.

NATALIA GONCHAROVA IS ONE OF THOSE RARE PAINTERS WITH A PRONOUNCED TOUCH FOR THE MONUMENTAL FORM. IN HER RUSSIAN YEARS IT MANIFESTED ITSELF IN RELIGIOUS PAINTINGS THAT WERE FAR FROM "ORTHODOX" - AT LEAST BY COMPARISON WITH CONTEMPORARY ECCLESIASTICAL ART AS REPRESENTED BY TH E LI KES OF VIKTOR VASNETSOV AN D MIKHAIL NESTEROV - A FACTOR THAT EFFECTIVELY BLOCKED ANY POSSIBILITY OF HER RECEIVING OFFICIAL COMMISSIONS. IT WAS ONLY IN 1915 AFTER HER DEPARTURE FROM RUSSIA, THAT WITH THE HELP OF THE ARCHITECT ALEXEI SHCHUSEV THE ARTIST WAS COMMISSIONED TO DECORATE A PRIVATE CHURCH ON AN ESTATE IN BESSARABIA. EVEN THAT WORK WAS DOOMED NEVER TO BE COMPLETED, BECAUSE OF THE WAR AND REVOLUTION.