Vasnetsov

"A Duty to My People..."

Eleonora Paston

Article: 
MASTERPIECES OF RUSSIAN ART
Magazine issue: 
#3 2006 (12)

In June 1898 an important event occurred at the Tretyakov Gallery, already then donated by Pavel Tretyakov to the city of Moscow. Pavel Mikhailovich acquired for the gallery the paintings by Viktor Vasnetsov, "Warrior Knights" (1898) and "Tsar Ivan the Terrible" (1897). At the same time Tretyakov had the pictures on display re-arranged: the exhibition rooms were closed until early November and Vasnetsov received the opportunity to make new amendments to his recent pieces. "In the ‘Warrior Knights’ everything that needed touching up was touched up," the artist wrote to Tretyakov on October 5 1898, "for the better, I believe."[1] Amazingly, this was said after the artist had been working on the painting for 30 years!

"A Duty to My People..."

VIKTOR VASNETSOV’S “ALENUSHKA” AND “GUSLI PLAYERS”

Lydia Gladkova, Eleonora Paston

Article: 
EXPERTISE
Magazine issue: 
#2 2008 (19)

The story of Viktor Vasnetsov’s study for the “Alenushka” painting (Tretyakov Gallery, 1881), kept at the Abramtsevo Museum Reserve was quite circuitous in spite of a propitious “starting point”. The picture came to the museum in 1967 from Lydia Ruslanova’s collection; previously it was already included in a list of Vasnetsov’s works compiled by Nikolai Morgunov and Natalya Morgunova-Rudnitskaya: “Alenushka. Oil on canvas, 68 by 48 cm. Lower left: V. Vasnetsov. The study is fairly closely related to the painting at the Tretyakov Gallery. Shown at an exhibition of Vasnetsov’s works from private collections at the Moscow Branch of the Artists’ Society in June 1947. Lydia Ruslanova’s collection, Moscow.” One would think that this information was exhaustive and no further research into the attribution of the piece was called for. However, something about the picture disquieted museum staff suggesting that the study should not be categorized as the artist’s “last preparatory work”. A certain link seemed to be missing between the two “Alenushka”s, a link that would illuminate the logic behind Vasnetsov’s work on the painting based on a “fairy tale subject”.

VIKTOR VASNETSOV’S “ALENUSHKA” AND “GUSLI PLAYERS”

The story of Viktor Vasnetsov’s study for the “Alenushka” painting (Tretyakov Gallery, 1881), kept at the Abramtsevo Museum Reserve was quite circuitous in spite of a propitious “starting point”.

Sergei Diaghilev and the Tretyakov Gallery

Yelena Terkel

Article: 
EXCLUSIVE PUBLICATIONS
Magazine issue: 
#3 2009 (24)

Sergei Diaghilev, whose aim was to popularize Russian art, looked up to the selfless enthusiast Pavel Tretyakov, who devoted his whole life to collecting Russian art. From the very start Tretyakov inspired in Diaghilev a great respect. In 1901 Diaghilev wrote in an article “On Russian Museums”: “Studying the superb collection of the Moscow gallery, one can easily notice that Tretyakov, for all his sensitivity and fondness of his creation, nevertheless belonged to a certain time... He felt it was his duty to showcase all of Russian art... Thus, his collection is an amazingly comprehensive journal spanning 30 years of his life as a collector.”

Sergei Diaghilev and the Tretyakov Gallery

The "Girl with Peaches": who is she?

Sergei Chernyshev

Article: 
EXCLUSIVE PUBLICATIONS
Magazine issue: 
#3 2015 (48)

Serov’s famous painting “Girl with Peaches” depicts my grandmother Vera Mamontova in her childhood. I never met her. She died when her daughter, my mother, was only just two. During her short life she managed to accomplish everything that was expected from a woman of her milieu at that time. She was an obedient daughter, a loving sister, a bride who suffered separation from her bridegroom, a caring mother... Her surviving letters, as well as the reminiscences of those who knew her, reveal much about her life.

The "Girl with Peaches": who is she?

Serov’s famous painting “Girl with Peaches” depicts my grandmother Vera Mamontova in her childhood. I never met her. She died when her daughter, my mother, was only just two. During her short life she managed to accomplish everything that was expected from a woman of her milieu at that time. She was an obedient daughter, a loving sister, a bride who suffered separation from her bridegroom, a caring mother... Her surviving letters, as well as the reminiscences of those who knew her, reveal much about her life.

THE SILVER AGE OF THE RUSSIAN POSTER

Alexandra Terentieva

Article: 
CURRENT EXHIBITIONS
Magazine issue: 
#2 2011 (31)

The exhibition “Irrelevant Advertising. Russian Posters of the Early 20th Century” presents a collection of posters, now held at the Tretyakov Gallery, that were produced before the Bolshevik revolution. At the core of this collection are those put together by Fedor Fedorov and acquired by the museum in 1933. The art scholar Alexei Korostin wrote about Fedorov in 1950: “A collector of posters and bookplates, in other words - a partisan of the extremes who collected either very big or very small items.” A separate section is devoted to playbills the gallery received, in 1989, as a part of Mikhail Larionov’s and Natalya Goncharova’s “Parisian legacy” gifted to the museum in accordance with the will of Larionov’s widow, Alexandra Larionova-Tomilina.

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The exhibition “Irrelevant Advertising. Russian Posters of the Early 20th Century” presents a collection of posters, now held at the Tretyakov Gallery, that were produced before the Bolshevik revolution. At the core of this collection are those put together by Fedor Fedorov and acquired by the museum in 1933.

The Portraits of Mikhail Nesterov

Lyudmila Bobrovskaya

Article: 
CURRENT EXHIBITIONS
Magazine issue: 
#1 2013 (38)

PORTRAITS WERE A VERY IMPORTANT PART OF NESTEROV'S OEUVRE, BUT FOR A VERY LONG TIME -PRACTICALLY UNTIL THE EARLY 1930S - THE ARTIST WOULD REGULARLY REPEAT THE PHRASE, "I'M NO PORTRAITIST!", IN LETTERS TO HIS FRIENDS. ALWAYS DEMANDING OF HIMSELF AS AN ARTIST, NESTEROV BELIEVED THAT HIS PORTRAITS WERE NOT OF THE SAME CALIBRE AS THOSE OF HIS PREDECESSORS SUCH AS VASILY PEROV, IVAN KRAMSKOYOR ILYA REPIN; EVEN "THE GIRL WITH PEACHES" BY THE MUCH YOUNGER ARTIST VALENTIN SEROV, NESTEROV REGARDED AS REACHING AN UNATTAINABLE LEVEL OF ARTISTRY.

The Portraits of Mikhail Nesterov
"As a portraitist, I felt attracted to those people whose
life paths reflected their thoughts, feelings, acts."
Mikhail Nesterov. "My Bygone Days. Encounters and Memories"

Mikhail Nesterov as Muralist and Icon Painter

Anastasia Bubchikova

Article: 
CURRENT EXHIBITIONS
Magazine issue: 
#1 2013 (38)

CHURCH MURALS WERE ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT FIELDS OF MIKHAIL NESTEROV'S LIFE AS AN ARTIST. HAVING FIRST CLIMBED CATHEDRAL SCAFFOLDING WHEN HE WAS A YOUNG MAN OF 28, HE DEVOTED MORE THAN 20 YEARS OF HIS LIFE TO RELIGIOUS MURAL ART. BY 1890, HE HAD ALREADY CREATED "THE HERMIT" (1889) AND "THE VISION OF THE YOUNG BARTHOLOMEW" (1890), WHICH BRO­UGHT HIM FAME AND SECURED HIS PLACE AMONG THE GENERATION OF NEW PAINTERS EXPLORING NEW PATHS AND NEW IDEALS IN ART. WHEN HE WAS INVITED IN 1890 TO CREATE MURALS FOR THE ST. VLADIMIR (VOLODYMYR) CATHEDRAL IN KIEV, HE WAS AFFORDED THE OPPORTUNITY NOT ONLY TO TACKLE A FASCINATING ARTISTIC CHALLENGE BUT ALSO TO LEAVE A DISTINCTIVE MARK ON RELI­GIOUS ART, WHICH WAS SUFFERING A DEEP CRISIS ON THE EVE OF THE 20TH CENTURY.

Mikhail Nesterov as Muralist and Icon Painter

CHURCH MURALS WERE ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT FIELDS OF MIKHAIL NESTEROV'S LIFE AS AN ARTIST. HAVING FIRST CLIMBED CATHEDRAL SCAFFOLDING WHEN HE WAS A YOUNG MAN OF 28, HE DEVOTED MORE THAN 20 YEARS OF HIS LIFE TO RELIGIOUS MURAL ART. BY 1890, HE HAD ALREADY CREATED "THE HERMIT" (1889) AND "THE VISION OF THE YOUNG BARTHOLOMEW" (1890), WHICH BROUGHT HIM FAME AND SECURED HIS PLACE AMONG THE GENERATION OF NEW PAINTERS EXPLORING NEW PATHS AND NEW IDEALS IN ART. WHEN HE WAS INVITED IN 1890 TO CREATE MURALS FOR THE ST.

Symbolism and Russian Art

Alla Gusarova

Article: 
HERITAGE
Magazine issue: 
#2 2013 (39)

FLOURISHING IN THE LATE 19TH-EARLY 20TH CENTURIES, SYMBOLISM ASPIRED TO CONVEY IN ART INTUITIVE INSIGHTS INTO DIFFERENT REALITIES - THE REALITY OF DREAM, REVERIE, MEMORY, FAIRY TALE, LEGEND, OR THAT OF A DIFFERENT, HIGHER WORLD. THIS NEW WORLDVIEW, REPLACING POSITIVISM, BECAME ONE OF THE FEATURES OF THE CULTURAL SILVER AGE IN RUSSIA, AND EMBRACED ALL AREAS OF CREATIVE ENDEAVOUR, INCLUDING LITERATURE, RAINTING AND MUSIC RUSSIAN WRITERS AND POETS SUCH AS ALEXANDER BLOK, ANDREI BELY AND VY-ACHESLAV IVANOV, AND THE RELIGIOUS PHILOSOPHERS VLADIMIR SOLOVIEV, PAVEL FLORENSKY AND SERGEI BULGAKOV BECAME EVANGELISTS AND INTERPRETERS OF THE NEW MOVEMENT: THEY PREACHED ABOUT THE MYSTICAL AND EVEN DIVINE ESSENCE OF ART WHICH WAS BOUND TO TRANSFORM THE WORLD.

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FLOURISHING IN THE LATE 19TH-EARLY 20TH CENTURIES, SYMBOLISM ASPIRED TO CONVEY IN ART INTUITIVE INSIGHTS INTO DIFFERENT REALITIES - THE REALITY OF DREAM, REVERIE, MEMORY, FAIRY TALE, LEGEND, OR THAT OF A DIFFERENT, HIGHER WORLD.

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