ART COLLECTORS AND PATRONS
Vera Bodunova
THE ARTIST AND HIS BENEFACTOR: Ivan Aivazovsky and Alexei Tomilov
#1 2017 (54)
“Among other nonsense (as well as certain justified criticisms), I hear that Gaivazovsky[1] paints too quickly and sloppily. His works are more like stage sets than paintings, they say. I no longer have the energy to refute these accusations; I can only remark sorrowfully that ‘at least the stage sets are delightful, you must concur.’”[2] In such terms, without hiding his sincere chagrin, the well-known patron of the arts Alexei Tomilov wrote in 1842 to the marine painter Ivan Aivazovsky, who was, by then, acquiring a reputation in Europe
Tamara Nosovich
AIVAZOVSKY IN MINIATURE: Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolayevich’s Tea Set
#4 2016 (53)
The images of Ivan Aivazovsky have been reproduced in many forms, none more remarkable than the tea service presented by Tsar Alexander II to his brother Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolayevich as a Christmas gift in 1861. Aivazovsky’s famous seascapes were copied in miniature with extraordinary skill in this testament to the lifelong close relationship between the artist and his royal patron.
Natalya Buyanova
THE GREAT SEASCAPE ARTIST AND THE R USSIAN IMPERIAL FAMILY
#4 2016 (53)
A favourite of three Russian rulers, Aivazovsky’s development as an artist was encouraged with royal patronage from an early age. Closely involved with members of the Romanov dynasty for more than 60 years, he both travelled with them on foreign journeys, and entertained them at his home in Crimea.
Stanislav Kuznetsov
MIKHAIL GERMASHEV: AN ARTIST AND HIS COLLECTORS
#3 2016 (52)
The names of the major Russian collectors - the Tretyakovs, the Morozovs, the Ryabushinskys, the Tereschenkos or the Khanenkos - are well known. But other patrons of the arts and collectors have been undeservedly forgotten, although it is thanks to them and their acquisitions that we have the chance to revisit the work of lesser-known and even forgotten artists.
Galina Syrlybaeva #1 2012 (34) The collection of Russian art at the Abdylkhan Kasteev Art Museum in Kazakhstan includes many unique works; some of them are worthy of special attention, as their importance lies not only in their artistic value but also in the story of their creation and "journey", as well as their relation to the artistic development of the country. Among them are two portraits by Konstantin Korovin, which are presented at the anniversary exhibition of the Russian artist at the Tretyakov Gallery on loan from the Kazakh museum. |
Mikhail Kurilko-Ryumin #2 2010 (27) It would not be an overstatement to say that my father Mikhail Ivanovich Kurilko (1880-1969) was a legendary person. Over the course of his long life full of various adventures and reversals of fortune he accomplished a great deal. And most essentially, although in terms of pure numbers his achievements in different fields of knowledge, art and science look fairly modest, the mark he left in each is tangible; his name was quite famous in the last century, and many gratefully remember him to this day. |
Irina Shumanova, Yevgenia Ilukhina #3 2007 (16) Over the last ten years the Tretyakov Gallery has been displaying drawings from its collections at temporary exhibitions. The exhibition programme has had a continuous focus on the history of the collection of 18th–20th century drawings. The gallery’s 20th exhibition in the series reflects a new stage in the history of its collection – namely, the significant enlargement of the collection in the first decade following the Bolshevik revolution due to new acquisitions from private Moscow collections. |
Николай Гагман #2 2007 (15) In 2006, the year of its 150th jubilee, the Tretyakov Gallery acquired a significant number of works by the artist Nikolai Meshcherin (1864–1916). Presented as a gift by Nikolai Gagman, art restorer and long-standing member of the Igor Grabar All-Union Centre for Art Research and Restoration, the donation included 17 oil and tempera paintings and six pastels by Meshcherin, as well as archive documents and photographs shedding light on the artist’s life and work. Many years ago, these were purchased from Meshcherin’s widow Lydia Goriacheva-Meshcherina by Gagman’s father Alexander Nikolaevich, a Doctor of Medicine and one of the founders of surgical urology. For many decades, this small treasure remained in the Gagman family. Nikolai Gagman took the best possible care of his father’s collection, doing everything within his means to make Meshcherin better known as an artist. In 1987, Nikolai Gagman organised an exhibition of Meshcherin’s work and published a catalogue to accompany the event, writing the introduction and selecting some fascinating archive material for the catalogue himself. The catalogue included all of Meshcherin’s works from museums and private collections in Russia which Gagman had succeeded in locating. |
Lydia Iovleva #2 2006 (11) Ilya Semenovich Ostroukhov was a leading collector in the Moscow art world of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. His collection, which later became the Icons and Paintings Museum, located in Ostroukhov's home on Trubnikovsky Pereulok near the Arbat, was referred to in a 1914 city-guide as one of Moscow's foremost attractions, and was frequented by art lovers, which gave considerable trouble, as well as pleasure, to its owner. Ostroukhov was by that time a well-known landscape artist, first actively involved in the Peredvizhniki (Wanderers) movement, who later rebelled against and broke with that group, creating in 1903 together with fellow malcontents who had split from the movement the Union of Russian Artists, concentrated primarily on the Moscow tradition of painting. |
Alexei Savinov #1 2005 (06) The holdings of almost every famous international museum have been formed on the basis of private collections. Through the second half of the 19th century – the period in which state museums were “born” – private collections were “dissolved” into larger academic museum exhibitions, a dominant tendency which seemed only natural at the time. Following Russia's 1917 revolution, the tendency was only enhanced, receiving a new and powerful impulse. Private collections were broken up and absorbed by the State Museum Fund; thus, particular collections became an integral parts of others. Even if an individual collection was preserved in its entirety in a museum it was in some way adjusted for the sake of some principle of “higher order”. |
V.Petyushenko #4 2004 (05) THIS REMARKABLE STORY PAYS TRIBUTE TO THE MEMORY OF SEVERAL RUSSIANS, WHO SPENT MOST OF THEIR LIFE ABROAD BUT RETAINED THEIR SPIRITUAL RELATIONSHIP WITH THEIR MOTHERLAND AND LOVE OF ITS CULTURE. |
N.PRIIMAK #3 2004 (04) SERGEI TRETYAKOV (1836–1892) WAS LESS FAMOUS AS AN ART COLLECTOR AND PUBLIC FIGURE THAN HIS OLDER BROTHER PAVEL, FOUNDER OF THE RENOWNED TRETYAKOV GALLERY. FAME IS USUALLY DISCRIMINATORY AND IS OFTEN UNJUST, AND THIS IS JUST THE CASE. WHILE PAVEL’S CONTRIBUTION IN MAKING THE TRETYA-KOV BROTHERS’ PROPERTY IN LAVRUSHINSKY LANE A PUBLIC MUSEUM IS WIDELY RECOGNIZED, SERGEI’S PART IN THE DEAL AND THE FACT THAT IN 1892 HE BEQUEATHED HIS ART COLLECTION TO THE CITY OF MOSCOW IS OFTEN OBSCURED. TO GIVE JUSTICE TO MOSCOW, THE CITY FATHERS WISHED TO RECOGNIZE THE CONTRIBUTIONS OF BOTH BROTHERS; THE WHITE-STONE FRIEZE OF THE FRONT FAВADE, RECONSTRUCTED IN 1902, BEARS A CARVED INSCRIPTION THAT READS: "CITY ART GALLERY OF PAVEL MIKHAILOVICH AND SERGEI MIKHAILOVICH TRETYAKOV". |
O.ZEMLYAKOVA, V.LEONIDOV #2 2004 (03) HIS LIFE ENDED JUST A FEW DAYS BEFORE THE OPENING OF HIS FIRST EXHIBITION IN RUSSIA – AN EVENT OF WHICH HE HAD DREAMED FOR HIS ENTIRE LIFE. THE TRETYAKOV GALLERY WAS READY TO PRESENT TO THE PUBLIC A NUMBER OF HIS MASTERPIECES: THE BRIGHT AND "JUICY" STILL-LIFES, THE DIVINE LANDSCAPES OF ISRAEL, AND THE VIEW THAT HAD INSPIRED THE MASTER FOR MANY YEARS – THE RUSSIAN CHURCH IN GETHSEMANE. THE TRUE SYMBOLS OF JERUSALEM, THE CITY WHERE THE ARTIST SPENT MOST OF HIS LIFE – THE MOSQUE OF OMAR AND THE DAMASCUS GATES – FLOODED HIS CANVASES WITH WAVES OF BEAUTY AND TALENT. YET THE BRILLIANT ISRAELI ARTIST ALEXANDER KOPELOVICH ALWAYS CONSIDERED HIMSELF A RUSSIAN PAINTER. |
G.ANDREEVA #1 2004 (02) THANKS TO THE METICULOUS AND PRECISE MANNER RUSSIAN MERCHANTS, AMONG THEM PAVEL TRETYAKOV, USED TO DO BUSINESS, THE TRETYAKOV GALLERY ARCHIVES FOUND THEMSELVES IN POSSESSION OF SOME MOST INTERESTING EVIDENCE OF HIS WORK AS AN ART COLLECTOR: HIS LETTERS, NOTE-BOOKS, DIARIES, BILLS AND OTHER MEMORABILIA BEAR VALUABLE TESTIMONY TO HIS LIFE-LONG ENDEAVOUR OF BUILDING UP THE FIRST NATIONAL COLLECTION OF RUSSIAN PAINTINGS. EVEN LESS KNOWN, BUT NO LESS INTERESTING, ARE THE FACTS OF PAVEL TRETYAKOV’S REGULAR JOURNEYS ABROAD. BESIDES SERVING BUSINESS PURPOSES THE TRIPS ALLOWED TRETYAKOV TO VISIT NUMEROUS ART EXHIBITIONS AND MUSEUMS, AND TO ACQUAINT HIMSELF WITH CONTEMPORARY ARTISTIC TRENDS IN EUROPE. HE WAS COMPARING AND ANALYZING, ACCUMULATING IMPRESSIONS, BUILDING UP KNOWLEDGE AND EXPERIENCE, AND DEVELOPING THE CONNOISSEUR’S TASTE - ALWAYS WITH THE IDEA OF A NATIONAL ART COLLECTION IN MIND. |