Russia 2019 (16) MOSCOW - Tretyakov Museum

Merchant and philanthropist Paval Tretyakov (1832-1897) is arguably the greatest collector of Russian art. He started collecting at age 22 and set a personal goal to create a Russian National Gallery. He succeeded. In 1892, he presented his collection of 2,000 works--1362 paintings, 526 drawings, and 9 sculptures--to the State.

Per the Viking Daily News, the focus in this State-owned repository is strictly Russian artists and art. Exhibits display classical art from the 11-20th centuries, iconography, and portraits of famous poets, authors, musicians, and composers. There are four areas of specialty.

Russia icons: Andrei Rublev's 15th-century Holy Trinity (acknowledged as the country's greatest icon) and the like are displayed.

Realist: Includes Perov's Troika, a moving and chilling depiction of child labor in the 19th-century Russia.

Revivalist: Fantastical figures and fairy tales of artists such as Victor Vasnetsov, including his Bogatyrs (heros, knights).

Contemporary: The New Tretyakov building (photo up top) displays Soviet propaganda poster art and Russian avant-garde artists like Kandinsky, Chagall (yes, he was born in Russia), and Lyubov Popova (a rare female).

As we walked from bus to museum, we saw this sculpture titled Fountain of the Arts or Inspiration (2006). It is a 3-D vision of paintings hanging in the museum. We would see this one later.

This is the entrance to the original building, completed in 1904 in a fairy tale style. Over time, several other buildings were added to the complex and the collection expanded to over 180,000 objects.

The statue above of Tretyakov by Alexander Kibalnikov (1980) greets you at the door. Inside the museum is his bust by Sergei Volnukhin (1899). Often photos show him pondering with arms crossed upon his chest as both these pieces depict.

One of first things that caught my eye was this lovely chandelier made of amethyst "chips." I have never seen anything like it. The darker areas in the photo, in actuality, are the same lovely lavender/purple as the upper petals.

Keep in mind up to the 17th century only religious paintings were generally accepted in Russia, so little secular to be found during that time. Russia did not participate in the Renaissance era. Here's a small sample of some of the works we admired. I'll do my best with titles, artists, and dates.

Empress Anna Ioannovna by Louis Caravaque (1730)
Portraits were, of course, popular for the rich and famous.

 Tsar Michael I (first tsar of the Romanovs) by Johann Wedekind (1636)

 Catherine the Great in the Temple of Justice by Dimitry Levitsky (circa 1782)

The Rider by Karl Bryullov (1832)

Girl in a Poppy Garland by Orest Kiprensky (1819)

White marble bust of Peter the Great. Handsome Dude!

View of the Colosseum from the Palatine Hill Rome by Fedor Matveev (1816)
During Peter the Great's era academic (or "under the European influence") painting came into vogue. 

Castel Sant'Angelo by Sylvester Shchedrin (1824)

Italy's Tiber River with Saint Peter's Cathedral in the background and the Castel to the right.

Sword Dance or Dance Among the Daggers by Henryk Siemiradzki (1881)
(daggers pointing up from pavement)

"Salon paintings" like these were paintings of beauty and leisure.

In the Artist's Studio or The Little Thief  by Konstantin Makovsky (1881)

War - Siege of Pskov by Karl Brulloff (1843)

Peril and hope - The Rainbow by Ivan Aivazovsky (1873)

Fairy tales - Morning in the Pine Forest by Ivan Shishkin (1889)

Ivan Zarevitch on the Grey Wolf  by Viktor Mikhailovich Vasnetsov (1889)

The Birch Grove by Arkhip Kuindzhi (1879)
This is the painting that was mimicked in the fountain sculpture (above) on the walk to the museum.

Religious art and icons - Annunciation of Ustyug by Veliky Novgorod (circa 1120)

Saint Demetrius of Thessaloniki (12th century mosaic)

The Holy Face by RasMarley (1170)
Found in Yaroslavl where we will visit and
thought to be the earliest image of the Holy Face found to date.

Found on Flickr: According to undocumented info, Prince Avgar, the ruler of Edessa in Syria, had leprosy. He heard of Christ, who could heal every pain and sickness. He sent a portrait painter to Palestine with a letter, in which he begged Christ to come to Edessa to heal him. Christ could not come, but he wiped his face with a napkin, leaving a perfect reproduction of His face on it. That image healed Avgar and protected the town from Edessa.

St. Basil's in Red Square by Fedor Yakovlevich (1801)
Artistic documentation because no photos back in those days.

Winter scenes - The Rooks Have Come by Alexei Savrasov (1871)

I love the next two. So reminiscent of Russia life in my mind.

Wedding Train in the 17th century by Andrei Rjabushkin (1901)
This was turned into a Russia postage stamp in 1986
and shows a sleigh carriage like we would soon see at the Hermitage.

The Family by Sergey Ivanov (1907)

Of course you can't see everything. We missed the famous Evard Munch's The Scream and Ilya Repin's Ivan the Terrible Killing His Son (grieving Ivan the T holding his son in his arms after mortally wounding him in a rage). We did see Vasily Vereshchagin's Apotheosis of War (a large pile of skulls in the desert with lurking blackbirds), but it was so chilling I could not take a photo.

An Aside: Friend Jerolyn's artist friend's name is Vladimir Vereschagin. Close spelling. Wonder if they are related? Years ago he visited our condo building when it was an art gallery and we bought two of his whimsical sketches and love them.

And, of course, we ended at the gift shop. Need another baseball cap? I resisted.