The Tretyakov Gallery
Moscow is replete with art galleries and museums. Yet there is one gallery that remains a symbol of Russian art. It is the world-famous Tretyakov Gallery.
The founder of the gallery was the entrepreneur Pavel Tretyakov (1832—1898), who was from the merchant class.
Beginning in 1856, Tretyakov had a hobby of collecting works by the Russian artists of his time. He was a famous patron of the arts who helped to support the "peredvizhniki" (a movement consisting of realistic painters in the second half of the 19th century). Toward this goal, he intended to purchase a collection from a St. Petersburg collector, Fyodor Pryanishnikov, and, having added his own collection, created a museum. The government bought Pryanishnikov's gallery in 1867, but Tretyakov gradually acquired an excellent collection, exceeding all other collections in Russia in its volume and quality.
In 1892, Pavel Tretyakov donated his entire collection to Moscow. His brother Sergey Tretyakov (1834—1892) was also a collector, but only of Western European paintings.
The brothers' collections were at ,the core of the Moscow Municipal Art Gallery,which opened on August 15,1893. At first, it contained 1,287 paintings and 518 pieces of graphic art by Russian artists, as well as 75 paintings by Western European artists.
Later, the Western European paintings in the Tretyakov Gallery were transferred to the Hermitage and the A. S. Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts, and the Tretyakov Gallery began to specialize exclusively in Russian art.
After 1918, the Tretyakov collection grew many times with the inclusion of the collection of Ilya Ostroukhov (1858— 1929), an artist, paintings of the Russian school from the Moscow Rumyantsev Museum, and many private collections. Presently, the gallery is being improved by carefully planned purchases. Already more than 55 thousand works are kept there. There is the rich collection of ancient Russian icon painting of the 12th—17th centuries including Andrei Rublyov's famous "Trinity", as well as significant works of painting and sculpture of the 18th — 19th centuries — paintings by Dmitriy Levitskiy, Fyodor Rokotov, Karl Bryullov, Orest Kiprenskiy, Alexander Ivanov (including his wellknown canvas "The Appearance of Christ Before the People"), Ivan Kramskoy, and sculptures by Fedot Shubin.
The gallery has an excellent selection of the best works by the "peredvizhniki": Ilya Repin (including "Ivan the Terrible and His Son Ivan"), Victor Vasnetsov, Ivan Shishkin, Vasiliy Surikov ("The Morning of the Strelets Execution"), Vasiliy Vereshchagin and others.
The blossoming of many areas of Russian art at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th centuries is also well represented. Suffice it to name such artists of the period as Mikhail Vrubel, Isaak Levitan, Nicholas Rerikh, Alexander Benua, Mikhail Nesterov, Konstantin Korovin, Mstislav Dobuzhinskiy, Konstantin Somov, Valentin Serov, Boris Kustodiev and Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin. After the relatively short period of the 1910's— 1920's, new movements in art — futurism, cubism, etc. — were quickly developed.
Such an artistic movement as socialist realism also produced a number of talented and original artists. This trend is represented by works of Alexander Deineka, Arkadiy Plastov, Yuri Pimenov, Dmitriy Nalbandyan, and others.
The main building of the gallery includes the renovated Tretyakov home and several buildings that were attached to it at various times. The main facade of the building was erected in 1902 according to plans by the artist Victor Vasnetsov. In 1994, the Tretyakov Gallery opened after 10 years of restoration. This was not just a facelift to the building; the interior and technical equipment were brought up to the highest standards of quality, which is as it should be, since it contains so many treasures of Russian art.
The Hermitage
One of the world-wide known museums is the Hermitage. The word "Hermitage" means "a place of solitude". This name was given in the XVIII century by Catherine П to her private museum housed in a small building adjacent to the Winter Palace and accessible only to the chosen few.
In the course of time, the Hermitage grew into one of the greatest museums of the world. At the present, the collections take up five interconnected buildings. The museum retains its old name. The accumulation of artifacts let to the formation of new departments devoted to the culture and art of the Peoples of the East, of the Prehistoric culture, and of the Russian culture. Three other departments are those of Western European art, classical antiquities and numismatics.
One of the rooms that impressed visitor the most is St. George Hall. The interior of the room is considered by experts to be a perfect example of the Classical Style. The room covers about 800 square meters, but does not seem enormous due to perfect proportions. It is decorated in the whitest marble and gilded bronze. The Throne Hall was used for column assemblies. Members of the Tzar's family, when coming of age, took their oaths here. The Leonardo da Vinci Hall is one of the most gorgeous interiors. The hall is decorated in the style of 17 century French Baroque. The Hermitage possesses two, out of 12 or 14 works surviving from Leonardo. The Rembrandt collection is one of the most treasured possessions of the museum. It members 24 canvases. The Malachite Room reflects the style of 1889. The columns, pilasters, and floor lamps are veneered with thin plaques of rich green malachite. About two tons of malachite were used in decoration of the room.
British Museums
There are many museums in London. One of them is the Tate Gallery in Millmank, which presents modern masters of England and France. There are some fine examples of modern sculpture. Its collection of French Impressionists is marvelous. There is the Victoria and Albert Museum in Brompton Road. It has an outstanding collection of the applied arts of all countries and periods.
The National Gallery in Trafalgar Square has one of the best picture collection in the world. It has the most valuable display of French paintings from the early of the Impressionists, and, of course, the finest English painting, with Gainsborough, Turner, Constable and others.
It shows the progress of Italian painting from the medieval to the Renaissance, some outstanding pictures of the old Roman masters. It also has a great variety of Dutch and Flemish masters and an excellent choice of Spanish painters. There are great treasures dispersed in private collections all over the world. The Queen's collection is the most valuable among them.
My Favourite English Painter
From early times Englishmen have been great collectors and travelers. The general level of art in Great Britain has always been high. But it has never reached that of France and Italy. Many greatest foreign masters were attracted to Britain by lavish rewards and honors. Among them were the Flemish Anthony Van Dyck, Harts Holbein of German extraction. They were the originators of the brilliant school of English painting.
As for me, William Hogarth is the most colorful figure, whose paintings attract by their singular originality. Hogarth wrote series of paintings which, like acts of a drama, were bound together by a plot. His famous series are "A Harlot's Progress", "A Rake's Progress" and "Marriage a la Mande".
In a few years came another series "Elections". In them Hogarth displays the English state system, her statesmen and the evil practices going on during election campaigns.
Hogarth didn't want to follow the vogue and copy the old masters: the truth of life, the every day reality seemed to be of greater importance. He breaks off with the old style. Hogarth is the creator of his own method. His contemporaries called Hogarth's style the "modern moral subject". Hogarth's realism paved new ways for English art.
William Thackeray in his book "The English Humourists of the 18th century" describes William Hogarth in the following way: "...he's a jovial honest London citizen, stout and sturdy man, who has a proper bourgeas scorn for everything pretentious and false.
The British Painters
(Joseph Mallord William Turner) William Turner, a great romantic English landscape painter, was born in Devonshire in 1775. He lived with his uncle in Middlesex, where he began to attend school. His first drawings are dated 1787, when he was only twelve years of age. His childish sketch-books, filled with drawings, are still preserved in the British Museum. When he was 21, he began to exhibit oil paintings as well as water-colours at the Royal Academy. The first, "Fishermen at Sea" is now in the Gate Gallery.
He traveled much in France, Germany, Switzerland, Italy. But he never lost his interest in his own country.
As a landscape painter Turner was interested mainly in light and colour effects. One of his famous paintings is even called "Light and Colour". His work is high praised by great critics. Turner died in London in 1851. His pictures and drawings became the property of the British nation. William Turner is considered to be one of the world greatest painters.
