Collection / Russian
Painting
A small collection of icons of the sixteenth-seventeenth centuries brings the viewer closer to the roots of national traditions, making more notable the importance of the change towards secular culture at the turn of eighteenth century, mainly expressed in portrait painting.The refined female images of Feodor Rokotov (1730-1808), the ceremonial portraits by Dmitry Levitsky (1735-1822), the psychologically and emotionally coloured works of Vladimir Borovikovsky (1754-1825), and the masterly paintings of the foreigners Louis Tocque (1696-1772), Vigilius Eriksen (1722-1782), and Pietro Rotari (1707-1762) altogether form a “multi-faced” artistic world united by the ideals and notions about human personality closely connected with the model`s social status.They witness to the arising interest towards human individuality and inner life.
The ninetheenth century is exhibited in the Museum more diversely, with a wider range of genres, stylistic trends and artistic individualities.Classicism and Romanticism, the main trends of the first half of the nineteenth century,are represented by the portraits of Dmitry Filosofov (1872-1940) by Orest Kiprensky (1782-1836), of P. Kamensky and M. Bek by Karl Brullov (1799-1852), and other works of the Museum`s collection. Under the influence of the tendencies of their time, they created a new world of images, lofty and noble, full of refined emotions.The works of the most popular painters such as Karl Brullov (1799-1852), strongly influenced the painters of the academic style, namely Pyotr Basin (1793), Pimen Orlov (1818-1863), Ivan Khrutsky (1810-1885), Vladimir Sverchkov (1821-1888) et al. The striving for more vivid and realistic approach to depicting characters is typical of Alexey Venetsianov (1780-1847) and Vasily Tropinin (1776-1857); besides scenes of everyday-life, they painted a series of expressive portraits of their contemporaries. The portraits of the Lazarevs painted by Tropinin are not only of artistic, but also of historical interest. Being one of the well-to-do families in Russia, the Lazarevs are famous for their beneficial activity. Thanks of the financial support of the family in 1815 the Institute of Oriental Languages was founded in Moscow, where translators for the Caucasus were trained, and also indigent Armenians could get free education.
The Lazarevs who were in close relationship with progressive circles of Russian intellectuals, served as models for portraits by the outstanding Russian masters Ivan Argunov (1723-1802), Vasily Tropinin (1776-1857), Sergey Zaryanko (1818-1870) et al. Their works are kept in the Museum. Tropinin’s “Portrait of H. A. Lazarev” (1822) is one of his best works painted in the traditional manner of ceremonial portrait buy coloured with sincerity and cordiality characteristic of the author, and thus endowed with mood of intimacy.
Tha realistic achievements of the authors of genre painting intensely developed in the second half of the nineteenth century, in the works of the Peredvizhniks, being most vividly expressed in the pictures by the outstanding representatives of that trend Ilya Repin (1844-1930) and Vasily Surikov (1848-1916). Their works in the collection of the Museum illustrate the innovating achievements of the masters of historical and portrait painting. “The Barge Hauler” (1870-1873), “The portrait of M. Klimentova”, “The Blonde Woman”, “The potriat of Solsky” (1903), and “A Duel” are testimonies to Repin’s extraordinary talent, his ability to find artistic forms corresponding to the model, and of his free and wide manner of painting endowing his characters with expressiveness.
The renovation of the genre of landscape, too, is connected with the names of the Peredvizhniks. The portrayal of the native land, dependent on the talent of each master, creat variety and richness of landscape images.The exposition give an opportunity to trace the development of the genre during the nineteenth-twentieth centuries. The elements of lyricism characteristic of the painters of the first half of the nineteenth century, especially Silvester Shchedrin (1791-1830) and Mikhail Lebedev (1811-1837), developed in the works of the later masters, namely the founder of the national landscape painting Alexey Savrasov (1830-1897) whose works are full of refined emotions, in Feodor Vasiliev’s (1850-1873) sketches, Vasily Polenov’s (1844-1927) works filled with light and air, Isaak Levitan’s (1860-1900) musical landscapes, Valentin Serov’s (1865-1911) 
generalized compositions, and Konstantin Korovin’s (1861-1939) impressionistic landscapes. Another kind of realistic landscape is represented by the works of Ivan Shishkin (1832-1898), Arkhip Kuingi (1841/42-1910), characterized by monumental tendencies, and large scale of interpretation of images-features typical also of the epic compositions kept in the Gallery.
The exposition of the works of the masters of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries is the most comprehensive and contains many masterpieces. Valentin Serov (1865-1911) has mentioned the portrait of M. Akimova among his five best portraits. This work impresses the viewer with extraordinary boldness of image-bearing devices and beauty of colour solution. Its colouring built on the combination of rich, lush red and blue coloures and refined white, black and golden tones, stresses the delicacy and subtle charm of the model’s eastern beauty.
The seeneries and compositions of Alexander Benois (1870-1960) and Alexander Golovin (1863-1930), works by Konstantin Somov (1869-1939) reviving the spirit of epochs, the self-portrait by Zinaida Serebryakova (1906-1991), the Petersburg motives by Anna Ostroumova-Lebedeva (1871-1955), and Nikolay Roerich’s (1874-1947) theatrical designs are only a part of exposition of various works by the members of the artistic circle “Mir iskusstva” (“World of Art”). The inclination for synthesis of arts, and vivid interest 
towards the historical heritage are the characteristic features of their works. The journal bearing the same name, in which the mentioned tendencies were expressed, united the best artists of Russia and predetermined many of the main trends of the epoch. The most brilliant Russian impressionist Konstantin Korovin (1861-1939), symbolist Mikhail Vrubel (1856-1910), the future members of the association “The Blue Rose” Nikolay Sapunov (1880-1912), and Sergey Sudeykin (1882-1946), alongside with Pavel Kuznetsov (1878-1965), Pyotr Utkin (1877-1934), Martiros Saryan (1880-1972), Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin (1878-1939), developed the artistic principles of one of the most important trends in Russian painting, Symbolism.The younger generation of the symbolists, despite the variety of artistis abilities and the nature of their talent, was united by the expression of personal feelings, and the emotions of the soul, striving to penetrate beyond the border of the visible.They managed to enrich symbolism by creating a new structure of painting images.
Having exhausted itself by 1910, Symbolism greatly influenced the first steps of the painters of Russian avant-garde, which united masters of various orientations:
Natalya Goncharova (1881-1962), Mikhail Larionov (1881-1964), Pavel Filonov (1883-1941), Vasily Kandinsky (1866-1944) and Mark Chagall (1887-1985), closely related to Russian culture, and the members of the circle “Bubnovy valet” (“The Knave of Diamonds”) Pyotr Konchalovsky (1876-1956), Alexander Kuprin (1880-1960) and Robert Falk (1886-1958). They integrated in their works the traditions of national painting, primitive art, urban folk art, icon painting, and the achievements of Western European art: post-Impressionism, Cubism, and other trends.
The Gallery possesses the works by famous painters of the avant-garde, permanent participants of international exhibitions, and today those works determine the 
popularity of the collection. Vasily Kandinsky’s (1866-1944) “The Oriental suite; Arabs ׀׀׀” is one of the masterpieces of the collection; it was painted in 1911, at a crucial moment in Kandinsky’s work, and is characterized by the appearance of new, abstract forms.The composition is dynamic due to correlation of lines, forms and spots, which transform into silhouettes of flying riders, into a jar and contours of a woman’s figure. All these images are easy to recognize, although they are signs and symbols traditionally connected with the East. Joined together and as if generated by the colour scale with its contrast of warm and cool colours, they predetermine the mood of the work, the spirit and atmosphere of East, creating an original colouristic symphony consonant with it.
Another masterpiece of the collection is Mark Chagall’s (1887-1985) “Dacha” (Behind the house). painted in 1917, in one of the happy periods of his life, the composition attracts with
sincerity and poetic spirit characteristic of the master.
The works of the Russian followes of P. Sezanne, the painters of the circle “Bubnovy valet” Ilya Mashkov (1881-1944), and Alexander Kuprin (1880-1960), alongside with their associates Mikhail Larionov (1881-1964), Natalya Goncharova (1881-1962), are the pride of the Russian collection. More than seventeen works by Robert Falk (1886-1958) kept in the Museum, which are among his masterpieces, are evidences to his high artistic skill and rare sense of colour. Those features are wonderfully expressed in one of his best works, “A woman in a rose shawl”, the portrait of the painter’s wife, A. Shchekin-Krotova. The colouring worked up in rose and grey tones stresses the refinement and femininity of the model, endowing her image with special spirituality of the model, endowing her image with special spirituality and lyricism.
The exposition of the Museum represents also works by masters of the Soviet school. Although the exhibits are not numerous, they cover the important stages of that period. The Gallery possesses works by the leading Soviet painters Pyotr Konchalovsky (1876-1956), Arkady Plastov (1893-1972), Pavel Korin (1892-1967), Sergey Gerasimov (1885-1964), Alexander Deyneka, Tatyana Yablonskaya (1917-2005), the painters of the “severe style” Anatoli Nikich (1918), Viktor Popkov (1932-1974) and other modern authors: Alexander Sukhanov (1945), Natalya Nesterova (1944), Yuri Zharkikh (1938) and Pavel Kondratiev (1902-1985). Those works reveal the artistic strivings of the mentioned masters and the world outlook of whole epoch.
