Exactly 120 years ago, on April 25, 1895, Emperor Nicholas II signed Decree No.62 establishing the Emperor Alexander III Russian Museum. This moment marked the beginning of the largest museum of Russian art in the world.
However, the groundwork for the creation of a national state museum had already been done. The search for Russia’s distinctive national identity and growth in national self-consciousness surrounding the War of 1812, the Decembrist movement and influence of revolutions in Europe as well as the reforms of the 1860s-1870s led to the active discussion of the idea of organizing a museum of Russian art among society’s educated class. Duke Sergei Trubetskoy wrote in 1989 that the “contemporary prosperity of Russian art and Russia’s high position in the civilized world” stipulate the need for such a museum.
In 1881 Pavel Tretyakov opened his gallery in Moscow for viewing. Any person regardless of gender and rank and without prejudice of appearance could stroll through the gallery free of charge practically any day of the week. Perhaps the very fact of the creation of a museum of national art thanks to the labors and funds of the Moscow merchant somewhat offended the vanity of the royal family.
In 1889 the question of the establishing a national museum for the public in St. Petersburg had practically been resolved. According to contemporaries of Alexander III, when acquiring Ilya Repin’s painting “Saint Nicholas of Myra saves three innocents from death” at the 17th exhibition of the Peredvizhniki (Itinerants), the emperor spoke in favor of the idea of creating a museum for the people which would bring together all of the country’s best works of art
From the very beginning the collection was housed in the Mikhailovsky Palace, which was built for the Grand Duke Mikhail Pavlovich, son of Paul I. The nucleus of the Museum collection consisted of oil painting, sculpture, graphic art, decorative and applied art. On the whole it was less than 1500 items mainly from the collections of the Hermitage, the Museum of the Academy of Arts and from the Royal Palaces.
Some exhibits came from private collectors, for example the Prince Lobanov-Rostovsky collection was acquired from his heirs. The size of the Russian Museum collection almost doubled during the first decade of its existence. The Academy of Arts also transferred its collection of Christian Antiquities — five thousands items — including Novgorod icons, wooden sculpture and samples of the middle-century religious art. The Lobanov-Rostovsky collection donated to the Museum included 95 portraits of the Russian statesmen of the 18-19 centuries.
Another source of acquisitions was the collection from the Alexander Palace in Tsarskoye Selo (items from the Anichkov Palace entered the museum much later). Nikolai Likhachev donated his vast collection of Greek and Old-Russian icons.
A considerable part of fine artworks was presented to the Museum from the private collections. The October Revolution caused no damage to the Russian Museum collection. All the nationalized private collections and separate artworks were transferred to museums. During the first decade after the Revolution the Russian Museum collection grew several times compared to its original size. The ties of the Russian Museum with the Hermitage and the Tretyakov Gallery permitted mutually advantageous interchange of artistic treasures.
Today the collection of the Russian Museum numbers some 400,000 works and covers the entire history of Russian fine art from the 10th century to the present day. It reflects virtually every form and genre of art in Russia, including a unique collection of Old Russian icons, works of painting, graphic art and sculpture, decorative and applied art, folk art and numismatics, as well as the world’s finest collection of Russian avant-garde.
In honor of the 120th anniversary of the Russian Museum, the Russkiy Mir Portal presents a selection of the some of the crown jewels of the museum’s collection.
Alexei Antropov, Portrait of Maria Rumyantseva
Dmitry Levitzky, Portrait of Countess Anna Protasova
Vladimir Borovikovsky, Portrait of Ekaterina Arsenieva
Karl Bryullov, The Last Day of Pompeii
Ivan Aivazovsky, The Ninth Wave
Alexander Ivanov, Christ's Appearance to Mary Magdalene after the Resurrection
Viktor Vasnetsov, A Knight at a Crossroads
Ilya Repin, Reply of the Zaporozhian Cossacks to Sultan Mehmed IV
Isaac Levitan, The Lake. Rus
Vasily Vereshchagin, Shipka-Sheinovo. Skobelev at Shipka
Vasily Surikov, Suvorov Crossing the Alps
Mikhail Vrubel, Six-Winged Seraph
Valentin Serov, Children (Sasha and Yura Serov)
Kazimir Malevich, Black Suprematic Square
Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin, Anxiety. 1919
Alexander Samokhvalov, Girl in a Tee-Shirt
Alexander Deyneka, Defense of Sevastopol
Gely Korzhev, Traces of War
Polina Skolkova
