Pearls of Russia

Museums and memorial estates

The State Museum of the Fine Arts

The State Museum of the Fine Arts named after A.Pushkin is one of the largest foreign art collections in Russia from the most ancient times to the present days.

In a modern exposition are present an extensive educational collection rendering plaster casts from the antiquity works, Middle Ages and Renaissance and collection of original paintings, sculptures, graphic arts and arts and crafts.

In the halls of a ground floor there are mainly the works of the art of Ancient Egypt, antiquity, collection of European paintings of VIII-XVIII centuries; two halls, named the Italian and Greek yards occupied by the casts. On the second floor there are halls with casts from the arts of Ancient Greece, Rome, Middle Ages and Renaissance. Halls of paintings present the art of XIX-XX centuries.

Today the State Museum of the Fine Arts named after A.Pushkin totals over 560 thousand works of painting and a sculpture, graphic works, works of an applied art, archeology and numismatic pieces and an art photo works.

The Museum history documents, scientific and epistolary heritage of the museum founder and other museum figures, archives of some museums are stored in the manuscript fund of the Museum.

In 1991the State Museum of the Fine Arts named after A.Pushkin is entered into the State Statute of the Cultural Heritage of the Russian Federation.

In the field of popularization of a history of arts the Museum is the initiator of various forms of work with children. The Museum issues scientific annuals, catalogues of collections and exhibitions, guidebooks, albums, a series of brochures " To help the school " on materials of an exposition of a museum etc.

Since 1981 under the initiative and with S.T.Rihter's participation the Museum organize the International Music Festival " December evenings ". At the Museum there is a scientific - restoration workshop and scientific library.

COLLECTIONS of the MUSEUM

Art of the Ancient World.
The art of Ancient Egypt collection includes the unique collection of originals collected by V.S.Golenishchev (more than 6000 works) and received by the Museum from the state in 1909-1911 years. In 1940 the private collection of A.V. Zhivago was handed down to the Museum according to the will. Also in 1940 the Museum purchased the collection of A.V.Prahov the historian of art.

Picture gallery
The earliest monuments of a collection are works of the Byzantine art: mosaics and icons. Official opening of a collection was held in October 10, 1924, however the first originals were handed to the Museum as a gift from M.S.Shchekin the Russian consul in Trieste even before the Museum opened in 1910. The works of the West-European artists from the Rumiantsevsky Museum were handed over to the Museum; as well as collections of S.M. Tretiakov, Usupov, Shuvalov, G.A.Brokar, D.I.ShChukin and other collectors. Receipts from the State Hermitage were of special importance. However finally the structure of picture gallery was defined only in 1948 when the gallery has been replenished with works of the French artists of the second half XIX century - the beginnings of XX century from collections of the former Museum of the Modern Western Art.

Graphic arts
Department of engravings and drawings was formed in 1924 when the Museum received funds of the Engraving study from the former Rumiantsevsky Museum. The beginning of the Engraving study collection was set by the gift of the Emperor Alexander II. Moscow Public Museum and the Rumiantsevsky Museum have received from the Hermitage more than 20 thousand engravings then. Subsequently in the structure of the Department were included significant private collections of D.A.Rovinsky (Russian engraving), N.S.Mosolov (etchings of Rembrandt, drawings of the Dutch artists of the XVII century), S.N.Kitaev (the Japanese engraving). In Soviet time the Department was replenished due to gifts, purchases and transfers from other museums (the Hermitage, the Historical Museum, the Museum of Modern Western Art). As a result the Department of an engravings and drawings became the big museum of graphic art which collections includes about 400 thousand engravings, drawings, books with engravings, posters and the ex-librises created by masters of the Western Europe, America, Russia, the East from the XV century to the present day.

Sculptures
In the State Museum of the Fine Arts named after A.Pushkin there are about 600 works of the West-European sculpture. The first monuments presented to the Museum of Fine Arts, were sculptures from collections of M.S.Shchekin (1910) and A.A.Homjakov (1911). Systematic acquisition of sculptural originals began after 1924 when the special Department of a sculpture was organized. Works from the disbanded Rumiantsevsky Museum, the Museum of the former Stroganov school, the Museum of Furniture, from private collections (D.I.Shchukin, I.S.Ostroukhov etc.) were send to the Museum. As a result the collection was enriched with samples of polychrome wooden sculpture of the XV-XVI centuries, works of bronze sculpture of the XVI-XVII centuries, works of the French masters of the XVIII century. After closing in 1948 of the Museum of Modern Western Art the Museum has received over 60 sculptures - works of Rodent, Maiole, Bourdele, Tsadkin, and Arkhipenko etc.

Arts and crafts
Today's collection of arts and crafts include the Limouge enamels, the Bruxelles lanes, the Italian majolica and more than 300 first class samples of furniture. The beginning of this collection was set by some gifts, which were made shortly before the opening of the Museum in 1912. The funds of the State Museum, the Museum of the Stroganov school, the State Historical Museum and the Museum of Furniture in Moscow became the sources of receipts of arts and crafts works.

Casts
The Museum has one of the largest selections of casts in the world by quantity and completeness. Cast is a mechanical reproduction of a sculptural monument in the plaster, precisely repeating its form and the sizes. Casts of sculptures of the Ancient World, Middle Ages and Renaissance make the basis of the collection. The modern exposition includes the following halls of casts: the Greek and Italian yards, halls of the Aegean Art and Ancient Greece, a hall of the Greek Art of the late classics and the Hellenism, a hall of the Art of Ancient Italy, halls of the Art of Middle Ages, a hall of the German and Netherlands sculptures of the XV-XVI centuries, a hall of the Italian sculpture of Renaissance and a hall of the Michelangelo sculpture. Even today this cast collection continues to play the important role in the spreading of knowledge of the history of world art.

Numismatics
State Museum of the Fine Arts named after A.Pushkin is the owner of coins and medals collection, which is considered to be one of the best and the oldest in Russia. The collection begins in the Moscow Imperial University at the end of the XVIII century. Now the collection totals already about 200 thousand exhibits.