One in the Museum of Fine Arts. Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts (Pushkin Museum)

Them. Pushkin in Moscow? If you have never been there before, it’s a shame, because... this is one of the most interesting places in the capital! Today, the exhibitions of the Pushkin Museum are on a par with the collections of such titans of world cultural heritage as the Louvre or the Hermitage.

A little history

And it all began in 1898, on August 17. Museum of Fine Arts. Pushkin was founded on that distant summer day. It was intended primarily to disseminate and popularize knowledge in the field of art among broad sections of the Russian public, as well as for students studying sculpture. It must be said that the most educated people of that time worked on the museum project. The money for construction (most of it) was donated by the famous Russian philanthropist Yu.S. Nechaev-Maltsev. The design of the building itself was developed by the talented architect R.I. Klein. Before embarking on this important task, Klein spent a long time studying the museums of Egypt and Greece, as well as European experience.

When the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts was being built, engineers Vladimir Shukhov and Ivan Rerberg helped Klein. The first was the author of the original translucent ceilings of the main museum building, and the second was the deputy project manager. For the construction of the complex, Klein was awarded the high title of academician of architecture.

Amazing architectural style

Take a close look at the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts, the photo of which is presented below, and you may notice that it looks very much like an ancient temple (Greek) from antiquity, rising among dense trees. Like ancient religious buildings, the building stands on a high stone podium and is surrounded by majestic Ionic columns.

Reproduces the exact proportions of the columns of the portico on the Greek Acropolis. However, according to the architectural style of the Museum of Fine Arts. Pushkin is close to classicism. But that's only on the outside. Once inside, visitors find themselves in spacious rooms filled with light, access to which is provided by a glass dome. Such an unusual ceiling already indicates neoclassicism. By the way, when the museum was built, electric lighting was not included in the project at all. It was believed that sculptural compositions are best viewed in natural light.

Collections

An interesting fact is that the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts, before the October Revolution that struck Russia in 1917, was exclusively a sculpture museum. Skillfully made copies of ancient mosaics and statues were exhibited here. At that time, the originals were represented only by exhibits from the collections of the Egyptologist Golenishchev.

But after the October Revolution, museum exhibitions were replenished with paintings confiscated from the private collections of the Russian aristocracy and nationalized by the Bolsheviks. So, for example, the famous ones (Picasso Pablo) and (Dutch Van Gogh) came to the Pushkin Museum from the collections of the merchant Morozov.

Today, the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts proudly presents its visitors with a rich collection of French impressionism and post-impressionism. Here we can enjoy the paintings of Camille Pizarro, Arnie Matisse, Auguste Renoir, Pablo Picasso, Paul Cezanne, Sisley, Edgar Degas, Toulouse Lautrec, as well as the unique Van Gogh and other great painters.

Also in the Pushkin Museum you can look at Italian paintings of the 18th-20th centuries, Japanese and British engravings, copies of masterpieces of ancient art, including the huge sculpture of Michelangelo’s David, and much more. Total Museum of Fine Arts. Pushkin Museum stores 700 thousand exhibits, and almost one and a half million people visit it every year.

Events and activities held within the walls of the museum

On Thursdays in the evening and on Fridays during the day, the museum hosts interesting classes called “Conversations about Art” for everyone. Lectures are devoted to all the main sections of the exhibition, as well as various seasonal exhibitions regularly held in this cultural center.

Since 2012, the Pushkin Museum annually takes part in the all-Russian cultural event “Night of Museums”. The exquisite musical “Evenings of Svyatoslav Richter” have also become a tradition - an international music festival held under the arches of the Pushkin Museum every year in December.

Note to tourists

If you are planning to visit the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts for the first time in your life, do not confuse it with another Moscow museum named after the great Russian poet, which is located on Prechistenka. The main building of the Pushkin Museum is located on Volkhonka at number 12.

Tourists need to know that in the Pushkin Museum it is not allowed to smoke, use cellular communications (this is bad manners), touch museum exhibits, take photographs with flash, bring flowers into the halls, or eat outside the cafe area. Bags and large umbrellas should be left in the storage room.

Main building

Tuesday, Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday 11:00 to 20:00
Thursday and Friday from 11:00 to 21:00
Monday – closed

Tuesday, Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday from 11:00 to 20:00
Thursday and Friday – from 11:00 to 21:00
Monday – closed
Box office closes an hour earlier

Museum of Personal Collections (temporary exhibitions)

The main exhibition is closed until 2023.

Ticket prices for the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts in 2019.

Main building

For adults - 400 rubles

Gallery of Art of Europe and America of the 19th-20th centuries

For adults - 400 rubles
For students of the Russian Federation and pensioners of the Russian Federation - 200 rubles
For children under 16 years old - free

How to get to the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts

Address: Moscow, Volkhonka st., 12.

The nearest metro station is Kropotkinskaya. The museum is located on the opposite side of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior. The museum includes three buildings: the main building, the Gallery of European and American Art of the 19th-20th centuries. and the building of the museum of personal collections. Since the first place on the way from the metro is the Gallery, the sign of which also says that this is the Pushkin Museum, you don’t have to get to the main building and walk around the Gallery. Sometimes there is a queue at the ticket office of the Main building, which can become a landmark for the entrance to the Museum.

The Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts is located in the very center, close to other

A year and a half ago, all the impressionists and works of the 20th century were removed from the Pushkin Museum. Now they live in a separate building on the left (formerly the Museum of Personal Collections, now the Gallery of European and American Art of the 19th–20th centuries). As a result, a lot of space was freed up on the upper floors of the main building - they decided to update the exhibition. All the keepers had something to take out from under the covers - and, of course, everyone wanted it. Although only two collections could increase significantly - the Dutch one, due to the endless and infinitely prolific little Dutchmen (the great ones have been on display for a long time), and the Italian one, where there is something to add to each century (although names not previously presented are mostly familiar only to art historians, and Italianists at that) . As a result, both were added, but in different proportions. But first things first.

Of course, you can’t change the exposure overnight; the process is long. The halls were closed one by one, repaired and replaced, paintings were restored and taken out of storage. They carried the French upstairs and gathered Rembrandt and his school in one hall. To regular visitors of the museum this is unlikely to seem like an amazing metamorphosis - well, the walls were painted, the labels were changed, new shields were made. But if you remember how everything looked last year, it turns out that everything is the same, but not the same. On the ground floor, only the Greek and Italian courtyards remained unchanged (in the first there was a project for the reconstruction of the museum, and in the second there was a Christmas tree, but this is probably not forever). Everything else was mixed up. The left enfilade is now completely occupied by antiquities and antiquity, having supplanted Italian icons and the Early Renaissance. True, the way there still lies through the Fayum portraits, and the “Treasures of Troy,” now included in the permanent exhibition, have long been in the museum under the guise of an exhibition. In the center there is now an entrance to the Italian halls, in the vestibule of which works of Byzantium are displayed. The Italian Renaissance room no longer shows Cranach and the early Germans. Then, passing the Italian courtyard and passing through the French portico, you find yourself in the northern school (the French used to be here): Cranach, brought from Italy, now has his own separate nook. Further along the enfilade follow separate Flemish and Dutch rooms with corners of Rubens and Rembrandt. Pieter de Hooch appeared in Holland, whose existence no one except the guardians had any idea about. On the second floor, most of the halls are still occupied by copies and casts (unfortunately, they were not touched). But Italians settled in the left wing - academicists, mannerists and the Venetian school. A new wonderful Tiepolo, Magnasco and several Veronese (with a school) appeared. The right wing, as mentioned above, was given to the French, who enriched themselves with Lebrun and Lorrain. Overall, the exposure has increased by a third, which is nice. Now Pushkinsky gives me the feeling, like after the Capodimonte Museum in Naples, - as if the history of art consists mainly of antiquity and the mass of Italians, and everything else was just that, little things.

The most amazing thing is that all this beauty will not last long: the museum will soon be closed altogether. By the centennial anniversary (that is, by 2012), Pushkinsky should be reconstructed. The reconstruction project is being carried out by Norman Foster; according to preliminary plans, a huge underground museum quarter will appear on Volkhonka. The ending of this story is unpredictable: until the project passes all approvals, the underground museum could turn into a thirty-story shopping center - but we hope this will not happen with Pushkinsky. In the meantime, one unnoticeable reform has already been carried out in the museum’s halls. The fact is that in our museums the principle of inspection is compulsory - thanks to the enfilade system of halls. That is, the visitor cannot see only Rembrandt or only the small Dutchmen - to get to them, willy-nilly, one has to pass through many different styles, names and eras. Previously, to get into the halls of ancient Assyria, you had to go through the Italian icons, and the entrance to Italy of the 17th–18th centuries lay through the French hall. Now you can separately go to the halls of antiquity or early Italy, or Holland, or late France. Although, to be honest, the museum is so small that if you look at the entire exhibition in one sitting, even enlarged by a third, you will never get tired.

Second largest exposition of foreign art in Russia, including ancient monuments, paintings Rembrandt, Claude Monet, Degas, Van Gogh, Picasso.
A unique collection of plaster casts with main sculptural monuments from antiquity to the Renaissance.
The largest exhibition venue, periodically offering world-class exhibitions.
Music Festival " December evenings by Svyatoslav Richter” takes place in the museum, combining music concerts with the theme of art exhibitions.
IN in the vicinity of the museum you can stroll along the neighboring streets and admire architectural masterpieces in the Russian Art Nouveau style, and visit other museums.
All important information has been translated into English, There are audio guides, it is possible to go on a guided tour.

State Museum of Fine Arts named after. A.S. Pushkin is one of the most interesting places in the capital. Here you can see the first largest collection of foreign art in Moscow and the second largest in Russia (after the Hermitage). However, the Pushkin Museum is not only a collection of monuments of Ancient Egypt or a place where you can see original paintings by the classics Rembrandt, Poussin, Canaletto and the famous impressionists and post-impressionists Claude Monet, Degas, Van Gogh, Picasso. The peculiarity of this museum is that it presents life-size plaster casts from all the major sculptural monuments of antiquity, the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. Thus, the museum provides an opportunity to immediately get a visual representation of sculptural masterpieces, the originals of which are scattered across galleries in different countries. The pearl of this area of the museum is the Italian courtyard - an exact copy of the courtyard of the Florentine Bargello palace. In addition, the Pushkin Museum is one of the most active venues in the city, hosting world-class temporary exhibitions. Recent events include, for example, solo exhibitions of Picasso, Turner, Caravaggio, Titian and Raphael.

Let's list the sections expositions of the Main building of the museum: Art of Ancient Egypt; Art of the Middle East (originals and replicas); Ancient Troy and the excavations of G. Schliemann (“Priam’s treasure”); Ancient art (originals and replicas); Byzantine art; Art of the Middle Ages (copy casts); Renaissance art (copy casts); Art of Germany and the Netherlands from the 15th to 16th centuries; art of Flanders and Holland of the 17th century; XVII - XVIII centuries; art of France XVII - early XIX centuries.

The museum hosts excursions, lectures, and master classes. The music festival “December Evenings of Svyatoslav Richter”, invented in 1981 by the pianist together with the long-time director of the museum Irina Antonova, has a long tradition. The festival combines the theme of art exhibitions with music concerts. The branches of the Pushkin Museum are located nearby and the Department of Personal Collections.

The Pushkin Museum is located in the very heart of Moscow, between the Cathedral of Christ the Savior. In the area of Volkhonki Street, the historical buildings of the 19th century are well preserved. Two famous Moscow streets diverge from here - Ostozhenka and Prechistenka, where many architectural masterpieces in the Russian Art Nouveau style have been preserved. The area is also home to numerous art and literary museums.

History of the museum

The history of the creation of the museum is closely connected with personality (1847 - 1913). He was a prominent historian, philologist and art critic, a professor at Moscow University, and had the high rank of Privy Councilor. Initially, Tsvetaev collected casts for the university Cabinet of Fine Arts and Antiquities. This project later grew into a plan to organize an educational museum for students studying architecture and sculpture.

In 1896, the terms of the Competition for the development of a project for the museum building were published. As a result, R. Klein's project was approved. Work on the construction of the building was carried out with the help of famous engineers I. Rerberg and V. Shukhov. Initially, the museum did not have electric lighting: the light had to enter the halls through the ceiling. The shape of the building resembles an ancient temple on a podium with a colonnade. The Ionic colonnade of the museum building has a prototype - the famous portico of the caryatids of the Erechtheion in Athens. The frieze behind the colonnade of the facade is a copy of the Parthenon frieze, and on the attic there is a relief carved with the image of the Olympic Games. The interiors of the halls are decorated in accordance with the themes of the sections. One of the brightest and most memorable examples of this solution is the Egyptian hall, the design of which uses the shapes of Egyptian columns, and the paintings reflect the motifs of ancient Egyptian painting.

In 1898, a special “Museum Organization Committee” was created to organize the museum. Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich became its chairman. Almost 80% of the budget was contributed by Yu. Nechaev-Maltsov, a major philanthropist and diplomat. In 1912, the grand opening of the Alexander III Museum of Fine Arts took place. The ceremony was attended by Emperor Nicholas II and Maria Feodorovna (widow of Emperor Alexander III).

During Soviet times, the museum's collections expanded significantly, including through the nationalization of private collections, and the museum was removed from the private jurisdiction of Moscow University. On the anniversary of the centenary of the death of the great Russian poet (1937), the museum was given the name. A specific episode in the history of the museum occurred in 1949 - 1953, when the main part of the halls was dedicated to an exhibition of gifts. Almost immediately after the death of the leader, the familiar permanent exhibition was restored and opened.

For the 100th anniversary of the Pushkin Museum in 2012, work began on creating the so-called “Museum Town”: a complex of buildings to expand the exhibition area and general functionality. The project is planned to be completed by 2019. The Main Building and Gallery are currently operating as normal, with the Personal Collections Department holding only temporary exhibitions until work is completed.

Museum collection

The collection of the Pushkin Museum includes over 670 thousand exhibits, and the exhibition area of the museum is 2600 square meters. The museum consists of several buildings. The Main Building (Volkhonka St., 12) houses collections of casts and original works of art from ancient times to the 18th century. New art is exhibited in the adjacent building of the Gallery of European and American Art of the 19th – 20th centuries. (Volkhonka st., 14). On the opposite side of the Main Building there is the Department of Personal Collections (Volkhonka St., 10) and the Museyon (Kolymazhny Lane, 6, building 2) - a unique museum, the exhibition in which is classified not according to the usual chronological order, but according to collections in which the works ended up in the museum. Special attention is paid here to the personalities of collectors.

The Center for Aesthetic Education "Museion" was opened in 2006, classes are held here in children's groups, there is a Club of Young Art Critics, and exhibitions of Museyon students are held.

As already mentioned, the first stage in the development of the museum was a collection of casts from masterpieces of sculpture, which would help students in their studies. To make plaster copies, molds made from the original monuments were used. They correspond to their actual size, which is very difficult to determine from photographs. Then, individual collections of original works of art began to be received into the museum's funds from benefactors or acquired. One of the first was the collection of V. Golenishchev. This outstanding orientalist collected an excellent collection of monuments of Ancient Egypt, which was acquired by the state and transferred to the museum in 1909 - 1911. The exhibits there date back to the 4th millennium BC. until the 4th century BC Among them are real archaeological artifacts, such as a bust of Pharaoh Amenemhat III, created in the 19th century BC, and a cosmetic spoon from the New Kingdom era.

Another early acquisition is a collection of Italian painting from the 13th to 14th centuries, donated by diplomat M. Shchekin. After