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Home , Abram Arkhipov, Apollinary Vasnetsov, Arkhip Kuindzhi, Boris Kustodiev, Ilya Ostroukhov, Ilya Repin

PRESS RELEASE MUSÉE CANTONAL DES BEAUX-ARTS DE LAUSANNE Lausanne, April 2014

We are pleased to invite you to the press conference of the exhibition Magic of Russian Landscape. Masterpieces from the State , on Thursday 22 May 2014 at 11 am Tatiana Karpova, vice-director of the State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow, will be present.

GENERAL INFORMATION

Opening reception Thursday 22 May 2014 at 7 pm, Aula, Palais de Rumine

Curator Tatiana Karpova, vice-director of the State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow, and Catherine Lepdor, chief curator of the Musée cantonal des Beaux-Arts de Lausanne

Media contact Loïse Cuendet, [email protected] Tel. : +41 (0)21 316 34 48

To download press material: www.mcba.ch > press relations Username: mcba-presse / Password: gpresse

Address Musée cantonal des Beaux-Arts, Lausanne Palais de Rumine, place de la Riponne 6 CH-1014 Lausanne Tel. : +41 (0)21 316 34 45 Fax. : +41 (0)21 316 34 46 [email protected] www.mcba.ch

Opening hours Tuesday – Friday: 11 am – 6 pm Saturday – Sunday: 11 am – 5 pm Closed on Monday Ascension Day, Whit Monday and 1st August : 11 am – 5 pm

Admission Adults: CHF 10.– Pensioners, students, apprentices: CHF 8.– Under 16: free 1st Saturday of the month : free

Access Metro M2: station Riponne – Maurice Béjart Bus 1, 2: stop at Rue Neuve Bus 7, 8: stop at Riponne

Press release Magic of Russian Landscapes. Masterpieces from the State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow mcb-a Lausanne Page 2 Magic of Russian Landscape. Masterpieces from the State Tretyakov Galery, Moscow 23 May – 5 October 2014

THE EXHIBITION The Musée cantonal des Beaux-Arts, Lausanne, is hosting an exceptional collection of works originating from the State Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow. Some seventy illustrate the glory days of the Russian landscape school between 1855 and 1917, from the beginning of the reign of Tsar Alexander II to the .

While many people see the contribution of the Russian school to as beginning with the avant-garde in the second decade of the 20th century, the break with academic art started in the mid-. A new generation of artists refused to submit to the diktat of the in St Petersburg. Abandoning Biblical and mythological subjects, they set out to discover Russian customs and landscapes, revisiting their past in the highly politicised context of the assertion of a national identity, the abolition of serfdom and the belief held by the intelligentsia that art could make a decisive contribution towards building a modern, democratic society.

In this context of profound change, landscape played a crucial role. For contem- poraries, along with genre , it was landscape that could best convey the Russian “soul” and Russian “land”. At the time of ’s greatest territorial expansion, painters set about discovering the seas, mountains and forests of the huge Empire. They observed the sky, the passage of the seasons from dawn to nightfall, they were keen to depict peasant customs, and rural and urban architec- ture. Rejecting the Italianate landscapes in vogue up to that time, the new school drew inspiration from historical (the 17th-century Dutch school) as well as contemporary examples of realism (the Düsseldorf school, the Barbizon school, ). Stylistically these tendencies nurtured a vision of nature that was certainly realistic, but also powerfully narrative and symbolic.

The of this period presents a complex mosaic, and is striking for its diversity, the strong artistic personalities who represent it, and the dynamism of its development. Its different strands include lyrical landscape or “mood landscape” (Savrasov, Kamenev, Levitan, Polenov), a continuation of Romantic landscape (Aivazovsky, Vassiliev, Kuindzhi), the naturalistic and documentary tendency (Shishkin), and finally the academic tendency (Lagorio, Bogoliubov, Mechtcherski).

Maintaining close links with the writers of the golden age of Russian literature (Chekhov, Tolstoy, Turgenev, Dostoyevsky), and the musicians in The Five group (Rimsky-Korsakov, Borodin, Mussorgsky), as well as a new generation of art critics (Stasov), the artists represented in the exhibition were members of the Society of Travelling Art Exhibitions, a means of making their art known to a wider public, or they maintained close links with it. The Itinerants or Wanderers organized exhibi- tions that stopped in the main cities of the Empire: apart from St Petersburg and Moscow, cities including Orel, Kiev, Kharkov, Kichiniov, Odessa, and Warsaw. Their works were collected by a new type of patron, no longer emerging from the aristocracy, but from the Muscovite business or industrial middle classes, people like , who gathered artists from what was known as the Abramtsevo artistic circle, or , the greatest collector of Russian Realist art. Tretyakov founded the first national Russian art gallery which he gave to the city of Moscow in 1892. Today the State Tretyakov Gallery, the organizer of the exhibition to be seen in Lausanne, along with the State Russian in St Petersburg, holds the largest collection of Russian art in the world.

Press release Magic of Russian Landscapes. Masterpieces from the State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow mcb-a Lausanne Page 3 Some themes and their main representatives

THE FOREST (1832-1898, ill. 11) was called the “patriarch of the forest” by his contemporaries. He was the main representative of the objective tendency in Realism, and his epic art, monumental and resolutely optimistic, is based on a scientific analysis of nature. His language is clear and precise. His favourite subject is the oak forest, or conifers which are evergreen. The season he prefers is summer, and the time of day he likes best is noon. His world rested on values that were fundamental to him: the soil, his native country, the people, the splendour of life.

THE SEA (1817-1900, ill. 1), a tutelary figure, built his reputation on his exceptional virtuosity in depicting the sea, storms and shipwrecks. He was extra- ordinarily productive (he painted nearly 6000 pictures, the majority of them monu- mental), and carried the heritage of Neo-Classicism and Romanticism on right through the 19th century. Thus the sea for him was both a metaphor for the unpre- dictable nature of the vagaries of destiny and a symbol of a power that cannot be subdued, that of a people seeking to gain their freedom.

THE SKY (1860-1900, ill. 6) is one of the main representatives of lyrical lands- cape or “mood landscape”. He was a close friend of the writer Anton Chekhov, the two men being linked by their lyrical apprehension of nature, and their veneration for beauty, for the mystery of the world. Levitan’s painting, extremely constructed and static in its forms, vigorous in its treatment, results from observations that are synthesized in the studio. Its emotive, solemn character is conveyed by the juxtaposition of broad brushstrokes and the use of wide coloured surfaces.

THE NOCTURNES (1842-1910, ill. 3), one of the most original painters of his gene- ration, was fascinated by the way in which nature is transfigured by light. He was dubbed the “adorer of the sun and the moon”. The synthesizing treatment of forms, the transformation of volume into silhouette, and the intensification of the contrasts of light and colour mean that his moonlit landscapes resemble decorative panels or theatre sets, making them precursors of Art Nouveau, and him a fellow traveller of the Symbolists.

SPRING Prior to Aleksei Savrasov (1830-1897, ill. 10), nature in Russia was not thought worthy of being depicted. The landscapes of were more admired. Savrasov was the inventor of the “motif” of spring, no longer the season for lovers’ agitation, but a special metaphor for renewal, the political and societal changes so much hoped for at the time of the abolition of serfdom. This motif would be very popu- lar after him, repeated in painting by artists from to Mikhail Larionov, and in music in works ranging from Snegurochka – The Snow Maiden – by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov to the Rite of Spring by Igor Stravinsky.

SUMMER (1844-1930, ill. 9 and poster), the best known of the Itinerant painters, was the movement’s spearhead, and its showcase abroad. His work was influenced by French Impressionism during the time he spent in . A subtle colourist and a brilliant observer of physiognomies, he loved life in all its manifestations. His rustic scenes of life in the dacha attracted reproaches from his friend the writer ; in his view, the artist should put himself at the service of society, work to educate it, and contribute to its moral improvement.

Press release Magic of Russian Landscapes. Masterpieces from the State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow mcb-a Lausanne Page 4 WINTER Coming from the generation following that of the first Itinerant painters, (1878-1927, ill. 4) was one of Ilya Repin’s pupils. He belonged to the Union of Russian Artists, a Muscovite association in which painting acquired greater diversity of colours, and broke free of heavy, sombre hues to become lighter and sunnier. These painters whose works strike a major key are notable for their moral liveliness, their optimistic view of the world, and their faith in the future. Kustodiev’s winter scenes have great affinities with the art of the lacquer miniatures from Palekh.

42 artists Ivan Aivazovsky Boris Kustodiev Ilya Repin represented in the exhibition Nikolai Kuznetsov *Aleksei Savrasov Vasily Baksheev Olga Lagoda-Shishkina

Alexander Beggrov Lev Lagorio Vladimir Sherwood

Aleksei Bogoliubov Isaac Levitan *Ivan Shishkin

Nikolay Dubovskoy Arseniy Mechtcherski

Igor Grabar * Grigoriy Myasoyedov Rufim Sudkovski

*Lev Kamenev

Aleksandr Kisseliov Pyotr Utkin

*Mikhail Klodt Vasily Perepletchikov Fyodor Vasilyev von Jürgenburg * Konstantin Pervukhin Vasily Vereshchaguin Iosif Krachkovsky Nikolai Pimonenko Konstantin Yuon Konstantin Kryjitski Stanislav Zhukovsky Arkhip Kuindzhi

(*) founding members of the Society of Travelling Art Exhibitions (1870-1923)

The exhibition has been organized with the generous support of the Honorary Consulate of the Russian Federation in Lausanne, to coincide with the 200th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Russia and .

Press release Magic of Russian Landscapes. Masterpieces from the State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow mcb-a Lausanne Page 5 Events and activities

CATALOGUE Magie du paysage russe. Chefs-d’œuvre de la Galerie nationale Trétiakov, Moscou Foreword by Frederik Paulsen, Irina Lebedeva and Bernard Fibicher, and texts by Tatiana Karpova and Catherine Lepdor. Lausanne, Musée cantonal des Beaux- Arts, Milan, Editions 5 Continents. CHF 38.– / CHF 45.– after the exhibition

AUDIO-GUIDE In French and English, free

DISCOVERY- Activities in the exhibition BOOKLET From 7 years, free

LECTURES 12 June: Between East and West. Russian art in the second half of the 19th AT 6.30 PM century in search of a national identity, by Lada Umstätter, director of the free Musée des Beaux-Arts of La Chaux-de-Fonds. (in French) 4 September: Between a duty of realism and a desire for modernity. Rus- sian literature at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th, by Jean-Philippe Jaccard, lecturer on Russian literature and civilisation at the University of Geneva.

11 September: A new art seeking to rediscover Holy Russia; photographs in Russia, 1840-1914, by Dominique de Font-Réaulx, head curator at the Louvre, director of the Musée Eugène-Delacroix

CONCERT 4 October: Piano solo and commentary on the works, played by Meglena AND LECTURE Tzaneva, concert pianist, and Eva Kouvandyjieva, art historian (in French). AT 3 PM The programme includes works by Tchaikovsky, Balakirev, Borodin and free Rachmaninoff.

LAUSANNE JARDINS 13 September: Visit to 7 gardens in the area and commentary on the works at the Museum by Matthieu Jaccard, architectural historian (in French). Starts at 11 am, lasts 2 hours. (Enrolment necessary: [email protected])

FINAL EVENT 5 October, by the story-tellers of L’oreille qui parle RUSSIAN TALES From 5 years AT 3 PM

GUIDED TOURS At 12.30 pm 5 June, 26 June, 3 July, 24 July, 21 August.

At 6.30 pm 19 June, 17 July, 31 July, 14 August, 28 August, 2 October.

At 3 pm 9 June (Whit Monday).

In Russian, at 3 pm 18 September, with Lada Umstätter, director of the Musée des Beaux-Arts de La Chaux-de-Fonds.

Press release Magic of Russian Landscapes. Masterpieces from the State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow mcb-a Lausanne Page 6 PRESS IMAGES

Poster: see front page

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Ivan Aivazovsky Konstantin Korovin Stormy sea, 1868 Northern idyll, 1892 Oil on canvas, 54,2 x 65 cm Oil on canvas, 115 x 155,5 cm © Moscow, State Tretyakov Gallery © Moscow, State Tretyakov Gallery

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Arkhip Kuindzhi Boris Kustodiev . Moonlit night, 1890-1895 , 1916 Oil on paper mounted on canvas, 37,7 x 56,8 cm Oil on canvas, 62,7 x 125,2 cm © Moscow, State Tretyakov Gallery © Moscow, State Tretyakov Gallery

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Nikolai Kuznetsov Isaac Levitan Feast Day, 1879 Above eternal peace, 1893 Oil on canvas, 55,3 x 98 cm Oil on canvas, 96,5 x 129 cm © Moscow, State Tretyakov Gallery © Moscow, State Tretyakov Gallery

Press release Magic of Russian Landscapes. Masterpieces from the State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow mcb-a Lausanne Page 7 PRESS IMAGES

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Grigoriy Myasoyedov Vasily Polenov The Road in the rye, 1881 The burnt forest, 1881 Oil on canvas, 66,8 x 147,8 cm Oil on canvas, 89,7 x 170 cm © Moscow, State Tretyakov Gallery © Moscow, State Tretyakov Gallery

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Ilya Repin Aleksei Savrasov On the boundary path. Rustic View, 1867 V. A. Repina and her children, 1879 Oil on canvas, 64 x 100 cm Oil on canvas, 61,5 x 48 cm © Moscow, State Tretyakov Gallery © Moscow, State Tretyakov Gallery

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Ivan Shishkin Konstantin Yuon Countess Mordvinova’s forest. Peterhof, 1891 March sun, 1915 Oil on canvas, 84 x 110,5 cm Oil on canvas, 108 x 143,3 cm © Moscow, State Tretyakov Gallery © Moscow, State Tretyakov Gallery

Press release Magic of Russian Landscapes. Masterpieces from the State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow mcb-a Lausanne Page 8