“To pass over to their native country the priceless artistic treasures”

Sergei Shchukin was a great Russian patron and turned viewers into its accomplices to create new of the arts, one of ’s businessmen whose pas- art and free it of old stereotypes. By demonstrating sion for collecting introduced Russians to the art to his compatriots the essence of French artistic ge- of the world. In less than two decades he filled his nius, Shchukin forced the new artistic generation Moscow house with an unparalleled collection of new to understand their affiliation to Russia in a new way French painting — from Monet to Picasso — and turned and to find an original artistic language to express it. his home into a museum of contemporary art. With- And that was how Russian avant-guard art was born. out his “Embassy of Painting” on Bolshoi Znamensky The other members of Shchukin’s “clan” also Lane, Russian art of the early 20th century would became protagonists in the Russian history of collect- have been different. Today, Cézanne, Gauguin ing. Pyotr, the elder brother, founded an entire mu- and Van Gogh are great names, and we all know seum where Russian medieval art was exhibited next the Blue Dancers by Degas or the Goldfish by Matisse to Persian carpets and Impressionists’ paintings. Their since childhood. However, many of Shchukin’s con- brother Dmitry was a refined connoisseur of Old Eu- temporaries perceived this art as the destruction ropean art. And finally, Ivan, who became a true - of beauty and tradition and an intrusion of alien val- ian, not only collected art, but also introduced his ues. Only a bold man could bring to Moscow brothers to the French artistic world. Alexandre Be- the by Matisse or Three Women by Picasso, nois wrote: “The Shchukin brothers have created their a man with superb intuition and confidence collections not only for themselves, but in order in the work of the artists he chose. No wonder to pass over to their native country and their native the most sensitive art lovers and critics of the time city the priceless artistic treasures.” talked about the heroism of Shchukin’s collecting. The fate of the Shchukins’ collections was rath- Like Pavel Tretyakov, who essentially created er dramatic — not a single of them remained intact. 19th-century Russian realism, Sergei Shchukin be- That is why the present exhibition is a tribute to their came one of the forefathers of the revolution in paint- memory and an expression of deep respect ing in the early 20th century. The young Russian for the people whose will and consistency resulted painters who visited his house saw the paintings in a great and truly invaluable legacy that will forever of these “trouble-making” French artists as fine exam- inspire us to free and bold creativity. ples of irrepressible artistic quest, creative freedom and the highest standards of artistic culture. In their constant dialogue with “Shchukin’s French artists” young Russian painters were honing their skills and shaping their own understanding of art. The new art, born in Paris and transferred to Moscow by Sergei Marina Loshak, Shchukin, showed the world in constant change Director, The Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts

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Sergei Shchukin, Muscovite

Today Sergei Ivanovich Shchukin is the most Alexander Ostrovsky and the merchant collectors de- famous 20th century art collector in the world. scribed by the great chronicler of Moscow, Vladimir The reason, of course, is his magnificent collection Gilyarovsky. In the Shchukin family, the traditions and his fantastic insight. But Shchukin’s fame is also of Old Believers mixed with the mores of merchant- due, in part, to the dramatic story of his family — millionaires who were building the Russian state. full of tragedy, ups and downs, amazing human per- They were charming and menacing, refined and hard sonalities and passions. Family dramas are followed at the same time. They knew their own worth, by Parisian triumphs, friendship with Matisse, na- and the worth of others. The exhibition narrates all tionalization, cooperation with Morozov and prole- this and more through the paintings. It will be an ex- tarian art, attempts to sell the collection, its complete citing story that was impossible to tell in Paris. dismemberment, its division and then salvation It is part of our moral obligation to the memory for the sake of Russia, its gradual return to museum of Sergei Shchukin. halls together with the name of Shchukin, legal bat- We dedicate this unusual museum project, tles, numerous exhibitions of two collections, and fi- consisting of a kind of garland of exhibitions, nally, individual exhibitions devoted to the Shchukin to the memory of these great collectors. The presenta- collection held in Paris and Moscow. This fame tion of the Shchukin collection will be held in Mos- and glory, which were personified by the crowds cow simultaneously with the presentation of the Mo- of spectators at the exhibition held by the Louis Vuit- rozov brothers’ collection in St. Petersburg. Then, ton Foundation in the Bois de Boulogne in 2016–2017, a grandiose exhibition of the Morozov brothers’ col- was a celebration of Russian national glory and be- lection will be held at the Louis Vuitton Foundation came our national pride. in Paris. On its completion, the Hermitage will host However, pride should not overshadow the Shchukin exhibition, while the Moscow Pushkin the amazing range of human confrontations involved Museum will show the Morozov collection. In this in the history of the collection and Shchukin family. way we will complete the memorial wreath for the ex- The exhibition at the Hermitage and the Pushkin Mu- traordinary people who gathered together such amaz- seum returns the image of Shchukin and his paint- ing innovative collections which, thank God, have ings to the context of splendid Moscow life. Through been preserved in Russia and served several times paintings, personal objects and scholarly research as a life-giving source for the rebirth of Russian art the exhibition narrates the story of this extraordinary and Russian openness to world culture. The dramatic family’s upheavals and controversies and how this history of people and paintings goes on, to our joy clash of characters and tastes created a special atmos- and wonder. phere which became part of Moscow’s spiritual world in the early 20th century. The Shchukin merchants Mikhail Piotrovsky, replaced the merchants described by the playwright Director, The State

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The Artistic Legacy of Sergei Shchukin

In Soviet times the name of Sergei Ivanovich ­Publishing House in 2017, and several biographies, Shchukin went into oblivion. However, since the late among which was one, prepared jointly with us, enti- 1980s it came up to light again, thanks to the efforts tled Shchukin, the Patron of the Art Moderne (2016). This of Russian art historians and critics, and above all Na- publication was specially prepared for the exhibition talya Semenova, the author of this book. of the gems from the Shchukin collection in Paris. Nowadays, the name of Sergei Shchukin has Natalya Semenova offers us an absolutely new become a legend. His collection of French modernists and different view of the famous Moscow collec- was presented to the French public in October 2016 — tion. The first full illustrated catalogue of the col- March 2017 in the Louis Vuitton Foundation, and its lection presents all works bought by Shchukin, attendance broke all possible records. It amounted without exception, including those which had, to 1,200,000 people and may only be compared by the whim of fate, been discovered in Baku, Lviv to the Tutankhamen treasures exhibition held in Paris and Odessa. What is more, the publication includes as far back as 1967. works by Chinese and Korean painters, which Thanks to Sergei Shchukin Paris has returned it- the former Soviet cultural bosses found suitable self the statute of the world capital of arts, and the dif- to be placed in the Moscow Museum of Oriental ficult-to-pronounce Russian name became known Arts. Also the author managed to unearth the history all over the world and made people from different of the seven primitive African sculptures, imprisoned countries ponder over the mystery of Shchukin, a rich in the storage rooms of the Moscow Russian merchant, who managed, over the period since 1948. of just 16 years, to compile a collection, exceptional Semenova has just a few more new discover- in its quality, extremely innovative in content, and of- ies to make. Her most recent plan is to find the Bo- fering to the whole of the 20th century a new concept risov-Moussatov’s gouache painting, the only work of a museum of contemporary art. by a Russian painter mentioned in the inventory Each new stage in the research of the Shchukin list compiled in November 1918, when the whole collection was bringing ever new challenges and que- collection was nationalized. Also, she plans to re- ries. And it was impossible to stop, even if we knew store the story of a female portrait, only slightly that many details from the life of the collector would visible at the 1914 photograph of the main hall remain a mystery, anyway. And no one except Na- in the Shchukin palace. This picture, in some un- talya Semenova ever risked to approach the collec- fathomable way, has reached Sergey Shchukin’s flat tion in a new way. She was the only one to undertake in Paris, and now it adorns my room. By our joint ef- it. She did it after the 30-years-long research into forts we have found out the name of the artist. It was the Shchukin collection and collector’s biography, the artist Fedor Botkin, my Granddad’s cousin, who having created the first full catalogue of the collec- used to live in Paris and who was helping his cousin tion which was published fer the first time by Slovo to find his bearings in the artistic world of the French

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capital at the turn of the century. However, we have ­gallery in the Bolshoi Znamensky Lane in Moscow, little hope of discovering the name of the woman, just next to the Kremlin. whose portrait mysteriously moved from the Trubet- Such a state of affairs continued up to the Paris skoy Palace in Russia to the Paris apartments at Rue exhibition of 2016, when suddenly, the figure of a col- Wilhem, where Sergei Ivanovich Shchukin used lector who died 80 years ago, attracted the attention to live and died, and where I was born. of more than a million of visitors, the attendance that The odyssey of the mysterious portrait again challenged the Guinness record book. The exhibition takes us to the door which keeps secret some roman- designed to do credit to the unknown Russian collec- tic episodes from my Granddad’s life. To open it, tor left behind the Renoir and Gauguin exhibitions, at least a crack, Natalya Semenova offers the seem- and those by Van Gogh and Degas, Matisse and Picas- ingly most simple solution, which, for some reason, so, held at the most famous museums of the Globe. has escaped our minds before — it is to turn to the es- It happened because Sergei Shchukin managed sence of the “Shchukin’s mystery”, that is, to the res- to amass in his one collection the best works of all toration of his collection. Because the memories the masters, created by them in the best periods of the collection vanished into thin air exactly be- of their creative work. cause the collection ceased to exist as it were. It proved to be enough to show the Shchukin But the painyings did remain, they did collection in its true worth in order to break the si- not disappear altogether. They were silently present lence around the name of the Russian patron on the walls of the two famous museums. It was his- of French Modernism. To show the collection tory and its tragic turns, not to mention the events as a fruit of Shchukin’s efforts and not just as separate involved in the construction of communism that led gems by famous painters — that was the aim of the or- to the split of this most famous collection of Mod- ganizers. The consequences were quite predictable: ern Art between the two Russian capitals, Moscow the Parisians and all those who joined them were and St. Petersburg. Moscow as the ancient Russian determined to queue for long hours outside the Louis capital and St. Petersburg as the Russian Northern Vuitton Foundation building in the Bois de Boulogne capital symbolized, as it were, the inherent dualism despite the cold, snow and blizzard… However, they of the Russian nation. had a lucky chance to see only half of the collection, Those living outside Russia could admire although it was a real feat to bring 130 items from the pictures by Monet, Cézanne, Gauguin or Mat- Russia, not to mention the horrific costs for transpor- isse at the retrospective exhibitions held regularly tation, customs, restoration etc. It is only the Pushkin in the largest museums of the world since mid-20th State Museum of Fine Arts and the State Hermitage century. In Russia, the gems from the Shchukin col- Museum in St. Petersburg which can present the col- lection were also accessible to all and sundry, while lection in its entirety. The exhibitions in Moscow the name of the collector himself seemed to be non- and St. Petersburg will become yet another glorious existent: it was not mentioned neither in the numer- triumph of Shchukin, since Russia is his homeland, ous exhibition catalogues, nor in any annotations and here he is at home, surrounded by works from or captions. Sergei Shchukin used to be present his own brilliant collection. But in view of the poor at all these feasts of art anonymously. His spirit state of a number of works, they cannot travel and the harmony of his choice seemed to become even between the two capitals: among them are just a tiny part of the global fame of the artists, the Music, The Arab Café and Conversation by Henri whose works constituted the treasure of his art Matisse, Two Sisters and Sabartes as a ­Decadent Poet

The Artistic Legacy of Sergei Shchukin 9

by ­, two versions of The Rouen Cathedral for Monet, Renoir, Degas, Gauguin and Cézanne. by and many other pictures which you All these emotions helped Shchukin to understand can only see in places of their “permanent registra- the revolution in artistic consciousness under way tion” — the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts in Moscow in France at that time. and the State Hermitage in St. Petersburg. For instance, what were the reasons Thanks to this book, we would be able to see for Shchukin to buy, in 1904, two pictures by Monet, the entire Shchukin collection. The readers will be one already a classical work, Luncheon on the Grass, able to see the collection in its “portable version”, drawn in 1866, but previously inaccessible, so to say. From now on, this edition will become and the new work of 1904, Seagulls, in the extrava- an indispensable tool for those who strive to get gant Turner style? Or how come that the striking in touch with famous works, or to see again their Paul Cézanne picture Pierrot and Harlequin and ex- favorite images. Besides, the reader will find Sergei tremely extravagant for those times first Tahiti pic- Shchukin’s newly written biography here, which dif- tures by Gauguin appeared almost simultaneously fers from the traditional life stories. One may rightly on the walls of the Shchukin palace at Znamensky ask, how, having written several Shchukin’s biogra- Lane in Moscow. phies, each of which adding something to the previ- Also, we can only guess what were his feel- ous one, the author has managed not only to recre- ings in the spring of 1906, when, having buried his ate the image of the collector, but also to produce 17-year-old son, Shchukin a month later appeared something entirely new? It might seem that by cre- in the studio of for the first time; ating the book Shchukin, the Patron of Art Moder­ or why in 1910, shaken by the suicide of his second ne co-­authored by me and Natalia (and its Eng- young son, he started buying macabre cubistic can- lish adaptation The Collector. The story of Sergei vases by Picasso, which he didn’t dare to buy before. Shchukin and his lost masterpieces), we have put a stop During the three subsequent years his small study got in the Shchukins’ saga. However, the book you are literally packed with these pictures. holding in your hands at the moment, is unique These and other unexpected turns of fate in its own way. which befell the objects of Shchukin collection, to- It is not the life story of the collector Ser- gether with some tragic events in his personal life, gei Shchukin, written in a chronological order: constitute the main motive force of the book. The au- childhood and adolescence, acquiring the statute thor, Natalya Semenova, presents here the “complete of an influential Moscow merchant, the first ef- version” of my Granddad’s collection. Indeed the val- forts of collecting art, family dramas, the emer- ue of his artistic legacy, the legacy of the discoverer gence of a museum of contemporary art concept, of Modern Art, goes far beyond the limits of a narrow the war, the revolution, the period of obscurity, circle of experts. and then the return and the triumph. The author Me and Natalya Semenova have always wished offers her own approach, which allows us to re- to acquaint the widest circles of society with the per- gard the personality of our protagonist through sonality of Sergei Shchukin and his activities. Semen- the stories of the works of art created by the painters ova’s research made it possible to return the name of the time and chosen by the collector: from Puvis of the Russian collector to its proper place in the his- de Chavannes, Thaulow and Whistler to his main tory of the 20th-century culture. On my part, I was favorites, like Matisse and Picasso at the peak of their trying to attract mass media attention to the name most ­daring ­experiments. And in between, he fell and personality of my Grandfather.

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This book, like the exhibition in Moscow, turned the achievements of the Russian collector is a tangible evidence of Sergei Shchukin’s final of French art activities­ into the common treasure, ­return to the world of culture after many long available to all. years of oblivion. Finally his collection has been fully restored due to the selfless devotion of the au- André-Marc Delocque-Fourcaud, thor, translators, publishers, and curators, who Sergei Shchukin’s grandson

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