Art Appreciation Lecture Series 2016 Collectors & Collections: classical to contemporary

Tretyakov to Matisse: The Story of 's Merchant Art Patrons

Dr. Rosamund Bartlett

16/17 March 2016

Lecture summary:

Until the the middle of the 19th century, art patronage in was dominated by a St Petersburg aristocracy whose preferences were for Western European painting, in keeping with the cosmopolitan capital in which they lived. That situation began to change during the reign of Alexander II, who initiated long-awaited reforms, including the abolition of serfdom, and a programme of industrialisation. The textile manufacturer was the first of an exceptional generation of Moscow merchants who invested their new-found wealth not only in art patronage but in philanthropy. Beginning in the 1860s, Tretyakov built up an unrivalled collection of contemporary Russian art which he donated to the city of Moscow. There were many other notable merchant patrons. Savva Mamontov set up an artists' colony at his country estate, Nadezhda von Meck made it possible for Tchaikovsky to give up teaching, Stepan Ryabushinsky collected icons, while Konstantin Stanislavsky ploughed his fortune into the radical new Moscow Art Theatre. By the time Sergei Shchukin and Ivan Morozov started collecting in the early twentieth century, it was once again time for a new direction. Like Tretyakov, they bought contemporary works, but their interest lay in modern Western art, by unknown avant-garde painters who have now become household names, including Monet, Van Gogh, Picasso and Matisse.

Slide list:

Note: paintings in slides 1-29 owned by the Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

1. Vasily Perov, Religious Procession in the Village at Easter, 1861 2. Pukirev, An Unequal Marriage, 1863 3. Ge, Peter the Great interrogating Tsarevich, 1871 4. Shishkin, Noon. Outskirts of Moscow, 1869, 5. Savrasov, The Rooks Have Returned, 1871 6. Myasoedov, The Zemstvo Dines, 1872 7. Perov, Dostoevsky, 1872 8. Kramskoi, Tolstoy, 1873 9. Repin, Musorgsky, 1881 10. Kiprensky, Pushkin, 1827 11. Vereschagin, Apotheosis of War, 1871 12. Vereshchagin, Rejoicing, 1872 13. Borovikovsky, Portrait of Gagarin Sisters, 1802 14. Ivan Argunov, Woman in Traditional Dress,1784 15. Tropinin, Girl with a Canary, 1810 16. Venetsianov, Harvest Time, Summer, 1822 17. Bryullov, Horsewoman, 1832 18. Repin, Pavel Tretyakov, 1883 19. Repin, Procession in Kursk Province, 1883

Proudly sponsored by

20. Repin, Ivan the Terrible and his Son Ivan, 1885 21. Surikov, Boyarinya Morozova, 1887 22. Levitan, Evening Bells, 1892 23. Levitan, Above Eternal Rest, 1894 24. Iosif Braz, Chekhov, 1898 25. Vasnetsov, Ivan IV, 1897 26. Vasnetsov, Knight at Crossroads, 1882 27. Borovikovsky, Portrait of Catherine II, 1794 28. Kramskoi, Unknown Woman, 1883 29. Shishkin, Mast-Tree Grove, 1898 30. Ryabushkin, A Lad entered the Dance, 1902, Russian Museum, St. Petersburg 31. Gauguin, Woman Holding a Fruit, 1893, Hermitage, St. Petersburg 32. Cezanne, Mont St. Victoire, 1896-1898, Hermitage 33. Picasso, Ambroise Vollard, 1910, Pushkin Museum, Moscow 34. Monet, Coin de jardin à Montgeron, 1876, Hermitage 35. Van Gogh, Night Cafe, 1888, Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, USA 36. Serov, Ivan Morozov, 1910, Tretyakov Gallery 37. Matisse, Fruits et Bronze, 1910, Pushkin Museum 38. Thaulow, Boulevard Madeleine in , 1895, Pushkin Museum 39. Matisse, The Dessert: Harmony in Red, 1908, Hermitage 40. Picasso Woman with Fan, 1907-1908, Hermitage 41. Gauguin, Harvest of Fruit, 1899, Pushkin Museum 42. Monet, Lady in the Garden, 1867, Hermitage 43. Matisse, The Dance, 1910, Hermitage

Reference:

Oleg Neverov, Great Private Collections of Imperial Russia (2004)

E. K. Valkenier, Russian Realist Art, the State, and Society: The and Their Tradition (New York, 1989)

David Jackson, The Russian Vision: The Art of Ilya Repin (2006; reprinted 2014)

Rosamund Bartlett, “Russian Culture 1801-1917” in vol. 2 of The Cambridge History of Russia, ed. Maureen Perrie, Dominic Lieven, and Ronald Grigor Suny (2006)

Rosamund Bartlett, Chekhov: Scenes from a Life (2004); Tolstoy: A Russian Life (2010)

Camilla Grey, The Russian Experiment in Art, 1863-1922, rev. ed., (1986)

Beverly Whitney Kean, All the Empty Palaces: The Merchant Patrons of Modern Art in Pre- Revolutionary Russia (1983)

Albert Kostenevich and Natalia Semyonova, Collecting Matisse (1993)

For access to all past lecture notes visit: http://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/members/current-members/member-events/collectors/