The Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow
The Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow ©Bernt Rostad/Flick
The Tretyakov Gallery is one of the largest museums in Moscow, and attracts thousands of tourists annually. It houses some of the greatest masterpieces of Russian history before the revolution and has the most interesting collection of Russian icons in the world, dating from the 17th century until the 18th century.
The Tretyakov Gallery is a public art gallery that has grown in number from a small collection of a few paintings to an impressive collection of 150,000 exhibits, including paintings by Kuindji, Borovikovsky, Aivazovsky, Kustodiev and Malevich.
The formation of the Tretyakov Gallery
The history of the Tretyakov Gallery started with the love of Peter Mikhailovich Tretyakov for painting. Being a member of a wealthy family of merchants, he could afford to buy valuable paintings of Briullov Tropinin, Repin, Kramskoy, Dag, Monet and to keep them in his own house. In 1889 he donated the paintings and his house as well to be turned into a state art gallery.
The statue of Peter Mikhailovich Tretyakov ©seafaringwoman/Flick
After the revolution of 1917, the Tretyakov Galler in Moscow was reorganized and now only exhibits paintings of Russian painters. The pictures of foreign artists were moved to the Western Art Museum of Russia.
Famous artworks of the Tretyakov Gallery
If you ever get to Moscow, book yourself a full day for this gallery. The museum has so many rooms that in the end you will be really tired. The paintings of rosy-cheeked russian girls with colorful dresses and floral scarves, the rural landscapes, the streets and squares of Moscow in the 1800s, the numerous portraits of Tolstoy and the battle scenes transform this visit of the Tretyakov Gallery into a whole ritual of initiation into Russian culture.
Portrait of Tolstoy and Tretyakov in the Tretyakov Gallery ©Tschäff/Flick
The Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow houses paintings of a period of more than 1,000 years from the Russian medieval art of the 12th century until the art of the early 20th century. The most famous paintings of the museum include “Ivan the Terrible killing his son” by Ilya Repin, the icons of Andrei Riubliov from the 15th century, a beautiful abstract composition of Kandinsky and “Lovers above the city” by Marc Chagall.
If you love the abstract art you will have the opportunity to admire some paintings of Kazimir Malevich, one of the most important artists of the Russian avant-garde of the early 20th century, who became world famous as the initiator of supremacy, an artistic movement that transposes sensitivity into geometric shapes.
The Tretyakov Gallery is located at the address: 10, Lavrushinsky Lane, Moscow, Russia, 119017. You can get there by subway (Tretyakovskaya, Novokuznetskaya or Polyanka station).
The Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow ©Bernt Rostad/Flick
