Beyond Pavel Tretyakov's House

There is more to the Tretyakov Gallery than the iconic building at 10 Lavrushensky pereulok that holds its famed collection of Russian art from the 11th to 19th centuries. Several other Moscow museums share the Tretyakov name.

Tretyakov Gallery at 10 Krymsky Val. The vast and often lonely halls of this Soviet era building house the only permanent exposition of 20th century Russian art inside the country. Highlights include paintings by Malevich, Kandinsky and Chagall, but most of the propaganda-laced Socialist Realism collection is rather dull. The Krymsky Val gallery frequently hosts excellent temporary exhibits.

The Church Museum of St. Nicholas in Tolmachy boasts 15th to 19th century icons, including the renowned Our Lady of Vladimir (17th century). The gallery founder and his family frequently attended services at this church, located just a few dozen feet from the Tretyakov house. Closed in Soviet times, the church became the Tretyakov Gallery’s depository. In 1993, it was reconsecrated and resumed service as a Russian Orthodox church. Technically part of the main museum complex in Lavrushensky pereulok, it is easily accessible through its lower lobby.

Pavel Korin House Museum. Pavel Korin, a Palekh-born icon painter turned People’s Artist of the USSR and winner of Lenin and Stalin Prizes, is best known for his mosaics in the Moscow Metro (Komsomolskaya, Arbatskaya and Novoslobodskaya Stations) and titanic preparation work for unimplemented painting, Farewell to Rus [See Russian Life, Nov/Dec 2002]. On display is Korin’s impressive icon collection of more than 200 works from the 15th to the 20th century. Adorning the studio’s walls are Korin’s paintings, sketches for the mosaics featured throughout the Moscow Metro, and multiple studies for Farewell to Rus. Propped against the wall is a massive canvas that Korin had designated for the painting.

Anna Golubkina Studio Museum offers insights into the life and art of this Russian sculptress, who was influenced by August Rodin, whom she knew personally. Golubkina is acclaimed for her impressionistic, sculptured portraits of contemporaries, such as a bust of symbolist poet Andrei Bely. “Golubkina’s faces capture the face of our time: neurotic, elusive, intellectual, limp, and sophisticated by many intellectual temptations,” wrote Maximilian Voloshin of her works. Displayed in the museum are sculptured heads and bodies (both finished and incomplete), clay, statue stands, chisels and other artifacts from Golubkina’s life.

Viktor Vasnetsov House Museum. Besides a collection of Vasnetsov’s fairy tale-inspired paintings (The Magic Carpet, Tsarevna Frog and others), the museum is worth a visit for its distinctive style. A neo-Russian house where Vasnetsov lived with his family from 1894 to 1926, it reflects his fondness for his country’s traditions, with its wooden izba-style annex and decorative windows. The dining room’s wooden walls and carved furniture, modeled by Vasnetsov after antique Russian pieces, must have made it a cozy Wednesday gathering spot for Moscow’s intelligentsia. Frequent visitors included Pavel Tretyakov, Ilya Repin and Fyodor Shalyapin. It was in the studio upstairs that Vasnetsov finished his famous painting Bogatyrs (1899).

The Apollinari Vasnetsov Memorial House Museum features more than 200 paintings and 1,000 drawings crammed into two adjacent apartments celebrating the art of Victor Vasnetsov’s junior brother. The Sound Of An Old Park, Vasnetsov’s final finished work, sits on the easel in his studio.