Portrait of the Artist`s Son by Vasily Tropinin

The Tretyakov Gallery dates from 1856, when the purchase of Nikolai Schilder`s painting The Temptation saw the beginning of the collecting activities of the young, wealthy Moscow merchant, Pavel Tretyakov (1832 - 1898). Whereas his first acquisitions followed no clear pattern, paintings by Vasily Perov, added to the collection in the sixties, determined paths which the Gallery was to follow. There was to be a collection of Russian painting, the fulfilment of a historic mission - that of patriotic and moral education of the people.

Pavel Tretyakov acquired the very best from contemporary painters in Moscow and St Petersburg. The collection contains many works by members of the Society for Circulating Art Exhibitions (The Peredvizhniki). Often taking part in the selection of pictures were such outstanding painters as Ivan Kramskoi and Ilya Repin, the critic Vladimir Stasov and other Russian cultural figures; this turned Tretyakov`s collection into a veritable centre of Russia`s artistic life.

Portrait of Alexander Pushkin by Orest Kiprensky

Seeking fullness and diversity in his display of Russian pictorial art, Pavel Tretyakov wanted the outstanding masters to be represented by works reflecting all the main stages in their creative careers. From the late sixties he started to collect canvases by painters of the first half of the 19th century, and then 18th century paintings, as yet little known at that time. Tretyakov, who was the first to appreciate the new trends that appeared in Russian painting at the end of the 19th century, started acquiring the works of then young and still little-known artists. In the seventies Tretyakov began to systematically acquire, and even specially commission, portraits of Russian cultural figures and it was highly appreciated by the Russian public. The collector`s brother, Sergei Tretyakov, was also a connoisseur of art who collected pictures not only by Russian, but also by French and Dutch painters. The Tretyzakov brothers` mansion in Lavrushinsky Lane had to be expanded in 1872 to accommodate the two collections. Subsequently rebuilding had to be undertaken five times. Six more rooms had to be added in 1882 to accommodate the vast Turkestan series of paintings by Vasily Vereshchagin. The modern facade of the Gallery was added to the Tretyakov`s mansion in 1902 to a design by Victor Vasnetsov.

The collection of Pavel and Sergei Tretyakov was  opened to the public in I874 as a private museum and rapidly became very popular.  In 1892 Pavel Tretyakov presented his collection, by that time already famous, to the city of Moscow.

The Rider by Karl Briullov

Pavel Tretyakov remained the life-long Curator of the Gallery. Upon his death in 1898 the Gallery was headed by a Board, on which served the well-known collector and artist Ilya Ostroukhov, the famous painter Valentin Serov and Pavel Tretyakov`s daughter Anna Botkina, as well as a number of other cultural figures. In 1905 at the Board`s initiative, which deemed it its task to carry on the work of the founder, the chronological frameworks of the collections were enlarged to include a Department of` Old Russian Art. Pavel Tretyakov was one of the first in Russia to appreciate icons as monuments of artistic endeavour. His collection of about sixty works of Old Russian painting were not displayed, remaining his own property to the end of his life. Under his will they went to the Gallery and formed the nucleus of this Department "The Board concentrated on the acquisition of works of contemporary Russian art, which, amidst the struggle of trends, opinions and tastes rife in the artistic life of Russia at the beginning of the century, proved a far from easy task. The prominent painter, art historian and public figure, Igor Grabar, was appointed the Gallery`s Curator in 1913. At his insistence, the former so-called "carpet" hanging of pictures in the order of their acquisition, was replaced by the historical-chronological principle, devoting separate rooms to the work of major Russian painters. The new layout meant a radical reform of museum theory. Grabar himself defined the reform essence as "work to convert a privately owned collection into a museum of European standards". The implementation of the reform of the display demanded resolution and energy. The Gallery adheres to its basic principles to this day.

The Corn by Ivan Shishkin

In 1917 the collection numbered 4,060 items. By a Decree of the Soviet government of June 3, 1918, signed by Lenin, the Gallery was nationalized. From a municipal museum, the Tretyakov Gallery was transformed into a state museum. In the twenties the Gallery was enlarged through the addition of the collections of the major Moscow collectors I. Ostroukhov and I. Tsvetkov, S.Shcherbatov, of paintings from the Historical Museum and of works of art from palaces, estates and churches. During those years paintings by Western European, mostly Dutch and French masters, were transferred from the Tretyakav Gallery to what is today the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts. This made the collection of the Tretyakov Gallery more uniform and altered its structure. During the thirties the growth of the collection made it necessary to build another 16 new halls, which doubled the area of the former building. The most spacious hall was designed to accommodate the painting The Appearance of Christ to the` People by Alexander Ivanov. This huge canvas, which marked a whole stage in the history of Russian painting, was handed over to the Gallery together with a rich collection of the painter`s studies and sketches from the Rumiantsev Museum. At the same time the Gallery received a number of works by Russian sculptors of the late 18th and early 19th centuries which put the beginning to a Department of  Sculpture.

Girl with a Peaches by Valentin Serov

The formation of a Department of Soviet Art began in the Tretyakov Gallery in 1918, and the acquisition, starting in the late twenties, of paintings from exhibitions and from the studios of Soviet painters assumed broad scope. The Department of Soviet Art has outstanding works by painters from all the Union Republics. It reveals the role of art in the building of a new society.

Pavel Tretyakov also started a collection of Russian graphic art. Since in his time drawing was regarded as a secondary art, the collection was neither systematic nor substantial. Its character changed in 1926 when the Tretyakov Gallery acquired the Tsvetkov collection, which reflects the main stages in the development of draughtsmanship in Russia. This allowed the Tretyakov Gallery to create a Department of Graphic Art. Soon afterwards water-colours and drawings by Alexander Ivanov were handed over to the Gallery from the Rumiantsev Museum. From the thirties the Gallery began to acquire drawings, book illustrations and graphic art in, its own right by Soviet masters. As a result, the Gallery`s collections in the Soviet period increased more than ten-fold. Today it is a depository of some 47,000 works of art, and the average annual number of visitors is 1,700,000. The Department of Icons, created at the turn Q the century has been enriched in Soviet times by a number of remarkable monuments. Handed over to the Gallery from the Cathedral of the Assumption was the icon The Virgin of Vladimir. Painted in Byzantiiim in the 12th century the icon was brought to Kiev from Constantinople. Kept at first among the ti easiness of the Grand Ducal residence of Vyshgorod near Kiev, the icon was brought secretly by Prince Andrei Bogoliubsky to the city of Vladimir in 1115. The icon was given the name of Vladimir and was regarded as the guardian of the Vladimir-Suzdal Principality. With the rise of the Moscow Principality in the 15th century the icon was moved to Moscow`s Kremlin and began to be revered as the palladium of the Russian state.

Another icon handed to the Gallery, The Virgirn, of the Don, is ascribed to Theophanes the Greek. According to legend the icon was with Dmitry Donskoi at the battle on Kulikovo Field in 1380. It was regarded as having helped to bring about success on the battlefield. Ivan IV the Terrible prayed before the icon when setting out against Kazan in 1552. It was with Russian troops when they repelled the last raid of the Crimean Tatars on Moscow in 1599.

Another outstanding work by Theophanes the Greek is The Dominion, painted on the reverse of the icon of The Virgin of the Don. The dramatic lamentation in The Dormition`s parting scene is of tremendous force. Also in the Department of Russian Icons one can see the famous Old Testament Trinity, the only work, authentically attributed to Andrei Rubliov. Its subject is borrowed from the Old Testament legend of the appearance of God to Abraham and Sarah in the images of tlsr ee ti avel-weary angels who asked for shelter. Rubliov depicted the three angels as an embodiment of`the concept of spit itual per faction.

The Old Testament Trinity was considered to be the main icon of the TrinitySergius Monastery at Zagorsk; the chronicles certify that Andrei Rubliov was its author (like all icon-painters of his time, Rubliov never signed his works). Another masterpiece attibuted to him with rather a high degree of certainty is a series of icons for the iconostasis of the cathedral near the town of Zvenigorod, not far` from Moscow.

The Gallery possesses outstanding Russian paintings of the 16th century, indulging icons attributed to Dionysius. The department`s display concludes. with works by the 17th century icon painters of the Kremlin Armoury headed by Simon Ushakov.
The exhibition of paintings opens with the portraits of Ivan Nikitin, whose work marked the departure of Russian art from the portrait icon - the old form of the representative portrait, strongly iconic in character. The striving by men who had attained eminence to have their features recorded in paint started under Peter the Great when a person`s status in society began to be determined not so much by birth as by energy, and singleness of purpose. The need for developing a Russian school of portraiture was clearly realized` by Peter I, who extended particular patronage to ivan Nikitin.

Portrait of Chancellor of State Golovkin, ascribed to Nikitin, is distinguished by the highly professional technique used in its execution.

In 1858, Professor Hertz, first head of the history of art department at Moscow University argued that for educational purposes, a museum of plaster cast copies of world-famous sculptures ought to be set up. This idea was debated among Moscow men of art and science for over forty years. Funds for the construction of the museum building were raised by subscription in the years from the late seventies to the early nineties of the 19th century.

The foundations of the new museum building in Volkhonka Street were laid in 1898. In his design, the architect Roman Klein provided suitable settings for sculpture of different periods by reproducing parts of buildings which enjoy world-wide renown.
Thus, the marble columns of the portico were copied from the ancient Greek temple of Erechtheum (Athens, 421 - 406 B.C.), the Roman patio is a replica of the Bargello courtyard in the Palazzo del Podesta (Florence, 1260 - 1320), the entrance to one of the halls is copy of the portal of a medieval church in Freiburg (Germany. 13th century), etc.

Plaster casts from statues exhibited in different European museums or adorning some city squares were made according to the plan developed by Professor Tsvetaev of Moscow University, the then head of the History of Art Department. Every copy was to have a specially designated place in the exhibition halls.

In 1912, the museum was opened to the public. Now Moscow had a comprehensive collection of copies of ancient Greek, Roman, medieval and Renaissance masterpieces, including electroplate copies of some of the best-known silverware antiquities. In addition to that, the museum found itself in possession of a remarkable co11ection of Egyptian antiquities and several 13th and 14th century Italian paintings.

The Museum of Fine Arts functioned as an educational centre under the auspices of Moscow University until 1923, when it was handed over to Narkompros (The People`s Commissariat of Education) as a national museum. The new status required essential changes in the structure and work of the museum.

In the early twenties, the museum already housed a substantial collection of paintings. These at first included Dutch and French paintings from the Tretyakov Art Gallery collection as well as French and Flemish paintings and several Rembrandts from the collection of the abolished Rumiantsev Museum.

In the late twenties, the museum collection incorporated a number of 16th century Italian and early 20th century French romantic paintings from nationalized palaces of Russian nobles: the Shuvalovs, the Yusupovs, the Sheremetevs. A little later, some first-rate paintings came from the Hermitage collection.

Gradually the Museum of Fine Arts, from a collection of replicas, turned into a repository of original artistic masterpieces. It was named after Pushkin in 1937 (the centenary of the poet`s death).

 In 1948, the museum collection grew again, to included the late 19th and early 20th century French paintings and French sculptures of the same period from the abolished Museum of Modern Western Art. This provided a link with modern art.

The Engraving Room of the museum has a history of its own. It came into being in 1862, when a collection of Western European Etchings was exhibited at the Rumiantsev Museum. At the end of the 19th century, the Engraving Room came by a sizable addition, in the shape of the Rovinsky Collection which included 74 volumes of Russian engraved portraits, 59 volumes containing works of the 18th and early 19th century Russian engravers and 43 volumes of Russian popular prints. This was followed by the acquisition of the Mosolov collection numbering 355 etchings by Rembrandt.

After the October Revolution of 1917, the Engraving Room received nationalized collections of Russian nobles and members of the royal family, among them exquisite Japanese prints and Chinese drawings.

In 1924, the Engraving Room became part of the Fine Arts Museum and attracted more prints and drawings by Russian and Soviet artists. In 1924 too, a large collection of ancient and medieval coins and medals from the Rumiantsev Museum was handed over to the Museum of Fine Arts. Later on the collection accumulated Russian coins, medals and plaques, as well as Soviet coins, banknotes and medals. In the thirties, the former Golenishchev Collection of Egyptian antiquities was added with pieces presented by several Soviet scientists. Today Egyptian antiquities dating from the period of the Old and Middle Kingdoms and the New Empire, represent the evolution of Egyptian art.