THE TRETYAKOV GALLERY in Moscow is a world-famous museum of Russian art. It was founded by Pavel Tretyakov (1832 - 1898), a highly educated man with wide-ranging interests. At the outset of his career as a collector Tretyakov bought almost exclusively Western European engravings and paintings by old Dutch masters, but before long, however, he began to concentrate his efforts on purchasing works of Russian art. On May 12, 1856, he came into the possession of his first Russian painting, The Temptation, by Nikolai Schilder, and this date is traditionally regarded as the day of the Gallery's foundation.. (Источник - http://en.gallerix.ru/read/tretyakov-gallery-in-moscow/)

Tretyakov gallery at fotki.yandex.ru

Tretyakov's method of collecting had a consistent and systematic character. He bought many of the finest works of Russian democratic art which appeared at various exhibitions held at that time. Tretyakov considered it his civic duty to create a portrait gallery of prominent figures in the field of Russian culture and science, and from the 1860s on he commissioned many outstanding Russian artists, Vasily Perov, Ivan Kramskoi, Ilya Repin, Nikolai Gay and Nikolai Nevrev among others, to paint portraits of foremost writers, composers, actors and scholars. When, in the early 1870s, the Society for Circulating Art Exhibitions was founded, Tretyakov gave it enthusiastic support. He acquired the most noteworthy pictures from the exhibitions organized by this major association of progressive-minded artists in pre-revolutionary Russia. Put together at the Gallery, the works of the Itinerants (or Peredvizhniki, as the members of the Society came to be called) provided an illuminating insight into the distinctive features of the Russian artistic school in the second half of the nineteenth century.

Tretyakov displayed the same consistency and perseverance in acquiring works of early Russian art, which he bought both from antique shops and private collections. He was one of the first collectors to recognize the significance of icons as an important part of Russian artistic culture. He assembled more than fifty truly magnificent icons of the fifteenth and sixteenth century Novgorod, Moscow and Pskov schools.

By 1872 Tretyakov had collected over 500 paintings, and in order to display them he began to build a special extension to his house in Lavrushinsky Lane. In 1881, when access to his collection became free, almost 8,000 people visited the Gallery. In 1898, the number of visitors to the Gallery totalled about 100,000.

In 1892, soon after his brother's death, Pavel Tretyakov did what he had always intended to do: he presented his and his brother's art collections to the city of Moscow. The donation consisted of over 1,200 paintings and 500 drawings estimated at one and a half million roubles. From now on the museum was called The,Pavel and Sergei Tretyakov Gallery of Moscow City, and Pavel Tretyakov remained at its head until his death on December 16 (December 4, O.S.), 1898.

After the death of Pavel Tretyakov, the Gallery was administered by a board under the Mayor of Moscow. In 1905, the well-known artist Ilya Ostroukhov was appointed its Curator. At about the same time, the facade of the Gallery was rebuilt to a design by Victor Vasnetsov. There were several distinguished artists among the Board members, who saw to it that Tretyakov's buying policy be continued. In 1913, Igor Grabar, a notable Russian and Soviet artist, art historian, restorer and museum worker, was elected Curator of the Gallery. His greatest service to the museum was the arrangement of the exhibits in chronological order. In 1917 he compiled and issued the first complete catalogue of the Gallery's collections. After the Great October Revolution the museum entered a new phase of its existence. On June 3, 1918, Lenin signed a decree nationalizing the Gallery as a museum performing "educational functions on a national scale". The decree widened the scope of the Gallery's activities, emphasizing its role for the development of a new socialist culture and for the education of the working people of the young Soviet state. In tribute to the outstanding services of its founder, the name of Pavel Tretyakov was perpetuated in the name of the Gallery.

After the October Revolution the Tretyakov Gallery absorbed many nationalized private art collections. Thus, in 1925 it received the collection of the Rumiantsev Museum and, at about the same time, the collection of Ivan Tsvetkov (the so-called Tsvetkov Gallery). In 1929 the Museum of Icons and Paintings, created by Ostroukhov, was also incorporated into the Gallery. Many valuable old Russian paintings and works of art were received by the Gallery from other sources. All in all, this was enough to set up a separate department of early Russian art. In the Soviet period too, a department of eighteenth and early nineteenth century Russian art was opened in the Gallery.

The department of Soviet art, which was inaugurated in 1932, took shape and expanded along with the development of art in the Soviet period. Its nucleus was formed by works that had won popular acclaim at the frequent art shows held since the early years of Soviet power. Each of these exhibitions demonstrated the important achievements of young Soviet art. Starting in the 1920s, the department began to buy pictures by artists from the other Soviet republics. In this field acquisitions were particularly numerous after World War II. As a result, the Tretyakov

Gallery is now by far the country's biggest repository of paintings, graphic works and sculptures by artists of all fifteen Soviet republics.

At present, the Tretyakov Gallery contains over 55,000 works of art, including more than 11,000 icons and paintings, which illustrate the evolution of Russian art from the eleventh century to our day. Every year one and a half million Soviet and foreign visitors come to see the artistic treasures kept at the Gallery.

The Tretyakov Gallery copes successfully with the important tasks of popularizing Russian and Soviet art, of developing the aesthetic ideals of the people, and of promoting the creative growth of Soviet artists. Its activities are part and parcel of the overall cultural policy of the Soviet Union.

Author: Irina Rostovtseva

• Tretyakov Gallery Official website (English)