Art galleries of Russia

Art galleries can be visited in many major cities of Russia. In Moscow and St. Petersburg, you can see the masterpieces of European artists, and in other cities in art galleries there are many paintings by famous Russian artists.

In this review on the Geomerid portal, you can read about all the major art galleries in Russian cities:

1.    The Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow
2.    Pushkin Museum in Moscow
3.    The Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg
4.    Russian Museum in St. Petersburg
5.    Museum of Fine Arts in Yekaterinburg
6.    Art Museum in Nizhny Novgorod
7.    Art Museum in Krasnodar
8.    Art Museum in Novosibirsk
9.    Art Museum in Tula
10.    Museum of Fine Arts in Omsk
11.    Museum of Fine Arts in Volgograd
12.    Museum of Fine Arts in Kazan

Follow the hyperlinks to read in detail about each gallery and see a large number of photos

Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow

The Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow has very narrow specialization – there kept a huge collection of Russian painting from the first portraitists of the beginning of XVIII century to the painters of the Soviet period.

It was called after the merchant Paul Tretyakov who gave to Moscow his collection of Russian painting in 1892. At the gallery one can see both small pictures and portraits and vast canvases of the famous Russian painters: Surikov, Repin, Brulov, Aivazovsky, Ivanov, Vasnetsov, Shishkin, Vereshchagin and many others.

Pushkin Museum in Moscow

The formal name of the museum is the State Pushkin Art Museum in Moscow, but it is commonly called just the Pushkin Museum. It is located in the center of Moscow near the Temple of Christ the Savior. The museum has one of the largest Russian collections of world art.

Of special interest can be collection of French impressionists: Renoir, C. Monet, Degas, Cezanne, as well as post-impressionists: Van Gogh, Picasso and Matisse. Besides seeing these pictures one should visit the halls where the Priam Treasure is exhibited, which was discovered by Henry Schliemann during the diggings on the site ancient Troy.

Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg

For several centuries the Winter Palace was the main grand residence of Russian emperors, and now it is the largest museum in Russia and one of the largest and best museums in the world. Later there appeared the second name - Hermitage museum (from the French word ‘ermitage’ meaning ‘retreat’), which was originally given to several secluded chambers of Catherine II. 

The Hermitage, as museum, was founded in 1764, when Catherine II purchased a collection of 225 canvases from the merchant Gotskovskiy in Berlin. The art collections are exhibited at the residence of Russian emperors, therefore it will be interesting to visit the Hermitage not only because of its pictures or sculptures.

Russian Museum in St. Petersburg

The largest museum of Russian art was opened in St. Petersburg in 1896 and called «Russian Museum of Emperor Alexander III». The main exposition of Russian Museum is located at the building of Mikhailovsky Palace, which was built by the great Russian architect Charles Rossi in 1819-1825.

In spite of the world big fame of the Tretyakov Gallery, as the storage of Russian painting, by the value of its collection Russian Museum is equivalent to and even surpass it. There`s kept the significant part of the most famous pictures of Repin, Perov, Aivazovsky, Brulov, Vasnetsov, Serov, Surikov, and Levitan. 

Museum of Fine Arts in Yekaterinburg

Yekaterinburg Museum of Fine Arts occupies the former building of the storehouse of the Gorny Hospital located in the Historical public garden near the Plotinka on the bank of the Iset River. At the museum you can see the pictures of famous Russian painters, as well as the most interesting collection of Kasli art castings. 

The collection is on display in a hall at the entrance to the museum. Kasli iron cast pavilion is in the center of the hall. It was made for Universal World Exhibition 1900 in Paris. It was subsequently included in the international catalogue of UNESCO as the world`s only architectural con-struction of iron cast included in a museum collection. In the other halls you can see a big collection of pictures of famous Russian painters: Perov, Aivazovsky, Vasnetsov, Shishkin, Savrasov, Levitan and many other painters. 

Art Museum in Nizhny Novgorod

Nizhny Novgorod State Art Museum is in the House of the Military Governor in the eastern part of the Kremlin. You can see some of its collections in the other museum building on the Upper Volga River Embankment. 

The museum was founded in 1896. It is one of the oldest museums in Russia and one of the largest art museums in the Povolzhye (Volga Region). There are a lot of very interesting works of famous Russian and Western Europe painters.

Art Museum in Krasnodar

The Fine Art Museum of Krasnodar was founded by Fyodor Kovalenko.  It is located in Pushkin Square, at the very beginning of Krasnaya (Red) Street. It is one of the oldest museums in the Caucasus region. However, for a long time it represented only the collection of F. Kovalenko who displayed it at various places of Yekaterinodar (former name of Krasnodar city).

In the Soviet time the collection was given the status of a state museum, and his directors managed to significantly increase its collection through new very valuable pictures and exhibits. In our days at the museum you can see very interesting collections of Russian painting of 17-19 centuries, Old Russian icon painting, watercolour, Japanese xylography and foreign painting. 

Art Museum in Novosibirsk

Novosibirsk State Fine Art Museum is in the building of Sibrevkom on Krasny avenue. It was created in 1926, about the same time as the construction of the Opera and Ballet Theatre began. It raised the status of the city as the center of Siberian region of Russia.

Now at the art museum you can see the pictures of many well-known Russian painters of 18-20 centuries. The permanent museum exposition includes an interesting collection of pictures by Nicholas and Svyatoslav Roerich. The ancient Russian art is represented by a very valuable collection of icons.

Art Museum in Tula

The Tula Museum of Fine Arts based on the collections once owned by the noble families of the Tula Region (the Olsufyevs, the Bobrinskys, the Gagarins, and the Urusovs) was opened in 1919. At first the collections were stored at the local Chamber of Antiquities, which was opened at Tula in 1884.

At the museum you can see the portraits of the painters of the 18th century: Antropov, Borovikovsky and Tropinin. There also presented the pictures of the famous Russian painters of the 19th century: Aivazovsky, Shishkin, Polenov and Serov. There is also a collection of avant-garde pictures of Kandinsky, Malevich, Konchalovsky and the other famous painters of such kind at the museum. 

Museum of Fine Arts in Omsk

Omsk Museum of Fine Arts named after Vrubel is located in Dzerzhinsky park, in the historical center of the city. It has one of the largest collections of paintings by Russian masters in Siberia. The Museum was named after the famous Russian artist Mikhail Vrubel, who was born in Omsk in 1856.

The first paintings were brought to Omsk in 1924 from the palaces of Rumyantsev, Shuvalov, and Yusupov. Some paintings were transferred to the Omsk Museum from the Tretyakov gallery and the Russian Museum. There are many paintings by famous Russian artists, Aivazovsky, Shishkin, Vasnetsov, Surikov and others. 

Museum of Fine Arts in Volgograd

Volgograd Museum of Fine Arts was opened in 1960. At the museum you can see interesting works of many famous Russian artists of 19-20 centuries, such as Repin, Serov, Aivazovsky, Vereshchagin and many others, as well as a large collection of works by Ilya Mashkov.

Ilya Ivanovich Mashkov was born in Volgograd region in 1881 (then the region was known as the Province of the Don Cossack Host). He graduated from the Moscow School of Painting and for a long time was engaged in teaching painting. After the revolution of 1917 he became an active participant of transformations and headed the Association of Artists of Revolutionary Russia in 1925. 

Museum of Fine Arts in Kazan

The Museum of Fine Arts in Kazan is a picture gallery where you can see the works of well-known painters of 19 century, a collection of the Old Russian art, and very interesting pictures of Soviet and Tatar painters. In 1958 a picture gallery was opened at the National Museum of the Republic of Tatarstan.

From the painters of 18 century you can see there the works of such famous portraitists as V. Borovikovsky, F. Rokotov, D. Levitsky, and V. Tropinin. They painted the portraits of tsars and well-known noblemen. Of a special interest are the pictures of the famous painters of 19 century, such as К. Brulov, I. Aivazovsky, I. Shishkin, V. Serov, and several works of V. Perov.  Several museum rooms are devoted to the Old Russian art, iconography and applied arts.