Russian Museum in Saint Petersburg

The Russian Museum in St Petersburg is located in the Mikhailovsky Palace. It was founded by the last Russian emperor, Nicholas II, in 1895 and opened to the public in 1898. It is the first state museum of national fine art in Russia. Today it possesses the world`s largest collection of Russian art — more than 450,000 exhibits, spanning the period from the 10th to the 21st century.

The uniqueness of the Russian Museum lies in the fact that it is a museum created by the state for national art from the very beginning. Unlike the Tretyakov Gallery, which grew out of a private collection, the Russian Museum was a state project from the start — its aim was to create a "national temple" of Russian art. After the death of Grand Duke Mikhail Pavlovich, his palace was bought into the treasury, and Nicholas II decided to turn it into a museum in memory of Emperor Alexander III.

Despite the greater worldwide fame of the Tretyakov Gallery, it is the Russian Museum that is the "world`s largest collection of Russian art". The total volume of its holdings: more than 450,000 items against approximately 200,000 in the Tretyakov Gallery. However, each museum has its own strengths. They complement each other.

History of the Russian Museum

From a grand-ducal palace to a national museum 
The Mikhailovsky Palace was built to a design by the outstanding architect Karl Rossi in 1819–1825. It is a masterpiece of Russian classicism and the centre of the architectural ensemble of Arts Square. The palace was the residence of Grand Duke Mikhail Pavlovich, the younger brother of Nicholas I. The main façade is decorated with a Corinthian colonnade and a sculptural frieze by the sculptor Demut-Malinovsky, while the garden façade has a colonnade-loggia. The state rooms — the Main Vestibule and the White Hall — still preserve the decoration created by Rossi.

On 25 April 1895 Nicholas II signed a decree establishing the "Russian Museum of Emperor Alexander III" and acquiring the Mikhailovsky Palace with its adjoining buildings and garden for the needs of the museum. The decree emphasised that the museum should "concentrate in itself the finest works of Russian painting and sculpture" and include a special department in memory of Alexander III. After a three-year reconstruction under the architect Svinin, the museum opened to the public on 19 March 1898.

The foundations of the collection of the Russian Museum 
Initially the museum`s collection was formed from several sources: the Hermitage, the Gatchina Palace and the Alexander Palace transferred paintings, the Imperial Academy of Arts contributed its works, as well as the personal collection of Alexander III. In addition, the fund received gifts from private collectors, among whom was Prince Lobanov-Rostovsky.

In its first years the museum displayed about 445 paintings, as well as sculptures, engravings and objects of decorative and applied art. After the revolution of 1917 the collection grew sharply through nationalised private collections, which were distributed among the museums.

The chief treasures of the Russian Museum

"The Last Day of Pompeii" — Karl Bryullov 
One of the museum`s chief treasures, transferred from the Hermitage. With astonishing drama and mastery of chiaroscuro, Bryullov depicted the destruction of Pompeii during the eruption of Vesuvius. Completed in 1833, the painting caused a sensation in Europe and brought Bryullov international fame — he became the first Russian artist to receive recognition on such a scale.

"The Ninth Wave" — Ivan Aivazovsky 
The Russian Museum possesses one of the finest collections of Aivazovsky`s marine painting. "The Ninth Wave" depicts sailors miraculously saved, clinging to a fragment of a mast after a storm. The painting demonstrates a virtuoso command of light and water. It too came from the Hermitage.

"Barge Haulers on the Volga" — Ilya Repin 
The summit of Russian realism and the beginning of Repin`s European fame. The painting shows the heavy labour of barge haulers dragging a barge along the Volga. Having first seen barge haulers on the Neva, Repin was shocked and travelled specially to the Volga to study their life. In Repin`s opinion, the leading hauler, Kanin, a former priest, "resembles an ancient philosopher". Leo Tolstoy admired it: "The mastery is such that the mastery is not visible."

"Suvorov`s Crossing of the Alps" — Vasily Surikov 
The painting was created for the centenary of Suvorov`s Italian campaign. Surikov travelled specially to Switzerland to feel the speed of the descent from the icy slopes and to convey the swift, avalanche-like movement of the soldiers. Every face on the canvas has its own expression — someone laughs, someone is serious, in someone`s eyes there is fear. Having seen the painting, Nicholas II immediately acquired it for the Russian Museum.

"Moonlit Night on the Dnieper" — Arkhip Kuindzhi 
Kuindzhi`s most famous work. A river with a greenish glow crosses the plain, and the moonlight is reflected on the water with an extraordinary radiance. At the 1880 exhibition Kuindzhi placed the painting in a completely dark hall, lighting it with a single beam of light, which caused a sensation. Grand Duke Konstantin, having seen the painting in the studio, immediately bought it and took it on a sea voyage, because of which the colours darkened from the salt air and sunlight.

"The Merchant`s Wife at Tea" — Boris Kustodiev 
One of Kustodiev`s most recognisable works. A plump woman sits on a balcony drinking tea, with a noisy Russian town in the background. The model was not a merchant`s wife but Baroness Galina Aderkas, who came from the Astrakhan nobility. Kustodiev repeatedly said that "thin women are no good for a painting".

"The Red Square" — Kazimir Malevich 
The Benois Wing houses Malevich`s version of "The Red Square". Unlike the "Black Square" in the Tretyakov Gallery, this is a later author`s copy. Also displayed here are works by Vasily Kandinsky, Marc Chagall ("The Promenade"), Pavel Filonov ("The Peasant Family") and other masters of the avant-garde.

The Benois Wing and the art of the 20th–21st centuries

The Benois Wing, connected to the Mikhailovsky Palace and built to a design by the architects Leonty Benois and Sergei Ovsyannikov in 1914–1919, was transferred to the Russian Museum in the 1930s. It houses the collection of Russian art of the late 19th — 21st centuries: Symbolism, the avant-garde, Socialist Realism, nonconformism and contemporary art.

The exposition of the Benois Wing allows one to trace how Russian art passed from the revolutionary experiments of the early 20th century through the era of Socialist Realism to unofficial art and contemporary practices.

The architectural complex of the museum

Besides the Mikhailovsky Palace and the Benois Wing, the Russian Museum includes: 
• The Mikhailovsky Castle — 2 Sadovaya Street 
• The Marble Palace — 5/1 Millionnaya Street 
• The Stroganov Palace — 17 Nevsky Prospect 
• The Summer Garden 
• The Mikhailovsky Garden

Practical information

• Address: Mikhailovsky Palace, 4 Inzhenernaya Street 
• Opening hours: Monday 10:00–20:00; Wednesday–Sunday 10:00–18:00; Tuesday — closed 
• Tickets: a combined ticket to the Mikhailovsky Palace and the Benois Wing — adult 1,000 roubles, students and pensioners 700 roubles, children aged 7–14 400 roubles, children under 7 free of charge 
• Free admission: every third Thursday of the month for pensioners; on the 18th of each month for students and minors (if this falls on a Tuesday, it is moved to Wednesday) 
• Transport: metro "Nevsky Prospect" or "Gostiny Dvor", about 10 minutes on foot 
• Time: allow 2–3 hours each for the Mikhailovsky Palace and the Benois Wing

The Russian Museum is a national treasury of Russian art: from icons of the 12th century to installations of the 21st century, from Rossi`s palaces to Rastrelli`s Baroque masterpieces. In a single museum complex, the complete history of Russian art is gathered.