The Tretyakov State Gallery houses the biggest collection of Russian art in the world, including exhibits from the high middle ages up to the creations of the main contemporary artists. The gallery was founded in 1856 by the Russian collector and benefactor Pavel Mikhailovich Tretyakov, who took the preservation of Russian art as his life goal. He was a merchant, who had textile factories outside of Moscow, on the Volga-river, in the city of Kostroma. There were a lot of galleries in Moscow in that time, but Russian nobility collected only western art: Datch, Flammish, Frehnch, Italian and other foreign artists. The nucleus of each gallery in Moscow at that time was western art. And as for Tretyakow, a very simple idea came to his mind. He decided to collect the peacies of Russian art, only Russian art. Because there was a stereotype at that time: many people thought, that the center of art is located in Europe and Russian art is only peripherical art. Tretyakov decided to create the gallery exclusively of the Russian art, only Russian paintings. He bought his first 2 paintings in 1856. The nucleus of the gallery is the Russian art of the second half of the 19-th century/ In 1892 the gallery was donated to the state together with the most complete and valuable collection of Russian art of its time. Succeeding curators latter pursued the goal to further enrich and complete the collection and the exposition was progressively extended from the gallery to many neighboring buildings. Today the Tretyakov State Gallery houses an exhaustive encyclopedic collection of Russian art.
The exhibition space in the main building of the gallery is over 12,000 square metres and is divided into 62 themed halls. The collection amounts to 170,000 artworks. Masterpieces of medieval Russian icon painting as well as paintings by I. Aivazovsky, M. Vrubel, K. Bryullov, V. Vasnetsov, and dozens of works by other Russian artists are displayed here. The museum contains many world-class masterpieces such as “The TrinityRussian: Troitsa or Троица” by A. Rublev, “Appearance of Christ to the PeopleRussian: Yavlenie Khrista narodu or Явление Христа народу” by A. Ivanov, “Boyarynya MorozovaRussian: Boyarynya Morozova or Боярыня Морозова” by V. Surikov and amazing landscapes by I. Levitan and A. Kuindzhi.
The Tretiakov Gallery is not only about art. Our guide will help you to discover local religion, recognize the faces of people you’ve heard about, traveling across Russia, see traditional landscapes. Through the art you’ll be able to place yourself in atmosphere of different historical periods and learn about local customs and traditions.
The main building of the gallery includes the renovated Tretyakov home and several buildings that were attached to it at various times. The main facade of the building was erected in 1902 according to plans by the artist Victor Vasnetsov. In 1994, the Tretyakov Gallery opened after 10 years of restoration. This was not just a facelift to the building; the interior and technical equipment were brought up to the highest standards of quality, which is as it should be, since it contains so many treasures of Russian art.
