Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts
One of the richest world collections of fine arts from the time immemorial to
nowadays is treasured in the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts that is favorably
situated in the very center of Moscow, close to the Kremlin and Red Square.
Nowadays it is the second, after the Hermitage in Saint Petersburg, largest
museum of foreign art in Russia.
The Museum originates from the Cabinet of Fine Arts and Antiquities, established
in the 1840s on the initiative of professors and scientists of the Moscow
University. Wonderful collections of the Cabinet formed the basis of the
exposition of the new Museum of Fine Arts. For the construction of the museum's
building the territory of the former Carriage (Kolymazni) court that is in the
very center of the city not far from the Kremlin was given by Moscow Duma to the
University. The winner of the architectural contest and the author of the
project was Roman Ivanovoch Klein. He designed the building that reminds greatly
of an ancient classical temple on the high podium with the Ionic colonnade along
the facade. Its splendid interiors were decorated according to the styles of
certain historical periods that were to be represented there.
The solemn opening of the Museum that at first was officially called the Museum
of Fine Arts named after Alexander III took place on May 31, 1912.
According to the conception worked out by the first director of the Museum,
professor of Moscow University, Doctor of Philology and Art Historian Ivan
Tsvetaev (the father of famous Russian poet Marina Tsvetaeva) the museum
collection was enlarged with the plaster casts of world-famous works of arts
treasured in different museums of Europe. Thus the new museum was planned as a
depository of copies of famous pictures.
After the Revolution of 1917 the Museum was nationalized and its collection was
greatly enriched by paintings from expropriated private collections,
nationalized Moscow estates and abolished museums and galleries. In the course
of the 20th century the Museum changed its name more than once. The
establishment was given its present name - the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts
- in 1937.
Nowadays there are over 560,000 works of art exhibited in the halls of the
Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts. The museum treasures Egyptian mummies,
antique amphorae and craters with images of Greek and Roman gods and heroes, old
steles and sarcophagi, paintings by Rembrandt, Botichelli, Canaletto, Guardi,
Tiepolo, impressive collection of Little Dutch Masters, impressionists,
postimpressionists and modernists and many other works that form the gold
collection of world art heritage. In the last few years the Museum got several
new premises that render possible exhibiting of many private collections that
for many years stayed inaccessible for the public.
Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts
Pushkin museum Moscow
Address: Volkhonka St., 12
Working hours: 10:00-19:00
Closed: Monday
