Shchukin Sergey Ivanovich: biography, family, collection

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

Sergei Ivanovich Shchukin was a well-known collector and philanthropist. A collection of his paintings is kept in the Hermitage and the State Pushkin Museum. July 27, 1854 is considered the date of birth of the owner of unique paintings of French painting. Shchukin died on January 10, 1936.

The patron's parents

The Shchukin dynasty is descended from Kaluga merchants. The ability to trade, business acumen and the ability to foresee future profits were in Sergei Ivanovich's blood. Sergei's father, Ivan Vasilyevich, became an orphan at the age of eighteen. Having inherited a family business, Ivan Shchukin after a short time increased the financial condition of the family several times. The man was successful in many endeavors.

He married the daughter of tea merchants. A lot of famous personalities were related to Ekaterina Petrovna. Thanks to her, the entire Shchukin family got involved in high art, which influenced the future fate of Sergei Ivanovich.

Childhood and youth

Despite the fact that Sergei Schukin was born into the family of a we althy manufacturer, the young man did not receive an education until the age of eighteen. The point is that onlynineteen years, while in Germany, he was finally able to recover from his stutter. In the same year, the young man enters the German Academy of Trade and Commerce, located in the city of Gera. In addition to Sergei, three more sons were brought up in the family: Ivan, Peter and Dmitry. However, of all his brothers, it was Sergey who became the most successful and talented in almost everything he touched.

Probably, the inferiority complex with which the philanthropist fought all his life affected. In addition to the fact that Sergei had a very small stature, he spoke very carefully all his life, diligently pronouncing the words. Thus, his manner of carrying on a conversation was affected by a stammer, which doctors could not cure until the age of eighteen. All sons continued the work of their father. In 1878, the company "Ivan Schukin with his sons" was created, where all the brothers entered as equal partners.

Production activity

The company was doing quite well. The production of the trading house has noticeably increased and expanded. Now it included most of the textile factories in Moscow and the surrounding cities. In those years, the Shchukin brothers were quite successful merchants. This is evidenced not only by the biography of Sergei Shchukin, but also by the fact that the family trading house was the leader among buyers of cotton and woolen products. Literally ten years later, Sergey Ivanovich was awarded the title of Commerce Advisor.

Ranks and positions

In 1891, Shchukin became a merchant of the first guild. In addition, by that time he was already an advisercommerce, as well as a member of the department of the council of trade of manufactories of the city of Moscow. Six years later, he was elected to the City Duma, where he worked for three years. Until the beginning of the revolution, Shchukin held a position in the Moscow Exchange Society, as well as in the merchant credit community of the city of Moscow. For his iron grip, he was called a "porcupine." He was successful in both collecting and entrepreneurship.

Start gathering

According to the official biography of Sergei Ivanovich Shchukin, his desire to collect began in Paris, where he made his first purchase after acquiring a mansion. Having sold the valuable weapons stored in the house, Shchukin bought a painting by the Norwegian artist Taulov. It was back in 1882.

Thus was the beginning of the collection. The collector preferred to make all his purchases in Paris. Eight years later, with the help of his brother Ivan, he acquired several paintings by impressionist artists. Over the next six years, his collection was replenished with works by such masters as Claude Monet, Auguste Renoir and Edgar Degas. Shchukin liked to call himself a philanthropist supporting unpopular artists at that time. Subsequently, most of the paintings became world masterpieces, and their authors are still admired.

Also during this period, paintings by Vincent van Gogh, Paul Gauguin and Paul Cezanne were acquired. It cannot be said that the patron was fond of only one artistic direction. For example, he often bought works of art created by Fauvist artists. With some mastersmade friends and corresponded. Basically, all the works were bought directly in the workshops, and Sergei Ivanovich bought only a few of his paintings from his brother Peter, when he began to need money due to family circumstances.

Best Works

Shchukin was fascinated by the ideas of avant-garde artists, but few shared his taste. Most of the friends and visitors to his home in Moscow were shocked by the paintings he brought back. Perhaps the most favorite artists of Sergei Ivanovich were Claude Monet and Henri Matisse. Monet's first painting was Lilacs in the Sun, acquired in 1897. And the last - "The Lady in the Garden." Several paintings, as already mentioned, the patron bought from his brother Peter, when he needed money. These were paintings by Suriname, Raffaello, Renoir, Pissarro and Denis. For his love of art and collecting in 1910, Sergei Ivanovich received an honorary position in the Jack of Diamonds Society of Artists.

Sometimes he bought paintings in whole series. For example, he bought sixteen paintings by Gauguin, most of which were the theme of Tahiti. After buying eight paintings by Cezanne, four by Van Gogh and six works by Rousseau, Sergei Ivanovich Shchukin turned his attention to Picasso. A remarkable fact is that the collector was practically not interested in the artists of the past. He preferred the young, sometimes practically unknown. He liked the scandalous authors who made a splash in the art world.

Perhaps this behavior is explained by Shchukin's merchant view of everythinghappening. One of his favorite sayings was: "A good picture is, first of all, a cheap picture." Acquiring works of art, he liked to bargain. He knew that in the future the collection would bring him good profits and ensure a comfortable existence for his descendants. As always, Shchukin was not mistaken. It is known that he once bought fifteen paintings for one million francs. Right now, just one painting out of those fifteen is worth a lot more.

East in his collection

Collector Sergei Schukin was an avid traveler. Moreover, he was extremely attracted to the East. No wonder his beloved wife Lydia had an oriental appearance and received the nickname "Shamakhanskaya queen" in Moscow. He has done a lot of business with companies in India, Japan and China. In addition, his enterprises traded with all of Central Asia and Morocco.

The personification of the Eastern world for him was, of course, Henri Matisse. One of the main paintings of the collector's collection was the "Red Room", which is now in the Museum of St. Petersburg. Becoming an admirer of the artist, Shchukin ordered the panel "Music" and "Dance" by Henri Matisse, with which he designed his house.

The fate of the assembly

Sergei Schukin's collection grew extremely fast. In order to make it easier to pay the artists, he opened a bank account in Berlin. Already during the emigration, Sergei Ivanovich continued to use it. Shchukin confessed to his daughter that he acquired the paintings spontaneously. As soon as he saw any worthy creation, he immediately had desiresto make a purchase. If at the beginning of his collecting he paid a lot of attention to the Impressionists, then after his eyes switched to the Post-Impressionists.

As the story goes, Sergei Schukin, during his lifetime, opened a mansion for everyone who wanted to get acquainted with the creations of the great French. While in exile, he, like many other manufacturers who remained out of work, tried to take his collection through the courts. However, according to friends, he resigned himself to the loss and decided to leave the paintings to his former homeland. A noteworthy fact is that in the twenties of the last century, the husband of the daughter of Sergei Shchukin, who wished to remain with the new government, became the first director of the museum.

By the way, the entire nationalized collection remained absolutely untouched, and at the beginning of November of the eighteenth year, that is, three months after the owner's emigration, it was transferred to the museum. Starting in the spring of the nineteenth year, the paintings of the patron of the arts Shchukin could be seen in the first museum of Western painting. After the war, the collection was divided between Leningrad and Moscow. Shchukin's biographer claims that over twenty years of collecting, almost three hundred paintings were collected by the patron. The complete collection can only be seen in the album. During exhibitions, only half of the paintings can be exhibited.

Private life

The famous philanthropist Sergei Ivanovich Shchukin was married twice. Each wife gave him children. The first wife, Lydia Koreneva, was the daughter of Yekaterinoslav landowners. Lydia was a real beauty. She loved clothes and her passion was psychology.

Unlike his wife, Sergei was a real ascetic and preferred ordinary food and sleep by an open window. From the marriage, a daughter, Ekaterina, and sons, Sergei, Ivan and Grigory, were born. In 1907, Shchukin became a widower and remarried a few years later. The second wife was the pianist Nadezhda Mirotvortseva, who bore him a daughter, Irina. In addition, following the aristocratic fashion, the Shchukins took two pupils to the house: Varvara and Anna.

Family troubles

However, in the biography of Sergey Ivanovich Shchukin there were also black stripes. Unfortunately, the life of some loved ones was unsuccessful. At the age of eighteen, his beloved son Sergei drowned. Two years later, the wife of the patron, the beautiful Lydia, committed suicide, unable to cope with her grief. Another son of Shchukin, Grigory, did the same, and hanged himself. However, the troubles did not end there, and after a while his own and no less beloved brother Ivan shot himself.

These events had a very hard impact on the psyche of the philanthropist. Sergei Ivanovich Shchukin was very upset by the loss of loved ones and at one time tried to become a pilgrim or go into seclusion. To compensate for the pain of loss, Shchukin began to pay increased attention to his collection. It was during this difficult period that most of the most successful paintings were acquired.

Life in exile

As Shchukin's grandson, Andre-Marc Deloc-Fourcot, recalls, his grandfather's life in Paris was quite happy and measured. His last daughter was born when Shchukin was almost seventy years old. The whole family lived quite quietly anda comfortable life, traveling a lot and talking with friends. According to some reports, Sergei Ivanovich managed to transfer a decent amount to a Swiss bank in 1918, which allowed his family not to live in poverty.

Sergei Ivanovich Shchukin no longer engaged in collecting, limiting himself to buying a few paintings that he hung in his room. He lived in Nice, a picturesque Mediterranean city. Despite the fact that the revolution took away his life's work, he did not regret anything and was quite philosophical about this fact.

In 2016, a documentary was released, which is called: “Sergey Schukin. Collector's History. The project was created in France. Tatyana Rakhmanova acted as the director.