Tambov Art Gallery: history, description

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

The Tambov Art Gallery was opened on April 30, 1961, but not from scratch. It is connected by historical roots with the first Tambov provincial museum founded in 1879. Among the donations to the museum were works of art, which later formed the basis of the Tambov gallery.

Gallery building - historical and architectural monument

The Art Gallery of Tambov is located at: st. Sovetskaya, 97. This is the very center of the city.

The building in which the museum's expositions are displayed today was built in 1892 according to the design of A. S. Chetverikov. It was intended to accommodate a special library: a reading room and a "issue" department.

Construction was completed in a year and a half using the most modern materials for that time. The public building was equipped with running water, sewerage and electricity. It had a huge book depository and a large reading room that could accommodate 500 people.

Contributed to the construction and financed its chief chamberlain of the imperial court,large landowner, Tambov patron E. D. Naryshkin. The building is still called the Naryshkin Reading Room. The museum was located in the same room.

The City Library Fund (since 1937 - the Pushkin Library) was located here until recently. When he moved to a new building, the Tambov Art Gallery was transferred here in 1983.

History of the creation and development of the gallery

In 1918, on the basis of the art department of the Naryshkin Reading Room, as well as works from private collections, nationalized by the Soviet government and transferred to the museum fund, the provincial art museum was opened. Works of art from the estates of the Naryshkins, Stroganovs, Boldyrevs became available for public viewing.

In 1929, the museum was closed, and its collections were transferred to the local history museum, which was given the premises of the city's cathedral on October Square. The art department will again become an independent institution only after a few decades. Having become the Art Gallery of Tambov, he occupied the entire building of the Naryshkin Reading Room.

Today, the gallery has more than 7 thousand exhibits. The collection was not lost, was not plundered in the harsh years that the country was going through. The first paintings, gifts from Tambov philanthropists, supplemented the works that came in 1918-1920 from nationalized estates, as well as those acquired in Soviet times.

There are three departments in the museum: "Russian art of the 18th - early 20th centuries", "Western European art of the 16th - 19th centuries" and "Art of the 20th century".

Russian art

The foundation of the 18th century collection is the numerous portraits of the owners of estates, which are made by both famous masters and unknown artists. The landscape works of the academic school of M. K. Klodt, L. L. Kamenev, I. K. Aivazovsky are also presented.

In the Soviet 60s, the fund was replenished with the works of the Wanderers: A. K. Savrasov, N. E. Sverchkov, A. A. Kiselev. But the largest number of paintings was acquired from the end of the 70s. Specialists had the opportunity to fill in the gaps in the collection.

For example, there are five portraits of Rokotov in the gallery. Not every museum can boast of such we alth. Or more. Two works by the great Russian portrait painter V. A. Tropinin, made in the first half of the 19th century, are different in character and demonstrate two sides of his work. "The old woman with a stocking" - the image of an elderly woman engaged in knitting. Her calm, understanding look is devoid of idealization. "Portrait of A. A. Sannikov" shows a merry fellow, a lover of life, looking around benevolently.

Western European art

Most of the paintings in this collection came to the museum from the collections of Count PS Stroganov and scientist BN Chicherin. The earliest works by Italian masters presented in the Art Gallery of Tambov date back to the 16th century.

In the 17th - 18th centuries, the baroque style prevails. Here are the sketches of the painting of the monastery church. For example, The Ascension of the Madonna. This composition is the work of Giovanni Romanelli. An important place in the collection is occupied byNeapolitan school, but there are also sections of Netherlandish, Dutch and Flemish painting.

The pride of the collection of the Art Gallery of Tambov in the photo below: "Madonna and Child". This is the work of the outstanding master Jan van Scorel.

Not so long ago it turned out that this painting is the left side of a diptych. Its right wing, which depicts a man, is stored in the Museum Center Berlin-Dahlem.

Art of the 20th century

The Tambov Gallery keeps the works of masters, somehow connected with the city. The artist A. V. Fonvizin, who lived in Tambov for 10 years, is represented by several paintings. His work is clear, and the images are unassuming. K. K. Zefirov left few works, but he was the first to open a “drawing” school for children.

Finally, the famous Tambov countryman, People's Artist of the USSR, four times winner of the State Prize - A. M. Gerasimov. He was born and lived in Kozlov (Michurinsk), wrote works about Soviet life, for Soviet people.

Among his works are many landscape sketches, still lifes, genre scenes. Several of his works are presented at the Tambov Art Gallery exhibition.

Later acquisitions by young artists. The museum collection contains a small collection of sculptural works.