Arts Studio

The State Russian Museum , one of the largest museum of fine art in Europe and the largest museum of Russian art in the World (along with the State Tretyakov Gallery), is located in the center of St. Petersburg, in the architectural complex of Arts Square. The museum occupies four different buildings: the Mikhailovski Palace, an outstanding monumen... t of Petersburg architecture (1819-1825, architect K.I. Rossi), the Mikhailovsky Castle, the Stroganovsky Palace and the Marble Palace. Despite the intense cultural life in Petersburg, then the capital of Russia, there was no state museum devoted to national art until the end of the nineteenth century. Some works by Russian masters were held in the Hermitage (which for a long time had the character of a palace collection of the imperial family); a few were in the Academy of Arts, where there were mainly works by its students, but most were in numerous private collections. For this reason, the establishment of the Russian Museum was an important event in the artistic life of the city. The Russian Museum (first named the Russian Museum of the Emperor Alexander III) was established in 1895. In order to have a place for the museum, the Treasury acquired the Mikhailovski Palace, and its interior was partially redone (architect V.E. Svinin). The core of the museum collection was paintings by native masters from the Hermitage collection (which then comprised only eighty works), paintings from the Academy of Arts, the Alexander Palace in the Tsarskoe Selo, and from other palace holdings. A large portrait collection assembled by A.B. Lobanov-Rostovskii was also acquired. The Museum op ened to the public in March 1898. New departments appeared in the following years: ethnography in 1902 and history in 1913, although their exhibits were handed over to other museums in 1934. During the first ten years of its existence, the Museum doubled its art holdings and gained wide popularity. By 1912 museum attendance reached almost 220,000 visitors, which surpassed annual attendance to ...Read More