|
        
The Graphic Arts Collection numbers more than 2700 units of storage. The
basic part of collection is made of the works of printed works: all kinds
of engravings on metal and lithographs. Chronological frameworks of a collection
envelop the end of the 16th – 20th centuries.         
Except for works by domestic masters, in fund are represented practically
all West-European schools, America and Japan. The section of drawings numbers
about 150 works. Basically, these are works by Russian masters of the 19th
- beginning of the 20th century.         
The historical nucleus of a collection is made out of about 450 works which
arrived in 1924 - 1927 through the State Museum Fund. In the 1980s the collection
replenished due to gifts and purchases from private collections of Moscow
and Leningrad.          The Russian
Graphic Arts Collection of the 18th - beginning of the 20th centuries numbers
near 2000 exhibits. It reflects the basic stages of development of a domestic
engraving and lithography. We can attribute lithographs of the middle of
the 19th century to the most significant sections of the fund: series “Russian
Costumes” by V.F. Timm, “Scenes of the Russian National Way of Life” by
I.S. Shchedrovsky, illustrations to N.V. Gogol’s “The Inspector General”
by P.M. Boklevsky, “Scenes of an Everyday Life” by P.P. Semechkin based
on P.F. Fedotov's drawings. A series of portraits of prominent figures of
the Russian culture executed by N.S. Voytinskaya (1909) belong to unique
samples of Russian lithography. It expands known conception of iconography
by K. Chukovsky, Z. Gippius, N. Gumelev, A. Benois, M. Dobuzhinsky, etc.
         High art qualities differ a small
collection of the Russian drawings of the end of the 19th - beginning of
the 20th century. Works by I.E. Repin, Ê.Å. Makovsky, K.F. Bogaevsky, A.N.
Benois, K.N. Roerich, Z.E. Serebryakova, A.Y.Golovin, K.S. Petrov, F.A.
Malyavin reflect the searches of new ideas and artistic - expressive possibilities
of graphic arts.          Drawings
on location by Repin, Roerich, Ostroumova, Malyavin introduce to a scientific
analyses preparatory materials to their known works. To the unfamiliar works
belong drawings by E. Kruglikova, among them – “A Tour of Saint Michael’s
Abbey” (1906) which is a group portrait of figures of Russian culture of
the Silver Age.          The collection
of foreign graphics includes basically reproduction engravings by the West-European
masters executed in the 17th – 19th centuries in various techniques on metal
and lithographs. Etchings by Durer, Callot, Rembrandt, Piranezi give an
idea about author's engraving in which skills of drawing and engraving allow
to create an artistic image filled with individual vision of the surrounding
world and a human. F. Piranezi's etchings “Antoninus’ Column” and “Trajanus’
Column” belong to historically significant samples of the European engraving.
Executed in the appointed scale of 1:10, they with documentary accuracy
reproduce relief of the well-known monuments of antiquity.         
Historical authenticity and high technical skill distinguish engravings
from a series “The Italian Campaigns of Napoleon,” made by the French masters
of the first half of the 19th century.
         The well-known collection of painting
of Count Brulles in reproductions by artists of the French school introduces
us to the works of masters of various epochs. Some of the paintings were
lost, and these now engravings are the unique documentary source, allowing
us to create a complete picture of a history of formation of the largest
private collections of Europe.         
To the most valuable monuments of the art of engraving belongs the album
issued in London in 1776 – “Drawings in Reproductions of the Best English
Engravers,” including over 60 compositions. Collected from various private
collections of England, they make the richest material on a history of the
European drawing since Renaissance. Besides, the album is the original encyclopedia
of engraving techniques which were developed especially for facsimile transfer
of drawing features in sepia, coal, and watercolor.         
The collection of Japanese graphics, small in a quantitative respect, possesses
the rare artistic and ethnographic material dedicated to the most ancient
people of the Eastern region – the Ainus. The watercolors executed in the
middle of the 19th century by artist B. Hirasava, who spent a long time
living among ainus, tell us about history and traditional culture of disappearing
people.          As a whole, the collection
Russian and foreign graphics has solid reputation of classical. It includes
the works which have received reflection in a history of art. Besides in
a section of graphics are kept the monuments of domestic and foreign culture
having the big scientific interest for the world community. |
|