It can be safely stated that the Tretyakov Gallery is the real property of Moscow and all of Russia, and indeed the whole world. This museum, created on the initiative of a generous philanthropist Pavel Tretyakov, has a huge collection of priceless works of art. This gallery is one of the most famous museums in the world, and deservedly so.
The idea to create in Moscow a collection of the best works of art came to the mind of the Moscow merchant Pavel Tretyakov after visiting the St. Petersburg Hermitage. Tretyakov’s biographers believe that the first paintings in his collection were The Temptation by artist N. Schilder and The Clash with Finnish Smugglers by V. Khudyakov. The canvases were acquired on May 22, 1856, when Pavel Mikhailovich was only 23 years old. In 1867, the gallery turned into a real museum, opening its doors to the public for the first time. Prior to this, only members of the imperial dynasty and their entourage could visit it. The building of the Tretyakov Gallery appeared much later. Only in 1867 the Moscow City Gallery of Pavel and Sergei Tretyakov was opened in Zamoskvorechye. By the time of the grand opening in 1867, the gallery’s collection numbered more than 1000 paintings. The gallery was officially donated to Moscow in 1892. Tretyakov himself, not wanting to participate in the ceremony and listen to numerous thanks, went abroad for this time. Now it has more than 180 thousand different exhibits. During the Second World War, the collection of the Tretyakov Gallery dispersed throughout the country. Most of the work was evacuated to Novosibirsk, the other temporarily moved to the city of Molotov.
In the will of Tretyakov, one condition was specifically stipulated – free admission to the art gallery. For his generous gift, he received the nobility from the emperor. However, Tretyakov refused him, saying that he was born a merchant, and will die a merchant. On January 6, 1913, 29-year-old Abram Balashov with a knife threw himself at Ivan Repin’s painting Ivan the Terrible and his son Ivan. Balashov struck three blows on the canvas. Vandal was declared insane, and the painting was restored for six months. First, the patron kept all the exhibits of the future Tretyakov Gallery in his house in Lavrushinsky Lane, and later, when they ceased to be placed there, he began to build a separate building adjacent to his mansion. In 1917, after the end of the revolution, the Tretyakov Gallery was nationalized, after which various things belonging to private collections, both Russian and foreign, began to appear in it. The Tretyakov Gallery presents not only the works of Russian and foreign artists, but also various products from precious metals of historical value. In 1917, the museum’s collection totaled 40 thousand masterpieces, and by 1980 this number had increased to 55 thousand.
The emblem of the Tretyakov Gallery was the image of its facade according to the drawing of the famous artist Vasnetsov. The gallery itself consists of 106 rooms, the expositions in each of them are carefully selected according to painters and eras. Now the area of the Tretyakov Gallery is 35.6 thousand square meters. The largest painting presented in the gallery collection is considered to be “The Appearance of Christ to the People”. The canvas belongs to the brush of Alexander Ivanov. The masterpiece of the Russian painter has dimensions of 7.5 m by 5.4 meters. According to historical chronicles, the artist spent twenty years creating the painting. In 1891, in the Tretyakov Gallery, which by this time already had the status of a national treasure, the theft of four works of art took place. This event extremely saddened Pavel Tretyakov, and he decided to close the museum for visitors for two years. After some time, thanks to an active search, two paintings still managed to be discovered, and in 1893 the museum was reopened to the public.
