Tretyakov Gallery

Welcome to the Tretyakov Gallery, the world's foremost treasury of Russian fine art. Standing before this iconic building with its distinct 'Old Russian' facade designed by the artist Viktor Vasnetsov, we are entering a space…

We begin in the heart of the 19th-century collection, the rooms dedicated to the 'Wanderers' or Peredvizhniki. This group of artists famously broke away from the restrictive Imperial Academy of Arts in Saint Petersburg to create…

One cannot discuss the Tretyakov without spending significant time with Ilya Repin, perhaps the greatest of all Russian realist painters. Repin had an uncanny ability to capture a single moment of extreme psychological tension. …

We now enter a space that feels like another world: the Vrubel Hall. Mikhail Vrubel was the most significant and tragic artist of the turn of the 20th century, a man who bridged the gap between the 19th-century Wanderers and the…

Adjacent to the Demons, we find a different facet of Vrubel’s genius: his fascination with folklore and theater. The 'Swan Princess' is perhaps the most beloved painting in the gallery, often associated with Vrubel’s wife, the…

Vrubel’s creativity was not confined to canvas. Under the patronage of Savva Mamontov at the Abramtsevo colony, he became a master of ceramics and majolica. …

Paradoxically, the exhibition at the Tretyakov often ends by stepping back in time to the 12th through 16th centuries. This is the collection of Russian Icons, and its undisputed crown jewel is 'The Trinity' by Andrei Rublev,…

As we exit the Tretyakov Gallery, we have traversed centuries of Russian history through the eyes of its most profound observers. We have seen the formal portraits of the Enlightenment, the gritty truth of the Wanderers, the…