The museum complex "Palaty" is located in the building of the
Offices, which was built in 1785-1790 (designed by the architect
Blank) in the classical style. It is located in the city center, in
the depths of an old park with alleys and a fountain, between
ancient cathedrals. The building was intended for the needs of the
provincial administration, it remained bureaucratic until the 1990s.
The building of the museum complex houses the Art Gallery, the
Children's Museum Center and an exposition dedicated to the manor
culture of Vladimir.
“The charm of the past days ...” - with these lines V.A.
Zhukovsky is called the exposition about the Vladimir noble estate. It
is located on the second floor of the museum. The exposition is imbued
with a sense of poetic sadness, it is made in the form of a memory of an
elderly lady who is sitting by the fireplace. Above it is a painting by
the artist V. Maksimov with the corresponding title "Everything is in
the past."
A house with cannons at the gate and white columns, an
openwork fence, granite steps, garden alleys - all this reminds of the
former beauty of the noble estate. And here is a corner of the garden, a
gazebo, a young lady next to a rocking chair, a flowering apple tree, a
canary in a cage. Faces in powdered wigs look down at us from the walls.
This is a well-known portrait gallery in the village of Andreevsky of
Counts Vorontsov. Andreevskoye was an example of an 18th century estate,
with Meissen porcelain, baroque furniture, and embroidered camisoles.
Here you can also see the living room, traditional for a noble
country house: a table set for dinner, a French tapestry on the wall, a
striped sofa, a violin and a mandolin for children's music. The artistic
solution of this exposition is quite delicate, but at the same time
expressive, the effect of mirrors and mannequins is used here, a complex
historical theme is easily clothed in a fascinating art form.
The
Children's Museum Center is located on the ground floor of the museum
complex. The first surprise that meets the kids at the entrance is the
furry Mikhailo Potapych. Next to him is the funny Baba Yaga. The “Land
of Toys” awaits the youngest visitors of the museum, where toys are
presented from rattles, whistles, clay figures found during
archaeological excavations and traditional Dymkovo, Gorodetsky,
Polkhovo-Maidanovsky toys to aristocratic porcelain dolls of the early
20th century.
Together with the toy, you can make not only a
journey through time, but also around the planet: here is France with
its Eiffel Tower painted on the vaults and walls of the hall, Lapland
with its Santa Claus, amazing Japan with cherry blossoms and pagodas.
And everywhere - traditional toys for a particular country. Here you can
"ride" on the highway from Germany or look into the small kingdom of
Barbie.
The museum building also houses the Art Gallery. Its
collection began to take shape as early as the late 19th and early 20th
centuries, when members of the Provincial Archival Scientific Commission
launched an active collection and study of artistic and historical
materials. Among the works of the gallery, paintings by the Italian S.
Tonchi, a rich collection of popular prints by Golyshev I., and family
portraits of the Akinfov family deserve special attention.
The
collection of the gallery was greatly replenished after 1917 due to the
art objects received during the nationalization from Andreevsky - the
estate of the Vorontsov-Dashkovs, Muromtsevo - V.S. Khrapovitsky,
Fetinino-Leontyev, and others. The greatest value in the Art Gallery are
the works of such outstanding masters as V. Tropinin, A. Savrasov, V.
Makovsky, the Vasnetsov brothers, V. Serov, and others.
In the
1980s, the museum's collection was replenished with paintings by famous
Russian artists through acquisitions from Moscow and Leningrad art
salons and private collections. The collection was enriched after the
research and technological expertise of the portrait gallery of the
Vorontsovs.
The portrait gallery of the Vorontsovs is represented
by family portraits by A. Antropov, D. Levitsky, F. Rokotov, A. Roslin.
Genre portraits by V. Tropinin and works by students of A. Venetsianov
are widely represented here. Here you can also see landscapes by I.
Aivazovsky, L. Lagorio, A. Bogolyubov.
Not so numerous are the
paintings of the Wanderers, who largely determined the further
development of Russian art. In the portraits of I. Kramskoy, A.
Korzukhin, V. Perov, V. Makovsky, new discoveries of this genre
appeared, which here reach a special psychological expressiveness.
The true decoration of the collection is the landscape "Spring Day"
by A. Savrasov. Along with the lyrics of Savrasov's motifs in the
landscape art of the 19th century, there was also an epic beginning,
which is embodied in the work of I. Shishkin, is also represented in the
Picture Gallery of the museum complex.
The realist school is
vividly represented in the museum's collection. Here you can see
paintings by A. Vasnetsov, L. Turzhansky, P. Petrovichev, S. Zhukovsky
and others. The exposition of works of Russian art from the period of
the 18th - early 20th centuries allows the gallery visitor to fully
experience the power of artistic traditions prevailing in a particular
historical period .
The main stages in the development of art
after October 1917 are presented in the exhibition “Modern Art. XX
century. Among the paintings of this time, the museum presents works by
V. Kostyanitsyn, K. Redko, V. Lebedev, E. Lansere, L. Turzhansky, K.
Korovin, P. Konchalovsky, K. Yuon, P. Kuznetsov, V. Meshkov, R. Falk .
The gallery did not ignore the period of the Great Patriotic War and
the current stage of development of fine arts. The paintings by P.
Krivonogov, B. Karpov, E. Zubekhin, created during the war years, are
distinguished by their authenticity and strong emotional impact on the
viewer.
The works of the last few decades reflect the diversity
of the artistic process, and the Vladimir school of landscape has become
an integral part of it. Which is represented by the works of K. Britov,
V. Kokurin, V. Yukina, N. Mokrova, N. Modorova.