Exhibition "Russian Art of the 18th–20th Centuries"

About exhibition

Art from imperial Russia to the present is presented in the Governor's House, built by decree of Alexander I in the 1820s and serving as the residence of Yaroslavl governors as well as the travel palace of members of the imperial family. One of the museum's precious collections is the Yaroslavl portrait collection — works from the last quarter of the 18th to the first half of the 19th century painted by artists who lived in Yaroslavl and its environs. They created portraits on commission for merchant and noble families, drawing on imported models of professional art and the techniques of hagiographic icons. The life of Russia is depicted in works by the itinerant artists (Peredvizhniki) Ivan Kramskoi, Pyotr Vereshchagin, Vasily Perov, Ilya Repin, the Makovsky brothers, Valentin Serov, and Vasily Vereshchagin. Visitors will see a unique collection of works by the first Russian Impressionist, Konstantin Korovin. The museum holds eleven canvases created by the artist after his departure abroad in 1923 — the only collection in Russia of Korovin's late paintings. The history of the house and the governorate is highlighted by the "Governor's Study-Library" complex, whose interior features mid-19th-century furniture from the mansion of the well-known Yaroslavl starch-milling magnates the Ponizovkins. Among the main treasures is a collection of Russian 20th-century art: from canonical masterpieces of avant-garde masters and works of official and alternative Soviet-period art to painterly animation.