185. My favorite paintings in the State Russian Museum
I visited the State Russian Museum five times in 2017: once each at the beginning and end of my stay in St. Petersburg, and three times accompanied by visiting family members in August and October. As I wrote in a post last summer, this is one of my favorite museums in the city - second only to the Hermitage Museum.
On my final visit in December, I took pictures of all the paintings in the the Russian Museum that had caught my eye throughout the year - the ones that I returned to over and over and spent a significant amount of time enjoying. Rather than present them in a ranked sequence (as I did with the list of my favorite paintings in the Hermitage General Staff Building Museum), the paintings below are presented in the order of where they appear in the museum's galleries. Unlike at the General Staff Building (or at the main Hermitage Museum complex, either), there is a relatively straightforward and clearly-defined path to follow through the rooms of Michailovsky Palace and the Benois Wing. So, anyone who visits the Russian Museum will be likely to see the paintings in the same sequence as they are presented below.
I included several images for many of the paintings - when they are too large to capture in a single image, when the dimensions of the artwork are incompatible with a single photograph, or when the scale of the painting is made clearer by including other visitors in the image. Just as with my previous list, these are shown below without additional commentary on the artist, medium, style, historical context, their place in art history, or the particular characteristics or details that caught my fancy. Nevertheless, certain themes should be clear: I enjoy very large paintings with lots of detail, as well as those that show people and scenes from St. Petersburg in the Imperial and pre-Revolutionary eras. And apparently, Ilya Repin is my new favorite Russian painter. Although I was previously unfamiliar with his oeuvre, he is certainly one of the towering figures of the Russian and European art world in the late nineteenth century.
Without further ado, here are my 64 favorite paintings in the State Russian Museum (40 in the Michailovsky Palace and 24 in the Benois Wing):
I.N. Nikitin - "Portrait of Peter I on the death bed" (1725)
Dmitry Levitsky - "Portrait of Ekaterina Khrushchova and Princess Ekaterina Khovanskaya" (1773)
Vladimir Borovikovsky - "Portrait of Paul I" (1800)
Ivan Aivazovsky - "The Wave" (1889)
Ivan Aivazovsky - "The Ninth Wave" (1850)
Ivan Aivazovsky - "A View of Odessa on a Moonlit Night" (1846)
Ivan Kramskoi - "Mina Moiseyev" (1882)
Ivan Kramskoi - "Portrait of Ivan Shishkin" (1880)
Henryk Siemiradzki - "Shrine at the Festival of Poseidon at the Eleusinia" (1889)
Konstantin Makovsky - "Festivity during Carnival on the Admiralty Square in St. Petersburg" (1869)
Konstantin Makovsky - "In the Park" (n.d.)
Konstantin Savitsky - "To War" (1888)
Ilya Repin - "Sadko" (1876)
Ilya Repin - "Portrait of Vladimir Stasov (1824-1906), Art Historian, Music and Art Critic" (1883)
Ilya Repin - "Seeing off a Recruit" (1879)
Ilya Repin - "Zaporozhye Cossacks writing a mocking letter to the Turkish Sultan" (1880-1891)
Ilya Repin - "Nikolay Mirlikijsky saves from death innocent convicts" (1888)
Victor Vasnetsov - "A Knight at the Crossroads" (1882)
Victor Vasnetsov - "Acrobats./Festival at the Outskirts of Paris" (1877)
Vasily Surikov -"View of monument to Peter I on the Senate Square in St. Petersburg"
Vasily Surikov - "Taking the Snow Fortress by Storm" (1891)
Vasily Surikov - "Suvorov crossing through the Alps in 1799" (1899)
Ilya Repin - "Ceremonial Sitting of the State Council on 7 May 1901 Marking the Centenary of its Foundation" (1903)
Evgeny Lansere - "St. Petersburg in the Early Eighteenth Century" (1906)
Valentin Serov - "Portrait of Princess Zinaida Yusupova" (1902)
Valentin Serov - "Portrait of Prince Felix Yusupov, Count Sumarokov-Elston" (1903)
Valentin Serov - "Portrait of Princess Olga Orlova" (1911)
Georges Annenkoff - "Portrait of the Photographer and Artist Miron Sherling" (1918)
Vasily Shukhayev & Alexander Yakovlev - "Self-Portraits (Harlequin and Pierrot)" (1914)
Kazimir Malevich - "Suprematism" (1915-1916)
Kazimir Malevich - "Boy (Vanka)" (1928-1929)
Pavel Filonov - "Live Head" (1926)
Pavel Filonov - "Formula of Spring and Active Strength" (1927-1928)
Yury Pimenov - "Front-Line Road" (1944)
Alexander Deineka - "Defence of Sebastapole" (1942)
Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin - "Death of a Commissar" (1928)
Natalia Nesterova - "Metro" (1980)
Alexander Gerasimov - "A Hymn to October." (1942)
Eric Bulatov - "Melting Clouds" (1982-1987)
And finally, here are a few more pictures of my favorite painting (and room) in the entire museum, "Ceremonial Sitting of the State Council on 7 May 1901 Marking the Centenary of its Foundation" by Ilya Repin:
On my final visit in December, I took pictures of all the paintings in the the Russian Museum that had caught my eye throughout the year - the ones that I returned to over and over and spent a significant amount of time enjoying. Rather than present them in a ranked sequence (as I did with the list of my favorite paintings in the Hermitage General Staff Building Museum), the paintings below are presented in the order of where they appear in the museum's galleries. Unlike at the General Staff Building (or at the main Hermitage Museum complex, either), there is a relatively straightforward and clearly-defined path to follow through the rooms of Michailovsky Palace and the Benois Wing. So, anyone who visits the Russian Museum will be likely to see the paintings in the same sequence as they are presented below.
I included several images for many of the paintings - when they are too large to capture in a single image, when the dimensions of the artwork are incompatible with a single photograph, or when the scale of the painting is made clearer by including other visitors in the image. Just as with my previous list, these are shown below without additional commentary on the artist, medium, style, historical context, their place in art history, or the particular characteristics or details that caught my fancy. Nevertheless, certain themes should be clear: I enjoy very large paintings with lots of detail, as well as those that show people and scenes from St. Petersburg in the Imperial and pre-Revolutionary eras. And apparently, Ilya Repin is my new favorite Russian painter. Although I was previously unfamiliar with his oeuvre, he is certainly one of the towering figures of the Russian and European art world in the late nineteenth century.
Without further ado, here are my 64 favorite paintings in the State Russian Museum (40 in the Michailovsky Palace and 24 in the Benois Wing):
I.N. Nikitin - "Portrait of Peter I on the death bed" (1725)
Dmitry Levitsky - "Portrait of Ekaterina Khrushchova and Princess Ekaterina Khovanskaya" (1773)
Vladimir Borovikovsky - "Portrait of Paul I" (1800)
Ivan Aivazovsky - "The Wave" (1889)
Ivan Aivazovsky - "The Ninth Wave" (1850)
Karl Brullov - "The Last Day of Pompeii" (1833)
Ivan Aivazovsky - "A View of Odessa on a Moonlit Night" (1846)
Grigory Ugryumov - "Testing the Strength of Jan Usmar" (1796)
Fidelio Bruni - "The Brazen Serpent" (1841)
Grigory Ugryumov - "Alexander Nevsky's Ceremonial Entry into the Town of Pskov after his Victory over the Germans" (1793)
Orest Kiprensky - "Portrait of Life Guard Colonel Yevgraf Davydov" (1809)
Pyotr Sukhodolsky - "Noon in a Village" (1864)
Lion Lagorio - "View of the Neva and the Petrovskaya embankment with the house of Peter I" (1859)
Ivan Kramskoi - "Mina Moiseyev" (1882)
Ivan Kramskoi - "Portrait of Ivan Shishkin" (1880)
Fyodor Vasiliev - "Sunrise in St. Petersburg" (1868-73?)
Konstantin Flavitsky - "Christian Martyrs in the Colosseum" (1862)
Vasily Smirnov - "Nero's Death" (1888)
Henryk Siemiradzki - "Shrine at the Festival of Poseidon at the Eleusinia" (1889)
Vasily Perov - "Monastery Refectory" (1865-1876)
Konstantin Makovsky - "Festivity during Carnival on the Admiralty Square in St. Petersburg" (1869)
Konstantin Makovsky - "In the Park" (n.d.)
Ivan Shishkin - "Stream in a Birch Forest" (1883)
Konstantin Savitsky - "To War" (1888)
Vasily Polenov - "Christ and the Adultress" (1888)
Ilya Repin - "Barge Haulers on the Volga" (1870-1873)
Ilya Repin - "Sadko" (1876)
Ilya Repin - "Portrait of Vladimir Stasov (1824-1906), Art Historian, Music and Art Critic" (1883)
Ilya Repin - "Seeing off a Recruit" (1879)
Ilya Repin - "Zaporozhye Cossacks writing a mocking letter to the Turkish Sultan" (1880-1891)
Ilya Repin - "Nikolay Mirlikijsky saves from death innocent convicts" (1888)
Victor Vasnetsov - "A Knight at the Crossroads" (1882)
Victor Vasnetsov - "Acrobats./Festival at the Outskirts of Paris" (1877)
Vasily Surikov - "Stepan Razin" (1906)
Vasily Surikov -"View of monument to Peter I on the Senate Square in St. Petersburg"
Vasily Surikov - "Ermak's Conquest of Siberia" (1895)
Vasily Surikov - "Taking the Snow Fortress by Storm" (1891)
Vasily Surikov - "Suvorov crossing through the Alps in 1799" (1899)
Ilya Repin - "Ceremonial Sitting of the State Council on 7 May 1901 Marking the Centenary of its Foundation" (1903)
Evgeny Lansere - "St. Petersburg in the Early Eighteenth Century" (1906)
Mikhail Vrubel - "Bogatyr" (1898)
Mikhail Nesterov - "Hermit" (1888)
Valentin Serov - "Portrait of Princess Zinaida Yusupova" (1902)
Valentin Serov - "Portrait of Prince Felix Yusupov, Count Sumarokov-Elston" (1903)
Valentin Serov - "Portrait of Princess Olga Orlova" (1911)
Boris Kustodiev - "Portrait of Isidore Zolotarevsky" (1922)
Georges Annenkoff - "Portrait of the Photographer and Artist Miron Sherling" (1918)
Vasily Shukhayev & Alexander Yakovlev - "Self-Portraits (Harlequin and Pierrot)" (1914)
Wassily Kandinsky - "Blue Crest" (1917)
Kazimir Malevich - "Suprematism" (1915-1916)
Kazimir Malevich - "Two Male Figures" (early 1930s)
Kazimir Malevich - "Boy (Vanka)" (1928-1929)
Pavel Filonov - "Live Head" (1926)
Pavel Filonov - "Formula of Spring and Active Strength" (1927-1928)
Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin - "Self-Portrait" (1918)
Yury Pimenov - "Front-Line Road" (1944)
Alexander Deineka - "Defence of Sebastapole" (1942)
Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin - "Violin" (1918)
Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin - "Death of a Commissar" (1928)
Alexei Sundukov - "Queue" (1986)
Natalia Nesterova - "Metro" (1980)
Yury Kugach, Vasily Nachitailo, & Victor Tsyplakov - "Long Live Great Stalin!" (1950)
Alexander Gerasimov - "A Hymn to October." (1942)
Eric Bulatov - "Melting Clouds" (1982-1987)
And finally, here are a few more pictures of my favorite painting (and room) in the entire museum, "Ceremonial Sitting of the State Council on 7 May 1901 Marking the Centenary of its Foundation" by Ilya Repin:
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