russia: moscow: state tretyakov gallery

I've lived in Moscow for over a year and a half, but the list of museums and other places to visit never seems to get any shorter. To figure out where to go each Wednesday afternoon I've been using a combination of my Moscow and Russia guidebooks, social media, and Wikitravel. At times I feel like I can never leave Moscow, because there is still so much to be seen.

This particular Wednesday afternoon I decided to go to the State Tretyakov Gallery. According to Wikipedia, the collection was started in 1856 when a Russian merchant decided to collect works from Russian contemporary artists, thinking of a future museum of art.

In 1867 Pavel and Sergei Tretyakov started the Moscow City Gallery, which displayed mostly Russian artists but also had a few international artists for viewing. In 1892 he presented his collection of over 2000 pieces of art to the Russian nation. I don't know who from the nation accepted the pieces.

The original collection was housed in a mansion bought by the Tretyakov family in 1851. As more and more art was included in the collection, it began to take over the residential part of the house. (Maybe they could've done an episode of Hoarders back in the day?) Additions to the building were made in several years to accomodate all the art.

The building in which the current gallery is hosted was finished in 1902-1904, with the front facade designed by Viktor Vasnetsov. Over the years other buildings have been used for offices and administration of the museum.

Electricity was added in 1929, something I've never thought about when visiting an old museum. How did people visit before electricity? Putting that many candles around priceless work (and your home,) sounds like a disaster waiting to happen.

As museums do, the Tretyakov Gallery grew, and over the years took over the buildings nearby, including a church. (I didn't visit the church during this visit, I'm debating whether it is worth going back to see it and other areas I missed.) Wikipedia tells me the gallery now has more than 130,000 pieces.

My entry fee was 500 rubles, which I thought was more than reasonable. I checked my coat and backpack, and went about finding the entrance to the exhibits. Since I'm writing this after I left, I'm pretty sure there are at least two entrances to the exhibits, neither one of them right or wrong. Both of them have ticket checkers just after you walk through the entrance.

I wandered through the rooms for about 90 minutes, trying to make sure I went through every room. I'm pretty sure I failed in that aspect, but oh well. Not surprisingly, some of the pieces caught my eye more than others. Some are huge, some are quite small. A few sculptures were sprinkled around, but great majority of the displays were of paintings.

One thing I really enjoyed was the listing of names and materials used being in both Russian and English. I feel like that isn't as common as I want it to be. (And yes, I realize how self centered it is for me to want explanations in Russian museums to be in English.)

When I left the museum, I was full of art for the day. Even so, I definitely missed a few rooms, so it probably wouldn't be a bad idea for me to go back.