Today at the State Museum of Fine Arts Pushkin exhibition opens, which will have features paintings from Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Denmark, Norway, Sweden XV - beginning of XIX century from the museum

Today, 15 June at 16.00 at the State Museum of Fine Arts named after AS Pushkin (Volkhonka, 12) will open the exhibition "A familiar unknown. The exhibition features paintings of Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Denmark, Norway, Sweden XV - beginning of XIX centuries from the museum.

exhibition timed to the release of a full scientific catalog of the Collection of paintings. Germany, Austria, Switzerland XV - XX centuries. Denmark, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Finland XVIII - XX Century "(published by" Red Square ", 2009, the authors Lili Savinskaya, VA Sadkov, AV Poznań). The collection of paintings by German, Austrian and Swiss paintings GMII im. Alexander Pushkin is one of the largest in Russia and the number of products is second only to the Hermitage. For the first time in nearly 50 years, the museum so fully displays the works of Northern European schools.

exhibition includes 26 works of the old German, Austrian and Swiss art XV - XVI centuries, located since 2007 in constant museum (Hall 8), among them "Madonna" by Lucas Cranach the Elder, Allegory of Love "by Mathias Gerunga. The main part of the exhibition (Hall 17-18) introduces the works of XVII - beginning of XIX century from the collections of the Pushkin Museum, it presents more than 100 paintings.

• Lucas Cranach the Elder
  Madonna and Child. 1525
• Mathias GERUNG
  Allegory of Love

for the congregation, not represented in the permanent exhibition of the Pushkin Museum, the exhibition had an important role. The first of them - "German painting XVII - XIX centuries" - was held in the Pushkin Museum in 1930, the last - "Painting and drawing in Germany and Austria XV - XIX centuries. An exhibition from the Pushkin Museum, the other Soviet museums and private collections "- in 1963. Exhibition Catalogue 1963 has long remained the single most complete publication on this section of the museum's collection. This exhibition introduced a new way to see one of the most significant collections of paintings of the Museum in the light of recent research results published in the directory.

In Russia, the interest in art Germanic kingdoms and their neighbors, others more closely associated with Russian culture, was an old and persistent. Pictures of German and Austrian artists from the XVIII century became the subject of love of collecting. The nucleus of the museum's collection consists of works from the collection of the Imperial Hermitage Museum and private collections: DM Golitsyn, EP Baryatinskiy, N. Yusupov, G. Brocard, Ostroukhov, D. Shchukin and other.

boundaries of the region throughout history has repeatedly changed. In the XVII - XVIII centuries are numerous principalities and kingdoms. Fine art of these countries is a complex and dynamically changing over the centuries now different directions and trends. Many artists, seeking to improve their skills and finding work at home, went abroad, moved to the princely courts of Europe in search of work and most prestigious social status of the court painter.

• GEDEON ROMANDON
  Portrait of the Duchess Sophia Charlotte
• 

XVII century is represented in the collection of the Pushkin Museum small amount of works that reflect the main trends in the art of this period. Among them "The old warrior in black beret" Christoph Paudisa, student Rembrandt's "Landscape" by Johann Georg Roos, "Portrait Duchess Sofia-Charlotte" Gedeon Romandona a founding Berlin Academy, as well as works by artists working in Italy: "The Rape Europe Johann Koenig, "Still life with musical instruments" Maximilian Pfeiler, "Still Life with rabbit and chicken Franz Werner Tamm and one of the masterpieces of the museum's collection -" The punishment of Marsyas "by Johann Liss.

In the XVIII century more clearly perceptible attempts to national identity, artistic individuality of artists became brighter. Collection of the Pushkin Museum has pictures of many famous artists of this period, representing the major artistic centers: Johann Falh (Augsburg), Jacob Samuel Beck (Erfurt), Johann Jacob Hartman (Bohemia), Johann Ludwig Ernst Morgenstern (Frankfurt am Main).

center of gravity of the Austrian artistic strength was in Vienna. A clear manifestation of Vienna School of mid-XVIII century - paintings of famous masters Viennese rococo Johann Georg Platzer and Christiane Zeybolda, representatives of Vienna's Academy of Franz Xaver Palko and Franz Anton Maulbertsch, whose picture of "Judith with the head of Holofernes" - top young artist.

• YANUARIUS CEC
  meeting with Rachel Jacob
• 

widely recognized the outstanding role played by the German painters working in Rome, becoming the latest big international style in the art of XVIII century - neo-classicism. The intellectual and aesthetic relationship to the world and works of art combines the work of leading artists, neo-classic: Anton Raphael Mengs, Jacob Philipp Hakkert, Angelica Kauffmann, Asmus Jacob Carstens.

common genre of works presented at the exhibition, occupy a prominent position landscapes and portraits - traditionally strong in the German, Austrian and Scandinavian art XVII - beginning XIX century, showing the characteristic features of the general evolution of styles and diversity of individual artistic decisions. The exhibition includes paintings leading landscape painters of the German and Swedish schools the second half of XVIII century - Jacob Philipp Hakkert and Elias Martin.

• HENRY FYUGER
  Portrait Razumovskaya
• VIGILIUS Eriksen
  Portrait Orlov

interest in man as a spiritual person and its manifestation through the external features of the individually determined by the development of one of the most productive in the genres of painting of countries represented - the genre portrait. Painters were widely known and highly regarded both in his homeland and abroad. The museum's collection of portraits represents the main direction of the genre and its leading artists: Johann Kupetskiy, Martin Ferdinand Kvadalya, Anton Graf, Johann Baptist Lampi , Joseph Grassi, Henry Fyugera, Alexander Roslin , Vigiliusa Ericksen, Johann Friedrich August Tishbeyna. Among them were many Russian models, many of the artists worked in Russia, Joining the ranks of foreign artists who have created an important reservoir of works that are organically included in the national Russian art titled "Rossika».

The special peculiarity of the collection gives the works that should be attributed to the number of rare, hardly found in other collections of Russian, including "Portrait of a Girl" G. Wedig, "Still Life" by M. Pfeiler, "Diana, Actaeon caught" GK Prennera, "Portrait of DM Golitsyn A. Brown.

German, Austrian, Scandinavian painting has a unique appeal. Artists of different eras and styles relates well made craftsmanship, skill building songs, and a faithful drawing attention to nature and the desire to pass it with extreme precision, an amazing performance and fecundity of the masters.

The exhibition is open to the public June 16 to August 15, 2010.

Source : Press Release Pushkin Museum Pushkin