The exhibition will feature more than 250 prints and drawings of European and Russian artists, as well as paintings, furniture, archival materials belonging to the family of collectors

Today, Oct. 13, at the Department of personal collections GMII im. Pushkin opens the exhibition "Masterpieces of European drawings from the collection VN and NV Basninyh "from the series" Portraits of collectors ».

based exposition put a collection of prints, drawings and books, and Vasily Nikolaevich Nikolai Vasilyevich Basninyh stored in the collections of the graphics department Pushkin Museum. Alexander Pushkin. Pearls collection - sheets Schongauer M., A. Durer, H. Goltzius, Rembrandt, Jacques Callot, J. D. Tiepolo, A. Watteau, F. Boucher, O. Fragonard, William Hogarth, F. Millet, P. C. Elle and many other famous masters of the European charts XVI - beginning of XX century. In total, the exhibition will be presented more than 250 prints and drawings of European and Russian artists, as well as a unique book. In addition, viewers can see the paintings, furniture, archival materials belonging to the family of collectors that were deposited in the State Historical Museum.

Representatives Basninyh merchant family started collecting in the early XIX century in Irkutsk. Basil Basnin engaged in trade Chinese tea. Interest in the book, foreign art and good financial opportunities enabled him to build a unique library and gain valuable engravings. Subsequently, when the family moved to Moscow, library Basnin donated to the Irkutsk Theological Seminary. Son Basil Basnina Nicholas devoted himself to jurisprudence, however, as his father, was an avid art lover. In particular, it attracted the engravings. Traveling, Nicholas invariably visited classrooms engravings of European museums, bought and painstakingly he studied all the guides to the topic of interest. He soon gained a reputation for a connoisseur of art prints - addressed to his aid staff Rumyantsev Museum and director of the Museum of Fine Arts IV Tsvetayev. Nicholas Basnin nearly tripled the collection of engravings father, it was widely represented major European schools.

In 1918, after the death NV Basnina, heirs Collector planned to convey a meeting in the Historical Museum. At the same time interested in the fate of the collection staff of the Museum of Fine Arts. By the daughter of Nicholas Basnina wrote to the head of the Museum Department Narcompros NI Trotsky. Soon it was decided to transfer the collection to study Engraving Museum of Fine Arts. The exhibition "Masterpieces of European drawings from the collection VN and NV Basninyh "- a tribute to two prominent collectors, as well as educational initiatives that art lovers can view the body of precious graphic works. Most of the works will be exhibited for the first time.

exhibition will run until December 12, 2010.

Source: Press Release Pushkin Museum. Pushkin