Siberian Federal University
Institute of Natural Sciences and Humanities
Faculty of Economics
The Shchukin dynasty.
Krasnoyarsk, 2007.
Introduction page 3
1. Shchukins. Ivan Vasilievich Shchukin.
page 4
2. Education in the Shchukin family p. 5
3. The Shchukins are philanthropists p. 6
4. Shchukins - collectors p. 7
a) Dmitry Ivanovich Shchukin p. 8
b) Sergey Ivanovich Shchukin p.9-10
c) Petr Ivanovich Shchukin pp. 11-14
Conclusion page 15
Literature page 16
Introduction
Morozovs, Tretyakovs, Demidovs, Stroganovs, Mamontovs... Who hasn’t heard these names at least once? Famous merchants, philanthropists, collectors. If you ask “What are the Shchukins known for?”, few will give the correct answer. But it was thanks to them that the first paintings of the impressionists and post-impressionists appeared in Russia, Pablo Picasso at the beginning of his creative career practically lived at the expense of Pyotr Ivanovich Shchukin, 15% of the collection of the Historical Museum are objects from the collection of Sergei Ivanovich Shchukin, in the lists of masterpieces they always occupy the first lines ... How did it happen that we know practically nothing about the Shchukins? Don't remember them?
In my essay I will try to answer this question, and also talk about the Shchukin dynasty - merchants, philanthropists and collectors.
1. Shchukins. Ivan Vasilievich Shchukin
The first of the descendants of Ivashka Shchukin was discovered by researchers of the history of Russian merchants in 1787 in the archives of Borovsk. He was Pyotr Fedosovich Shchukin, who entered the 3rd merchant guild of Borovsk. Peter, unlike the ancestors of most famous merchant families, according to legend, was never a serf. He belonged to the Old Believers and traded in manufactured goods in Borovsk. In the second half of the 18th century, under Catherine II, Pyotr Shchukin ventured to leave his homes, going with his son Vasily to seek fortune in Moscow.
The Shchukin family of merchants was first mentioned in Moscow scribe books in 1787. Peter Fedoseevich's son Vasily Petrovich was also a merchant of the 3rd guild. In the 1790s, he, along with his father and brother, had a trading post in the Icon Row of Kitay-Gorod.
Their trade was successful, and even after 1812, when the French invasion and fire in Moscow ruined an entire generation of traders and artisans, the Shchukins managed to maintain a small fortune, and most importantly, their reputation as honest businessmen.
In the 1830s, Vasily Petrovich was engaged in the trade of cotton products, showed remarkable savvy in trading matters, and therefore achieved significant success in his business. This ability was inherited by his son Ivan Vasilyevich, who turned out to be an even more successful merchant than his father. In 1836, 80-year-old Vasily Shchukin died, and the business passed to Ivan, who was only 18 at the time. Ivan founded his own trading company, Ivan Vasilyevich Shchukin. His apartment on Taganka consisted of two rooms: in one there was a bed and a desk, in the other there were two machines on which muslin was “worked”. A couple of decades later, the Shchukin family was one of the first in the commercial and industrial world of Moscow.
Ivan Vasilyevich did not limit himself to trade and in the 1840s he founded a paper-weaving factory in the Rogozhskaya part of Moscow. A successful marriage to Ekaterina Botkina, the daughter of the owner of a famous trading house selling tea and sugar, further strengthened his position in the trading world. In 1856, 37-year-old Ivan Shchukin moved from the third directly to the first merchant guild. The Shchukin company was already one of the most respected in Moscow.
In 1878, this entrepreneur established the trading house "Ivan Vasilyevich Shchukin with his sons", which was engaged in the sale of calico from the Ivanno-Voznesensk factories, Shuya and Trekhgornaya manufactories in Central Russia, Siberia, the Caucasus, the Urals, Central Asia, and Persia. Later, the product range expanded. The company began to trade in silk, wool and linen clothing.
The sphere of business interests of I. Shchukin extended to the financial sector. Ivan Vasilyevich was the founder and member of the committee of the Moscow Commercial Bank and a member of the board of the Moscow Accounting Bank. He was also intensively involved in social and political activities. In 1866 -1877 I. Shchukin was a deputy of the Moscow City Duma. Since 1870, he was also an elected member of the Moscow Exchange Society.
Ivan Vasilyevich's authority in merchant circles constantly increased, and in 1888 he became a commerce advisor. He also received the title of hereditary honorary citizen. According to P. Buryshkin, “he was undoubtedly one of the most – I’m not afraid to say – brilliant Russian commercial and industrial figures. His prestige and influence in Moscow were extremely great. And not at all because of his wealth. There were many rich people in Moscow at that time, perhaps even richer than the Shchukins, but who did not enjoy the same honor that fell to the Shchukins. The Shchukin company was one of the most respected in Moscow.”
There were many children in the Shchukin family - five daughters and six sons. All sons were involved in commerce to one degree or another, but then retired for various reasons.
2. Education in the Shchukin family
A document has been preserved - “A formal list of the service of the Moscow 1st guild merchant Ivan the Great Vasilyevich Shchukin,” which states that he came “from the natural Moscow merchant class” and was raised “in the house of his parents.” Most merchant children at that time did not study in any educational institutions. Natural ingenuity and assertiveness helped out... And yet, Ivan Vasilyevich, apparently, was aware of the meagerness of his education and considered it his duty to give his six sons the opportunity to gain deep knowledge both in the field of exact sciences and in terms of knowledge of languages - French and German.
Primary education, as was customary in noble families, took place at home, for which “a whole staff of teachers” was hired. Children were taught not only literacy and arithmetic, but also manners, music, and dancing. They did not achieve much success in these disciplines, but they all retained a taste for the humanities. Then he studied at a German school in the Finnish city of Vyborg, the director of which was a Lutheran pastor. Training was based on “three pillars”: discipline, character formation, physical exercise. The next stage of education for the Shchukin sons was a German boarding school in St. Petersburg, followed by internship at famous textile enterprises in France and Germany. Shchukin Sr. spared no expense, hoping that, having received such thorough theoretical and practical training, his sons would successfully continue the family business. Deviations from the plans outlined by the father were not encouraged, and humanitarian interests had to be forgotten for the time being.
Two younger brothers, Ivan and Vladimir, were 10 years younger than their elders. They studied at Polivanov's private gymnasium together with the children of the Moscow aristocracy. They were the first of the Shchukins to become students at Moscow University. Distinguished by rare abilities, Ivan studied philosophy, Vladimir studied medicine. Subsequently, they did not want to follow in their father’s footsteps. The brothers recognized Sergei's undeniable superiority in business and agreed that during his father's lifetime he became his successor. They all remained members of the firm and received their share of the profits.
The Shchukin family at the dacha
3. Shchukins as philanthropists
Representatives of this dynasty allocated significant funds of their own for social assistance. In this regard, Ivan Vasilyevich Shchukin stood out, whose charitable activities extended to two areas - education and providing assistance to the poor and sick.
In the field of education, he allocated 15 thousand rubles. for scholarships at petty-bourgeois schools, 10 thousand rubles. for a scholarship at the Alexander-Mariinsky Zamoskvoretsky School, 7 thousand rubles. for benefits for scholarship recipients at petty-bourgeois schools when they get married.
In the area of helping the poor, Ivan Vasilyevich provided 7 thousand rubles. those cared for in the Nikolaev charity home for widows and orphans of the merchant class and another 7 thousand rubles. - for benefits for the poor of Moscow for the holidays of Christmas and Easter. He also provided funds to the St. Vladimir Children's Hospital and the 1st City Hospital.
Ivan Vasilyevich's widow continued her husband's charitable activities. In 1904, according to her spiritual will, 5 thousand rubles were provided. children of the poor at St. Vladimir's Hospital and another 5 thousand rubles. Nikolaevsky house of charity.
Sergei Ivanovich Shchukin was also involved in charity work. In particular, he donated a huge amount of money - 120 thousand rubles. for the construction and equipment of the largest Psychological Institute in Europe at that time. This institute was founded in memory of the deceased wife of Sergei Shchukin by L.G. Shchukinra and bore her name.
However, the Shchukins gained great fame not only as successful entrepreneurs or philanthropists, but also as collectors of an extensive collection of works of art.
4. Shchukins are collectors.
On the side of their mother, Ekaterina Petrovna Botkina, the Shchukin brothers belonged to an old family of wealthy tea merchants, the Botkins, from whose family came scientists, artists, diplomats, and doctors. All of them already belonged to the highest intelligentsia, and each of them was an avid collector.
“Whichever relative the boys came to in childhood, there was art everywhere. While the adults were sitting at the table, they wandered through the halls of the art galleries of Dmitry Petrovich Botkin (their mother’s father) on Pokrovka and Kuzma Terentyevich Soldatenkov on Myasnitskaya. Before their eyes, the collection grew Pavel Mikhailovich Tretyakov in Lavrushinsky had a growing collection of paintings by French artists in the mansion of his brother Sergei Mikhailovich Tretyakov on Prechistensky Boulevard. The Shchukins were distantly related to the Tretyakovs through the Botkins.
Newly educated entrepreneurs valued cultural needs highly. Many among the enlightened merchants were engaged in collecting, which gradually acquired the character of a systematic occupation, combined with an in-depth study of the subject of their collecting.
The passion for collecting captured entire families. Collecting was viewed not as an investment of money, but as a way of satisfying the natural craving for creative activity for many of them. Playing music at home, attending drawing classes, and participating in amateur performances were part of the daily family life of representatives of the new business elite - merchants, industrialists, and bankers. Many members of famous families left business to pursue art professionally.
The eldest son Nikolai collected silver for some time and bought paintings for a short time, to which, however, he soon lost interest. Vladimir studied medicine at Moscow University, soon fell ill and died early. The youngest son, Ivan, having graduated from the Faculty of Law at the same university, went to Paris, where he took painting lessons, wrote about art and collected first modern French artists, and later old masters of the Spanish school.
The three brothers are considered the most famous collectors of the Shchukin family - Pyotr Ivanovich was fond of collecting rarities even during his years of study abroad and has not abandoned this activity since then, Sergei Ivanovich was interested in modern French art and collected one of the best collections of works by French impressionists and post-impressionists, Dmitry Ivanovich began collecting small coins, but old painting became his true passion.
a) Dmitry Ivanovich Shchukin (1855-1932).
Ivan Vasilyevich's fourth son, Dmitry, born in 1855, was his father's favorite. His father constantly took him with him, trying to accustom him to business. But Dmitry grew up as a quiet, timid, unconfident boy, his only hobby was collecting. While studying at the Commercial Institute in Dresden, he visited many museums and exhibitions. At first he collected porcelain, gold snuff boxes, and antique silver, then he became interested in the paintings of old masters. He listened with great interest to the lectures of Professor V. Bode, a world-famous art critic. Returning to Russia, he corresponded with him for many years.
Shchukin collected paintings by old masters of the 14th-18th centuries: Italians, Germans, French, English, but he had a special weakness for the “little Dutch”. The painters of this circle in his collection owned about sixty paintings. The collection of French painting included paintings by A. Watteau, F. Boucher, O. Fragonard, N. Lancret; German - Cranach, Gerung; English - Lawrence. In total, 146 paintings were collected in Shchukin’s house.
A special place in his collection belonged to miniatures. The Shchukin collection also included sculptures: about fifty bronze figurines from the 16th and 17th centuries. Shchukin owned one of the best collections of enamels in the world.
In 1918 he received a safe conduct for his collection. Then the collection of D.I. Shchukin was nationalized and became an independent museum. The collection was still located in the Shchukin mansion on Starokonyushenny Lane and in December 1918, under the name “The First Museum of Old Western Painting,” was open for inspection. This museum did not last long. In June 1922, it was subordinated to the Rumyantsev Museum and became, as the owner once wished, its branch, but already in October of the same year the mansion was vacated for departmental needs, and the Shchukin collection ended up in the former Morozov mansion on Prechistenka, where it was included in the exhibition Second Museum of New Western Art.
In 1924, Shchukin’s collection moved to the Museum of Fine Arts on Volkhonka. At the same time, the art gallery of this museum was opened. And although by that time the museum had also received other Moscow collections, Dmitry Ivanovich’s collection was the most valuable of them. The main part of D.I. Shchukin’s collection is still located on Volkhonka in the Museum of Fine Arts. A.S. Pushkin.
DI. Shchukin remained with his collection; On November 10, 1924, he was appointed head of the Italian department of the art gallery and elected a member of the academic council.
b) Shchukin Pyotr Ivanovich (1853-1912).
He was a co-owner of the company and performed his duties regularly, but his father soon realized that his son’s interests lay far beyond the boundaries of commerce.
Among his brothers, Peter was perhaps the most colorful figure. He did not know how to limit himself to one topic, buying everything in a row. Over the years, collecting became almost a mania for him. Unpretentious in everyday life, he was extremely stingy in spending on himself. The house was almost poor.
N 
He began to collect amateurishly, first looking around the shops for portraits of famous personalities. Later he developed an interest in the art of Eastern countries. While studying the degree of influence of oriental art on Russian culture, Pyotr Ivanovich became seriously interested in ancient Russian applied art. The silver ladle, granted by Empress Elizaveta Petrovna to the ataman of the Yaitsk army Fyodor Borodin in 1761, was purchased by Shchukin at the Nizhny Novgorod fair. It became the first in his collection of unique silver ladles, through which one can trace the development of Russian silversmithing of the 17th-20th centuries.
Petr Ivanovich Shchukin
Everything was done with the greatest care. Alexey Bakhrushin wrote about him: “Petr Ivanovich Shchukin is the most serious collector I know. Because he does not collect anything without first having collected a whole bibliography about this subject and having studied it from books.” Fortunately, he had the funds, and he expanded his activities on a scale unheard of in Russia. Shchukin often bought complete collections, especially from representatives of the old noble nobility.
In general, in Pyotr Ivanovich’s collection there were things that were one of a kind. For example, sewing from 1389 or the cups and glasses of Tsar Ivan Alekseevich. Shchukin possessed 46 personal archives of representatives of the nobility and statesmen.
In 1891, Pyotr Ivanovich bought a plot of land on Malaya Gruzinskaya Street and began building a special room for his expanding collection. By the end of 1893, the two-story building was rebuilt, and in 1896 the museum was opened to visitors. Due to the increase in the collection, two years later another building was built next to this building, connected to the first underground passage. And in 1905 a one-story museum warehouse appeared.
But Pyotr Ivanovich did not rest on this, continuing purchases from antique dealers and junk dealers. Goods were brought to him from almost all over Russia in cartloads. The museum on Malaya Gruzinskaya housed precious monuments of Russian culture: ancient weapons, keys, watches, samovars, orders, medals, fabrics, ancient manuscripts, archives of the most noble noble families... The collection multiplied, so it was necessary to connect a residential building with the museum, also adapting it's for collections.
By 1905, the decision had finally matured - to donate the museum to the city. “Please accept from me as a gift my property, not mortgaged anywhere and free from any obligations, in the city of Moscow... with all the buildings on it, with my collection of Russian and foreign things, an oriental collection, an art gallery, a collection of drawings and engravings, a library, a handwritten archive and with all the furnishings..." read the text of the deed of gift. In April 1905, the collection, numbering more than 300 thousand items, became a branch of the Historical Museum, receiving the name - "Branch of the Imperial Russian Historical Museum named after Emperor Alexander III - P.I. Shchukin Museum."
For this act, Pyotr Shchukin was awarded the Order of Stanislav, 2nd degree, and the rank of general, giving him the right to be called “Your Excellency.” Shchukin did not hide his pleasure from such an assessment of his gift.
“Peter Shchukin inherited respect for his class from his father,” writes N. Dumova. – He was one of the very few people in Russia who was engaged in research in the field of genealogy of the Moscow merchants. However, unlike Ivan Vasilyevich, in Pyotr Ivanovich this trait was combined with outright snobbery, an ardent desire to become a civilian general, to be called “your excellency.” According to people who knew Pyotr Ivanovich well, this desire was one of the important incentives for his decision to donate his museum to the state. P. A. Buryshkin writes: “In the merchant community, it was considered the most elegant to receive the rank of general by donating your collections or the museum to the Academy of Sciences. In my memory, P.I. Shchukin became a general in this way. There is no doubt, however, that the donor was motivated by other motives: a sense of patriotism, the desire to ensure the safety of his collection after his death.”
Until the end of his days, P.I. Shchukin maintained the museum and its seven employees with his own money.
Pyotr Ivanovich cared about popularizing his collection and attracting the attention of the scientific community to it. For this purpose, he published up to fifty special illustrated publications, called “Schukin collections.”
In addition, guides to the museum were published in 1895 and 1906, prepared by the collector himself.
At the end of his days, P. I. Shchukin enthusiastically worked on his memoirs, in which he painted a wide panorama of private collecting and antique trade in Russia in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
After the death of the collector, his house was sealed and the museum on Malaya Gruzinskaya ceased to exist. The new full owner of the collection, the Russian Historical Museum, moved it to the main building on Red Square and distributed the items among different funds. During the move, a complete inventory was not compiled, and many items from the Shchukin collection disappeared into the general collection of the Historical Museum.
After 1917, individual exhibits went to the Armory Chamber, the Tretyakov Gallery, the Museum of History and Reconstruction of Moscow, books to the State Public Historical Library, and sheet music to the library of the Moscow Conservatory.
The Russian-style tower on Malaya Gruzinskaya has been preserved. Now it is occupied by the State Biological Museum named after K. A. Timiryazev.
c) Shchukin Sergei Ivanovich (1854-1936).
"I collected not only and not so much for myself,
but for your country and your people.
Whatever happens on our land,
my collections should stay there"
(S.I. Shchukin).
WITH 
Sergei Ivanovich Shchukin
1878 Sergei Ivanovich Shchukin began to help his father in managing the company “I. V. Shchukin with his sons,” and after the death of his father in 1890 he headed it. Sergei Ivanovich was a talented entrepreneur, known for his gambling and penchant for risk. He had almost unerring intuition and bold determination. In Moscow he was nicknamed “Minister of Commerce”, and also “porcupine” for his prickly mentality. He even used his stuttering to his advantage during negotiations, gaining time to think about his next move. The poet Andrei Bely recalled that his motto was “Crush competitors!”
In 1894, he received the title of Commerce Advisor from the Minister of Finance "for useful activities in the field of domestic trade and industry." He carried out his main operation in 1905, when the country was engulfed in revolutionary fire. He bought up all the manufactured goods available in Moscow at low prices, thus taking control of the market. When the December uprising was crushed, he jacked up prices, making a fortune for himself. Sergei Shchukin turned out to be one of the main “tycoons” of the trade and financial world of Moscow. The company he headed became a leader among buyers of cotton and woolen goods and acquired control over the market situation and assortment of products from manufacturing factories in Moscow and the Moscow province. Thus, this company became a monopolist in this area of \u200b\u200btrade.
Representatives of the Shchukin dynasty actively followed the tradition of the Russian merchants to provide assistance to the poor and disabled sections of the population, pursuing what is called a private social policy.
Sergei Shchukin was the headman of the Moscow merchant council, a comrade of the headman of the Moscow merchant class and the honorary headman of orphanages. In 1883, Sergei married Lydia Grigorievna Koreneva, the daughter of a Ukrainian landowner. They settled in a mansion on Bolshoi Znamensky Lane, the former Trubetskoy palace. The paintings in the mansion, mostly by the Wanderers, did not please Sergei and were sold. In exchange, he bought several landscapes by the Norwegian artist Fritz Thaulov. They became the first building block of the future collection, which gained worldwide fame. The Shchukins had four children. Lydia Grigorievna was interested in ancient history. In 1903, she published a book she had written, The Spartans.
Immersed in trading affairs, Sergei Ivanovich for the time being did not share his brothers’ passion for collecting, purchasing paintings only to decorate the house. The passion for collecting awoke in Sergei Ivanovich only when he was over forty years old. But very quickly he determined the main direction of his activity as a collector. Sergei Ivanovich was introduced to the work of the French impressionists by his brother Ivan, also a collector, who also lived permanently in Paris. In Moscow at that time, few people collected modern Western painting, and the Impressionists were poorly known and practically not appreciated even in France.
Sergei Ivanovich's first acquisitions in Paris in 1895-1896 were quite traditional salon paintings. These were landscapes by little-known artists Fritz Thaulow, James Paterson, Charles Cotte, Lucien Simon. In 1897, the first painting by Claude Monet appeared in his collection - the now widely known “Lilacs in the Sun”. So he discovered the Impressionists and, with his characteristic temperament and passion as a business man, began collecting their canvases. Shchukin's interests in post-impressionism turned after 1904; from that time on, he often traveled to Paris and even transferred a separate large sum to a special account in Berlin in order to promptly pay for purchases - this money was very useful to him when Shchukin found himself in exile.
When purchasing paintings, Sergei Ivanovich did not listen to any opinions. He defined his principle for choosing works of art as follows: “If, after seeing a painting, you experience a psychological shock, buy it.” He made new acquisitions at Parisian exhibitions, as well as directly from artists’ studios. They said about Shchukin that he bought “fresh” canvases with paints that were still wet. In 1905 he acquired several paintings from his brother Peter, who decided to focus on Russian antiquities; Among the works was “Nude” by O. Renoir.
The collection of S. I. Shchukin included works by P. Gauguin, V. Van Gogh, E. Degas, A. Marquet, A. Matisse, C. Monet (13 canvases), P. Picasso (50 works), C. Pissarro, P. Cezanne, P. Signac, A. Rousseau. In total, by 1918 he had collected 256 paintings.
In the 1910s, S.I. Shchukin was elected an honorary member of the “Jack of Diamonds” Society of Artists; along with other artists, writers, theater workers and patrons, he was a member of the Society of Arts.
Shchukin's house in Bolshoi Znamensky Lane, where the gallery was located, was built back in Catherine's time. Its premises were luxurious apartments with high ceilings, an abundance of paintings and stucco, inlaid parquet, and expensive chandeliers. Over time, all its walls from floor to ceiling in two or even three rows, in a continuous “carpet” hanging (frame to frame), were occupied by works of painting.
It would seem that there is nothing surprising in the fact that a wealthy person invested money in works of art. But the whole world considers the paintings of the Impressionists to be such today, but at the end of the 19th century they openly laughed at them. In 1891, a French industrial and art exhibition was held in Moscow on Khodynskoye Field, where, among other things, works by Monet, Degas and other impressionists were exhibited. According to the memoirs of Andrei Bely, “Moscow laughed,” many were even indignant... And in their homeland, these artists were not taken seriously: the French government refused to accept the donation of paintings by Picasso, Cezanne, Manet, which belonged to one of their admirers.
WITH 
To contemporaries, Sergei Shchukin’s hobby seemed like a whim. And he himself did not immediately accept everything in the work of the Impressionists. Having acquired, for example, Gauguin’s first painting, he placed it in his office, looked at it alone for a long time, and only after much persuasion showed it to his friends. Later, having “got used to it,” he bought another 15 paintings by Gauguin - almost all of his best creations - and hung them in the huge dining room.
A. Matisse.
Sketch of a portrait of S.I. Shchukina
The main buyer was S.I. Shchukin and another artist - Picasso. From 1908 to 1914, when he was not accepted in France, Picasso existed mainly at the expense of a Russian collector. Shchukin was the first to predict: “This is the future.” There were 50 Picasso items in his collection. Thanks to the “Russian Prince Shchukin,” the artist was able to rent a new studio on Montparnasse Boulevard.
Surprisingly, Sergei Ivanovich did not have any artistic education and was, in the full sense of the word, an amateur in this field. When selecting paintings for his collection, he did not listen to the opinions of authorities, but, having a keen eye, he unerringly selected the best from the artists’ studios.
He highly appreciated the collecting activities of S.I. Shchukina art historian and art critic A.N. Benoit: “His collecting was not a mere whim, but a real feat, because in addition to attacks from the outside, he had to withstand the battle with his own doubts. But Shchukin was one of those people for whom both the reproaches of strangers and his own doubts are not demoralizing, but , rather, some kind of spurring beginning. From this struggle with others and with himself, he emerged inspired, with renewed courage, ready for new daring.”
Valentin Serov, Vasily Surikov, Sergei Diaghilev visited Shchukin’s Moscow mansion on Znamenka; Sergei Rachmaninov and Alexander Scriabin (Sergei Ivanovich’s favorite composer) gave concerts, Fyodor Chaliapin sang here, Henri Matisse stayed in this house when he arrived in Moscow in 1911.
Shchukin's merit lies not only in the fact that he was able to recognize, buy and bring to Russia works of art that have no price today. He was an ardent promoter of this trend in art: he organized exhibitions of his favorite paintings in his own home, opening its doors to everyone who wanted to join the new art. However, only a few shared Sergei Ivanovich’s tastes.
S.I. Shchukin not only allowed visitors to visit his gallery, but also provided paintings that belonged to him for exhibitions. It is known that in 1899 in St. Petersburg, at the International Exhibition of Paintings, organized by the magazine "World of Art", canvases belonging to S.I. were exhibited. Shchukin, and in 1913, A. Russo’s painting “Poet and Muse” from the collection of S.I. Shchukina was presented at the exhibition of the "Jack of Diamonds" association. The example of collecting activity had, without a doubt, an influence on I.A. Morozova. The acquaintance of Russian artists with the works exhibited in the gallery contributed to the brilliant flowering of the Russian avant-garde.
After the death of his wife, Lydia Grigorievna, Sergei Ivanovich made a will on January 5, 1907, according to which his collection should be donated to the Tretyakov Gallery. He wanted his collection to complement the collection of Western European paintings already in this gallery, collected by S. M. Tretyakov. Even before the transfer of the collection to the city, from 1910, the Shchukin gallery became available for viewing. Visitors were allowed to view it on Sundays from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Students, high school students, reporters, writers, artists, performers, and collectors gathered for these Sunday viewings. The excursions were conducted by Sergei Ivanovich himself.
After February 1917, Sergei Ivanovich became a member of a public organization - the Moscow Arts Council. Far from politics, he calmly greeted the February Revolution and was confident in the inviolability of the power of capital in Russia. He retained this confidence in the first months after October. Having sent his family abroad, he himself did not dare to leave, leaving his collection to the mercy of fate. In November 1917, the newspaper Novaya Zhizn reported that the famous collector of paintings S.I. Shchukin approached the artistic and educational department of the Council of Workers' Deputies with a proposal to create a national gallery in one of the Kremlin palaces based on five private Moscow art collections. There was no reaction from the authorities...
The authorities determined the fate of his brainchild: it was decided to turn Shchukin’s house on Bolshoy Znamensky Lane into a museum of modern art and open it to the general public. The decree on the transfer of the collection into state ownership was signed by V.I. Lenin in December 1918.
A complete surprise for Sergei Ivanovich was the offer of the Soviet government to become the curator of his own museum and guide. He readily accepted it, settling with the family members who remained in Moscow in the gatekeeper's house. Shchukin’s daughter Ekaterina helped him lead tours of the museum. The composition of the visitors had changed greatly - now workers' shoes and soldiers' boots were stomping on the parquet floor of the palace. The collection aroused keen interest among the new owners of life. This made Shchukin very happy, but it was difficult to adapt to a new life at 63 years old. Having finally decided to leave Russia, he was most worried about the fate of his collection and sent a letter to the Commission for the Preservation of Monuments and Artistic Treasures under the Council of Workers, Peasants and Soldiers' Deputies with a request to take his collection under protection.
In 1948, when the State Museum of New Western Art was disbanded, its collections (including the Shchukin collection) were divided between the State Museum of Fine Arts named after A.S. Pushkin in Moscow and the State Hermitage in Leningrad. Contrary to the will of the collector, part of his collection left Moscow...
Conclusion.
After the revolution, the names of the Shchukins, like many others, were consigned to oblivion. Today there is not a single museum consisting entirely of works of art collected by the Shchukins - Dmitry Ivanovich’s collection has been disbanded, the main part is located on Volkhonka in the Museum of Fine Arts named after A.S. Pushkin, the Peter Ivanovich Museum ceased to exist - the Russian Historical Museum moved it to the main building on Red Square and distributed the items among different funds, a complete inventory was not compiled, and many items from the Shchukin collection disappeared into the general collection. Some exhibits went to the Armory Chamber, the Tretyakov Gallery, the Museum of History and Reconstruction of Moscow, books - to the State Public Historical Library, sheet music - to the library of the Moscow Conservatory. The unique collection of Sergei Ivanovich was nationalized and distributed between the State Museum of Fine Arts named after A.S. Pushkin and the Hermitage.
But still, we should not forget that it was thanks to the unique artistic taste and collecting instinct of Sergei Ivanovich Shchukin that Russia became the owner of a unique collection of works of art from the second half of the 19th - the first third of the 20th century, thanks to Pyotr Ivanovich - a collection of ancient objects of art of the East and Russia.
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Pipes R. Russia under the old regime. M., 1993.
On October 20, the exhibition “Masterpieces of New Art. Collection of S. I. Shchukin” is the first large-scale reconstruction of the collection of Moscow philanthropist Sergei Ivanovich Shchukin. Shchukin's collection covers the most important artistic movements of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, from impressionism to cubism, and includes more than 270 works, including masterpieces by Claude Monet, Pierre Auguste Renoir, Paul Cezanne, Paul Gauguin, Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso - and more.
The curator of the project, a specialist in the works of Picasso and Matisse Anna Baldassari, told us about the exhibition and who this respectable owner of a textile empire really was, who turned his Moscow mansion into the first museum of the most advanced and modern art at that time open to the public.
Shchukin is a practical capitalist
Sergei Shchukin was a hereditary industrialist. Together with his five brothers, he inherited from his father Ivan Shchukin the family trading business “I. V. Shchukin with his sons” and over time became its manager, partly thanks to his talent, partly due to his iron will and strong character. According to biographers, in the business world he was nicknamed “the porcupine” and “Minister of Commerce” for his tenacity and prickliness.
“The modern world is not so far from the one in which Shchukin lived. He was a pioneer - a capitalist who existed at the crossroads of different cultures. He lived in Moscow, vacationed in Italy, bought art in Paris and did business in India and China,” says Anna Baldassari.
It is also known that Shchukin had an amazing instinct. Shortly before the revolution, he transferred part of his fortune to a Swiss bank, which allowed him, albeit without frills, to continue his life quite comfortably after leaving Soviet Russia in 1918.
Shchukin also took a practical and prudent approach to the formation of the collection. For example, he never bought a finished work from an artist right away. At first, he took the paintings home for a while to understand how comfortable he felt in their surroundings, and only after that made the final decision to buy.
Shchukin liked to say: “A good painting is a cheap painting.” He always tried to make a profitable deal, to save every franc - after all, he was a capitalist, a businessman. His collection was not a costly investment—it was a wise investment. We calculated its approximate cost at the time of purchase. Shchukin spent about a million French francs on the entire meeting. Converted to euros today, this would be approximately fifteen to twenty million. Today this is nothing; for that amount you can only buy one work by Jeff Koons.
dynasty— descendant of Old Believers and Picasso lover
Sergei Shchukin's paternal ancestors came from Borovsk, a city of merchants and Old Believers. Despite the fact that Shchukin’s grandfather Vasily converted to Orthodoxy, and the collector’s maternal relatives were the famous liberals Botkin, according to Anna Baldassari, the connection with the Old Believers in Shchukin was quite strong and was reflected in his artistic tastes, in particular his interest in the work of Picasso.
Anna Baldassari: “Picasso created a new language - the language of pure plasticity. In the Old Believers, this unique branch of Orthodoxy, there is a special attitude towards the status of icons as a sacred dimension of fine art. And, of course, this can be seen as the origins of Shchukin’s interest in Picasso. Picasso (somewhat like Malevich) thought about art in terms of absolute categories and sought to reconstruct the language of art - although not in the direction of holiness, but with the same idea of creating a pure language that could serve as a path to achieving something absolute new and unique. In my opinion, this is a very important aspect of the relationship between Shchukin and Picasso. He [Shchukin] recognized in the ideas of Cubism something that, in terms of the depth of the search for meaning, was comparable to the tradition of icon painting.”
Shchukin - traveler and experimenter
At the center of Shchukin’s collection are three artists, each of whom worked in his own way with exotic cultures: Picasso (50 works), Matisse (37 works) and Gauguin. At the exhibition at the Louis Vuitton Foundation Museum, as well as once at the Trubetskoy estate on Bolshoy Znamensky Lane - the home of the philanthropist and his collection, these artists are given personal rooms.
Shchukin was a keen traveler. He made long trips to the countries of Asia and Africa both on duty and for tourism purposes. Together with his family, Shchukin visited Turkey and Greece more than once, traveled to Egypt and Western India, as well as Sudan, Algeria, and Morocco. Contact with Eastern culture made the collector especially receptive to the language of these artists.
Anna Baldassari: “Matisse’s art was very convincing for Shchukin, largely due to its oriental character: bright colors, arabesques, general decorativeness. Shchukin was very sensitive to this, he was ready for Matisse. Matisse represented the world of the East for him. Shchukin dealt with textiles from India, China, Japan - Matisse worked in Spain, Central Asia, Tangier, Morocco. Shchukin was very interested in such representation taken to the maximum: Gauguin and the culture of Oceania, Maori, and the Pacific Ocean; Matisse and his Central Asia and Islamic trends; Picasso and Africa".
Baldassari especially emphasizes the connection between African art and Picasso’s cubist works in Shchukin’s collection, including by placing them at the exhibition in one room: “These are six women or standing figures made of wood and a copper mask from Africa or Oceania. Shchukin was one of the first private collectors in the world who had the opportunity to buy African art. He said: “I buy African sculptures only because they help me understand the modernity and beauty of Picasso’s art.” This means that Shchukin understood everything. He understood the connection between Picasso, African sculpture and the transformation that the artist was going through at that time."
Shchukin is an attentive student
While working on his collection, Shchukin did not miss the opportunity to listen to authoritative opinion. In this regard, his acquaintance with the Stein family of American collectors, as well as his personal friendship with Henri Matisse, were of particular importance to him. Shchukin met the Steins - the writer Gertrude Stein and her brothers Leo and Michael - in 1907 on the eve of the decision to open his collection to the public.
Anna Baldassari: “It was a very important meeting; Shchukin at that time was just creating his own museum. Competition with the Steins was important to him. The core of the Stein collection consisted primarily of works by Picasso, then by Matisse. Shchukin adopted a lot from Leo Stein - his approach to selecting and purchasing works, hanging them, composing series and compositions.”
It happened that competition arose between Shchukin and Stein for specific works: “The most important work in the hall dedicated to Picasso is “Three Women,” one of Picasso’s first Cubist works from 1908, an amazing masterpiece. This is a very large, monumental painting. It was hanging in the studio of the artist Bateau-Lavoir in Montmartre when Shchukin first visited it. At the same time, an acquaintance took place between the collector and the artist. At that time, the work had just been completed and was being prepared for transfer to the Stein collection. Shchukin fell irrevocably in love with this picture. He waited several years before he was given the opportunity to receive it. He bought the work from Stein in 1913, the painting came to Shchukin literally a month before the First World War broke out. It was a kind of trophy, a very important trophy for Shchukin.”
Henri Matisse became the second important teacher, maître à penser [spiritual mentor] for Shchukin. Shchukin met the artist in 1906 through the legendary art dealer Ambroise Vollard. Gradually, he became one of Matisse’s most loyal customers and commissioned him to create many works, including the famous “Dance” and “Music” panels for his mansion, the Trubetskoy house. Shchukin and Matisse were in regular correspondence, and in 1911 the artist even visited Moscow. The icons made an indelible impression on him.”
“The most important work in Shchukin’s collection is Matisse’s 1908 painting “The Red Room,” kept in the Hermitage. This is the first work that Shchukin commissioned from the artist. An interesting fact is that the collector initially asked Matisse to make the work in blue, but the artist made the work red without the customer’s consent. This was the beginning of a very difficult and interesting dialogue between the artist and the collector. Shchukin learned a lot from Matisse about painting and the art of collecting.”
dynasty— visionary and innovator
Researchers of Shchukin’s heritage believe that his collection was of particular importance for the development of art in the twentieth century, in particular the formation of the Russian avant-garde. Anna Baldassari tried to emphasize this connection by including works by Malevich, Tatlin, Klyun, and Rozanova in the exhibition.
Anna Baldassari: “Visitors to the exhibition will notice the relationship between the French avant-garde and the Russian avant-garde, and many of them will think about it for the first time. The project is designed to communicate with a wide audience that is not so familiar with the history of these two phenomena and with the Russian avant-garde in particular, so the exhibition should become a real revelation for them.
We decided to expand the exhibition to include the Russian avant-garde. But not because Shchukin collected it. Shchukin’s decision to donate his collection to Moscow and open it to the general public was historically important [ In his final will, Shchukin changed his mind and bequeathed the collection to his descendants. — Approx. ed.]. In the summer of 1908, the Shchukin mansion - the Trubetskoys' house - received its first visitors.
Shchukin's mansion - Trubetskoy's house, 1914
Shchukin's mansion - Trubetskoy's house, 1914
Shchukin's mansion - Trubetskoy's house, 1914
Shchukin's mansion - Trubetskoy's house
The main audience were young artists and art school students. Klyun's memories of his first visit to Shchukin's house, where he came together with Malevich and Udaltsova, have been preserved. The young artists were literally blown away when they discovered Matisse, Picasso, Cézanne and Gauguin from Shchukin’s collection. The works were completely fresh, coming straight from the Parisian studios, often they had not even been exhibited in Paris. For example, Picasso did not exhibit in Paris; his works came to Moscow straight from his studio in Bateau Lavoir. The same applied to Matisse. Everything developed very quickly, dialogue with young artists was inevitable.
We spent two years doing research, and now I am sure that communication with young artists had a strong influence on Shchukin’s views. Beginning in 1908, the number of works in his collection increased dramatically. For example, from 1912 to 1914 (in just two years!) he bought about 30 works by Picasso. The same applies to Cubism. I think his collection became more radical precisely because of the influence of these young artists. They were excited by the new art, they wanted to make a revolution in art. They constantly wanted new work."
At the same time, in bourgeois circles, Shchukin was perceived as an eccentric, a person with oddities. Young artists became his only truly grateful audience. He continued to buy new works for them, helping to create the basis for the emergence of new art. By that time, as a collector, he had taken on special obligations - he was buying not for himself, not for his own pleasure, but for these budding artists. I think this is the most important part of the whole story, and also the reason why we decided to include the avant-garde in the exhibition.
At the exhibition you will easily discover this relationship. Take, for example, Picasso’s 1908 painting “The Farmer’s Lady.” The work arrived in Moscow in 1912. A few months later her “ghost”, a painting by Malevich, appears, and after another two or three months Malevich will present the first works of Cubo-Futurism. That is, we can trace how transformation took place from month to month, from one work to another, how Russian art changed, becoming more and more radical. From that moment the revolution in Russia began.”
What now? Is it possible in the modern world for the emergence of a figure comparable to Sergei Shchukin in terms of significance for the history of art in general and the personal stories of artists in particular?
“Today we live in a global world. We work with artists from all parts of the world: from Asia, Oceania, Africa. Of course, especially in terms of prices, it is difficult to compare the world of contemporary art then and now. And in general, more than a century has passed since then, so it’s not easy to draw a parallel. But it’s interesting to realize that this open world appeared precisely then, at the beginning of the 20th century. Soviet Russia closed it for a while, but it was artificial. We must open the world, because it is already very small. We need to create conditions for free communication between artists, collectors and audiences, because it is so important to share stories, developments and points of view!” - concludes Baldassari.
In publishing "WORD" an impressive volume came out "Sergei Shchukin and his collection". It was written by a researcher and biographer of the legendary collector Natalia Semenova, former and one of the initiators and consultants of the acclaimed exhibition in Paris last year.
As stated in the annotation, this is the first complete illustrated catalog of the famous collection. With the permission of the publisher, ARTANDHOUSES publishes a chapter dedicated to Sergei Shchukin’s acquaintance with the work of Henri Matisse and the further relationship between the artist and the collector.
“Matisse became the strongest, “never fully extinguished” Shchukin passion. Sergei Ivanovich fell in love with the artist at first sight. Few people liked Matisse's paintings at that time. They said about him that he was “shapeless”, “rude”, “insolent”, “an impudent dropout, whipped up by Parisian advertising”, etc. If the French, as Apollinaire noted, were “ready to throw stones at one of the most captivating artists of modern plastics”, what can we say about the Russians?
Having seen the large canvas “The Joy of Life” at the Salon of Independents in the spring of 1906, the collector wanted to meet the author and asked Ambroise Vollard to arrange a meeting with Monsieur Matisse. A strange picture: figures dancing, playing music and indulging in love against the background of an idyllic landscape - a classic pastoral plot, interpreted in the spirit of Fauvism, touched him to the depths of his soul. “It was in this painting that Matisse for the first time clearly embodied his intention to distort the proportions of the human body in order to harmonize simple colors mixed with white alone and enhance the meaning and meaning of each color,” said the American writer Gertrude Stein, the artist’s first admirer. “He used distortion of proportions in the same way as dissonance is used in music... Cezanne came to his characteristic incompleteness and distortion of nature out of necessity, Matisse did it intentionally.”
The artist, who painted paintings with optimistic titles, did not have a career as a painter for a long time: 37-year-old Henri Matisse unsuccessfully tried to make money as a painter - the family subsisted on his wife’s income. The appearance of a millionaire Russian collector in his studio on the Quai Saint-Michel in May 1906 changed everything. In Shchukin, Matisse found an “ideal patron,” and Shchukin in Matisse, an “artist of the future.” For seven years they will be inseparable: one will paint pictures, and the other will buy them.
Matisse Hall (Pink Living Room) in the mansion of S. I. Shchukin
around 1912
The future reformer of painting in his youth did not even think about art. The son of a middle-class merchant, born in the provincial town of Cateau-Cambresis in northeastern France, he studied law and even began working in his specialty. Sitting in a lawyer's office did not bring much joy. He first tried to paint in oils at the age of 20 - he was languishing in the hospital after an operation, not knowing what to do with himself. The mother brought the paints, and then a real obsession happened to her son. “When I started writing, I felt like I was in heaven...” Matisse recalled his feelings. He persuaded his father to let him go, went to Paris and entered the School of Fine Arts under Gustave Moreau, who soon uttered a prophetic phrase: “You are destined to simplify painting.” Matisse, on the other hand, did not think about any revolutions and conscientiously painted still lifes, paying tribute to impressionism, which was on its way out. Year after year, his color became more and more saturated, and finally the gloomy range of the early “dark paintings” flared up. At the age of 35, he discovers the possibilities of color: in a group of young painters who, after appearing at the Autumn Salon in 1905, would be given the nickname Les fauves(wild), he is a recognized leader.
Shchukin fell in love with Matisse's painting with all his heart once and for all. The passion turned out to be so strong that he entered into correspondence with the artist. Sergei Ivanovich will buy 37 Matisse paintings and send the same number of letters to the master. He will buy paintings directly from the studio, taking not only finished, but also barely begun canvases. After meeting Shchukin, Matisse’s life changed dramatically. So many years of need - and suddenly such a generous, and most importantly, loyal client. In addition, there is a contract with the Bernheim-Jeune gallery, which receives the exclusive right to everything that Matisse writes, at a fixed price per painting in accordance with the format, plus a percentage of the profits. The contract had one significant clause: Matisse had the right to sell paintings larger than the size established by the contract himself, without intermediaries. This, it turns out, is why there were so many canvases in the Shchukin collection that were close in size to panels. This is not counting two truly huge panels painted by the artist on a special order from a Russian patron.
Henri Matisse
"Dishes on the table"
1900
“One day he came to the Quai Saint-Michel to look at my paintings,” Matisse recalled the appearance of Shchukin in his studio. He decided to buy a large still life hanging on the wall, but warned that he would keep the painting for some time. “If she still interests me, then I will keep her,” he said, looking at “Still Life with a Tureen,” painted by Matisse a year after his arrival in Paris. Under this name, the first of Shchukin’s still lifes appeared at the Salon of Independents in 1902, and at the exhibition at the Vollard Gallery in 1904 it was called “Silver Coffee Pot”.
“I was lucky that he was able to endure this first test without difficulty and my still life did not tire him too much,” Matisse recalled in his old age. The picture really did not bore us - neither in terms of plot nor in its style, “obliging the artist to omit small details.” This was the essence of Matisse’s “contemplative” painting, which Shchukin caught at first glance.
During his first visit to Matisse’s studio, the future patron purchased from the artist only two lithographs and a drawing made in the summer of 1905 in Collioure. In the future, Matisse will include drawings and watercolors with images of paintings commissioned by Shchukin in letters that will come to Moscow, to the mansion on Znamenka, for seven years.
Henri Matisse
"Luxembourg Garden"
around 1901
Gradually, the color in Matisse’s paintings freed itself from naturalistic descriptiveness, the silver-gray palette was replaced by pure tones: turquoise, purple, bright green and raspberry pink. In a series of small landscapes called “Luxembourg Gardens,” critics believe that all the “detonators” of the Fauvist explosion of 1905 were already laid. Sergei Shchukin was one of the first to sense the change in the artist’s manner, who was destined to “simplify painting.”
“I regret that the still life with ceramics passed into other hands... Please, ask Mlle Weil, the painting dealer, at what price she would agree to sell it to me,” Shchukin asked Matisse, with whom he entered into regular correspondence in the spring of 1908. Having fallen in love with the artist, he could not calm down until he received the desired job. This time, Sergei Ivanovich dreamed of an early Matisse still life, which absorbed all the pictorial finds of the Post-Impressionists - the artists with whom he had recently been so fascinated: Van Gogh, Gauguin and Cezanne.
Matisse lost the early yellow-lilac still life that he liked so much to Bertha Weil. The owner of a small Parisian gallery was not only the first to risk exhibiting the works of an artist whom other dealers had not paid attention to, but even managed to sell one of his still lifes for 130 francs in 1902.
Henri Matisse
"Dishes and fruits"
1901
Sergei Shchukin called this painting filled with the southern sun “Venice”, because under that name it was listed in the Druet gallery, which sold works by Matisse. The artist depicted on the canvas his wife Amelie, née Pareire, who was his constant model in the summer of 1906, which the family spent in Collioure, near the border with Spain.
By this time, Matisse had already discovered the possibilities of color and became the recognized leader of the Fauves - artists whose canvases were distinguished by the unusual brightness of their colors. Fauvism, Matisse would say years later, “became for me a ‘test of means’.” “Place blue, red, green next to each other, connect them expressively and structurally. It was not so much the result of deliberate intention as an innate inner need.” In “The Lady on the Terrace,” Yakov Tugendhold believed, “there was all Matisse,” whose art was revealed in all its diversity only in the Shchukin gallery.
Henri Matisse
"Lady on the Terrace"
1906
Having seen the painting “Bathers with a Turtle” belonging to the German collector Karl Osthaus, Shchukin became interested in having a painting with naked girls. “The Russian was crazy about your painting, he talked continuously about color and wanted to get a repetition, which Matisse, however, refused to do,” his compatriot, the head of the Matisse Academy, Hans Poorman, told the owner of “Bathers.”
“I think about your delightful “Sea” all the time,” Shchukin will write to the artist upon his return to Moscow, meaning, of course, “Bathers with a Turtle.” “I vividly feel this freshness, this greatness of the ocean and this feeling of sadness and melancholy. I’d be very happy to have something like that.”
Matisse performed a variation of the composition that the collector liked so much: against the background of smooth horizontal stripes of green grass, a light blue sea and a dark blue sky, he again placed three figures - this time naked boys playing bowls. Shchukin was eager to see what the painting looked like, and Matisse sent an image of it to the collector. The black and white photograph was enough for Sergei Ivanovich to telegraph that he found the work very interesting and asked to urgently send it to Moscow. Two and a half weeks later, the one and a half meter canvas ended up in a mansion on Znamenka. “I really like the freshness and nobility of your work,” wrote the happy owner of the “Balls Game.”
Henri Matisse
"Bowling"
1908
Having learned that the Russian merchant Sergei Shchukin was interested in Matisse, dealers began to offer him paintings by the artist, which at one time they were able to buy cheap. Eugene Druet was the first after Bertha Weil to bet on the young Fauves. If earlier Shchukin bought works by Gauguin at the Druet Gallery, now his choice fell on a spectacular still life by Matisse. “He is very handsome,” Shchukin wrote to its author and even made a small sketch of his new acquisition.
From a trip to Algeria in the spring of 1906, the artist brought back several ceramics and prayer rugs purchased at the bazaar in Biskra, a blooming oasis among the desert sands. The black-white-yellow-red carpet, which solos in the composition, appears in several still lifes painted in the summer of 1906 in Collioure. Dishes and fruit on a red and black carpet - the first still life in the Moscow collection with fabrics, for which the artist and his Russian admirer had special feelings.
Henri Matisse began collecting his fabric collection while still a student. S.I. Shchukin, the head of a textile trading company, not only selected the assortment of fabrics himself, but also personally looked through the designs and colors of the fabrics. This could not help but develop in the collector a professional attitude towards color, design, and decorativeness. So, to the perception of new painting, the head of the company “I. V. Shchukin with his sons” was perfectly prepared.
Henri Matisse
"Dishes and fruits on a red and black carpet"
1906
Having purchased several works from Parisian marchands, Sergei Shchukin placed an order directly with the artist. He asked him to paint two still lifes: one large and the other medium in size. Large still life (G. N. M. - grande nature-morte, as Matisse called it for short in his letters) was “The Red Room”, and the middle one was “Statue and Vases on an Oriental Carpet”. Matisse exhibited both paintings at the Autumn Salon of 1908 with an indication of their ownership, hidden behind the initials M. Sch.
When ordering a two-meter panel for the dining room, Shchukin asked that it be kept in blue, since he was going to hang the picture next to Gauguin’s canvases, so that the blue would contrast with the bright yellow colors of the Tahitian canvases.
Throughout the summer of 1908, Matisse worked on a “large still life” in his studio. Ambroise Vollard and Eugene Druet, who photographed the painting, came to see the completed Harmony in Blue, after which Matisse almost immediately rewrote it. Only thanks to the color slide and narrow strips of the previous painting at the edge of the canvas can one imagine the original scale of the huge painting with a woman setting the table.
Henri Matisse
"Red Room" / "Harmony in Red"
1908
“It [the “large still life”] seemed to me not decorative enough,” the artist explained to the customer the transformation of “Harmony in Blue” into “Harmony in Red.” “Even those who initially thought it was well made now find it much more beautiful.” Matisse was terribly annoyed when he was told that he had painted a completely different painting: “This is not a different painting. I’m just looking for strength and balance in color.”
“Harmony in Red” became the central work exhibited by Matisse at the Autumn Salon of 1908. “Suddenly I found myself in front of a wall that was singing - no, it was screaming, shouting in colors and emitting a radiance. There was something completely new and merciless in her unbridled freedom..." one of the spectators wrote about the "Red Room."
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Sergei Ivanovich Shchukin called Matisse “a modern Michelangelo” - whether this was irony or truth is known only to him. The Moscow merchant and collector, who passionately loved French painting, became attached to the artist’s works at first sight.
“Joy of Life”: from canvas to reality
In the spring of 1906, he saw the canvas “The Joy of Life” and wanted to meet the artist. It was an idealistic landscape in red and yellow colors, against which figures of naked bodies dancing and making love were depicted. This work touched Shchukin.
In those days, few people liked Matisse's paintings. He was called a rude, impudent dropout, but still it was Matisse who attracted the attention of Shchukin. The collector was so carried away that he began to correspond with the artist, although previously he was content with buying paintings from dealers.
Shchukin bought 37 works by Matisse and sent the same number of messages to the artist. Sergei Ivanovich bought paintings, taking them directly from the studio, sometimes they were unfinished, or even barely begun works.
Mansion of philanthropist Sergei Ivanovich Shchukin, Matisse Hall
In the summer of 1908, the collector liked the fresh painting “Balls Game” and two half-finished still lifes. While working on the latter, Matisse almost went bankrupt. It was a huge canvas (two meters long) called “The Red Room”, depicting a woman setting a table. The artist painted fruits from life, which he bought in Paris for a lot of money. To make them deteriorate more slowly, Matisse ventilated the room all the time, which is why he had to work in a coat and gloves all winter.
The ideal cartridge
Matisse considered Shchukin his “ideal patron”, since after meeting him the artist forgot about the long years of poverty. Sergei Ivanovich asked to be notified of each new work - rarely has anyone followed the master’s work like that!
To the 100th anniversary of the State Museum of Fine Arts (Pushkin Museum) named after. Pushkin, we are starting a series of reports about the museum’s collection, which is among the ten best collections in the world. “The collection of Shchukin and Morozov” is the first report in the series.
Collection of Shchukin and Morozov in Moscow
Collection of the Gallery of Western European Art of the 19th-20th centuries of the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts. Pushkin is the most interesting in the museum. It was collected over 12-15 years by representatives of the two largest families of Moscow industrialists and philanthropists - Morozov and Shchukin.
The collection of impressionist works was acquired mainly by Sergei Ivanovich Shchukin, but Ivan Abramovich Morozov also had a hand in this collection.
It is believed that the first work in this collection was a painting that was acquired by Sergei Ivanovich Shchukin - a small sketch by Claude Monet entitled “Lilacs in the Sun”.
She was brought to Moscow in 1897. Sergei Ivanovich Shchukin’s interest in the art of the French impressionists began with this work. He was the first to reveal their work to the Moscow public.
Collection of Shchukin and Morozov. Sergei Ivanovich Shchukin and Claude Monet
S.I. Shchukin had not only an excellent education, but also wonderful taste and amazing intuition. When he began collecting contemporary French art, he always unmistakably singled out that work, that figure that was fundamental in the formation of one direction or another. His intuition never failed him.
Having become interested in impressionism at the end of the 19th century, Shchukin immediately determined that the key figure of this movement, the artist, without whose work it is impossible to evaluate impressionism as a movement in painting, was.
Having isolated him from the galaxy of impressionists, Shchukin collected his canvases until he had exhausted for himself some of the main stages and problems of the formation of this direction in art. Then, when he and the artist went through all the stages of constructing these techniques, he closed this page of collecting for himself.
This was a feature of his collecting activity. Having known and understood the work of this or that master, he never returned to this painter, even if later he came across large works, even masterpieces of this master. Having closed the topic of this or that artist for himself, Shchukin lost interest in collecting his works.
S.I. Shchukin – collector of impressionism
Shchukin bought paintings by Degas; all the works of this artist in the Pushkin Museum come from Shchukin’s collection. He also had works in his collection, but Monet was the main thing for the collector.
S.I. Shchukin and Paul Gauguin
And when Sergei Ivanovich went through and studied the art of the impressionists, it was the turn of the post-impressionists. Shchukin’s collection included works by ALL masters whose work is associated with the concept of post-impressionism, but the greatest value of his entire collection was the works of Paul Gauguin.
Visitors who were lucky enough to visit his house on Bolshoi Znamensky Lane (now occupied by the General Staff) and find themselves in the hall said that the wall with his paintings could be compared to a shining golden iconostasis.
This is the impression made by the collection collected by Sergei Ivanovich Shchukin. The collection included paintings from the artist’s Tahitian cycle. There is no longer a collection of Gauguin's Tahitian works of equal quality in Europe.
S.I. Shchukin and Henri Matisse
Shchukin became his true and last love, and after him. Everyone who came to Shchukin’s house on Znamenka quite rightly called it home and. It was a collection of the highest quality; no museum in the world has such a collection. 36 FIRST-CLASS canvases - all those works without which art will remain incomplete if they are not considered.
