RUSSIAN MUSEUM

The State Russian Museum is often overshadowed by the grand Hermitage. Yet this complex houses a fantastic and as comprehensive a collection of Russian art as one might ever hope to see. The museum was established in 1895 under the decree of the Tsar Nicholas II. The State Russian Museum holds nearly 400,000 pieces of art, making it the largest collection of Russian art in the country. The pieces in the collection range from ancient icons to Avant-garde painting from the XX century.  From thousand-year-old icons to Russian masters Vrubel, Ilya Repin, Suvurov, Brullov, Aivazovksy, Nestorov to decorative applied art, Russia's great history in art is all on display here. Russian Impressionists have great representation at the museum, as do the artists of the Revolution and ensuing Futurist movement, and Soviet artists thereafter. Paintings by Goncharova, Malevich, Kandinsky and Chagall are but a small representation of the great works that can be seen here.  The main complex of museum buildings - the Mikhailovsky Palace and Benois Wing - houses the permanent exhibition of the Russian Museum, tracing the entire history of Russian art from the tenth to the twentieth centuries. The museum collection embraces all forms, genres, schools and movements of art.

Over the past twenty years, the museum complex has grown to include the Stroganov Palace, St Michael's (Engineers) Castle and the Marble Palace. The complex also includes the Mikhailovsky Gardens, Engineering Gardens, Summer Garden (including the Summer Palace) and the House of Peter the Great.

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The State Russian museum in St. Petersburg is a treasure-house of world importance, where all the wealth and variety of Russian figurative art is superbly represented.  However, it would hardly be an exaggeration to say that the visiting public associate this Museum first and foremost with its famous picture gallery. Indeed, it was the picture gallery that formed the core of the Museum during the period of its foundation in 1895-97 and over the next decade or so. Later on the Museum amassed various collections of sculpture, graphics, and objects of decorative and applied art which were just as important, but for all their richness it is still the picture gallery that enjoys the greatest popularity.

The Mikhailovsky Palace and the Benois Building
This is the main building of the museum and showcases examples of Russian art from icons dating back to as early as the 14th century to modern canvasses from the beginning of the 20th century. The museum also hosts regular temporary exhibitions.

The Mikhailovsky (St Michael's) Castle
Hosts a permanent collection of Russian Official Portraits plus regular temporary exhibitions.

The Marble Palace
Modern Russian art from the early 20th century to the present plus an insightful display from the Rossica Collection - paintings by foreign artists resident in Russia. Also hosts regular temporary exhibitions

The Stroganov Palace
Collection of Russian icons, once owned by the Stroganov family and a display of historical waxwork figures.

Temporary exhibitions are always to be seen.

Having amassed so many brilliant collections, the Russian Museum became one of the richest picture galleries in the world and acquired the significance of a national gallery in which the many-sided phenomena of Russian art spanning the period from the seventeenth to the twentieth centuries are fully represented.

Today the unique and comprehensive collection of the Russian Museum affords an exceptional opportunity for an all-round, detailed study of the development of artistic ideas and culture in Russia over a period a period of nearly two and a half centuries.

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K.P. Beggrov "Mihailovskiy Castle"	Mihailovskiy Castle. Second floor	Mihailovskiy Castle. Chamber № 17	Mihailovskiy Castle. Academic Hall №15