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Contact information • History • Access & Facilities • Bibliography
ArcheoBiblioBase: Archives in Russia: H-236Last update of repository: 18 March 2020Gosudarstvennyi Russkii muzei (GRM)Previous names
The museum was founded in 1895 as an artistic, archeological, and cultural-historic collection under the name of the Russian Museum of Emperor Alexander III and opened to the public in 1898 in the [Grand Duke] Michael (Mikhailovskii) Palace, constructed in 1819–1825 by the architect Carlo Rossi for Alexander I’s brother, Mikhail Pavlovich. Its collections were largely made up of paintings and early Russian objets d’art transferred from the Museum of the Academy of Arts and from imperial collections in the Hermitage and the palaces in Gatchina and Tsarskoe Selo, as well as from private collections bought by or donated to the museum. These latter included the collections of Prince A.B. Lobanov-Rostovskii, Prince G.G. Gagarin, Princess M.K. Tenisheva, and the historians and Byzantinists N.P. Kondakov (1909) and N.P. Likhachev (1913), among others. Before the 1917 Revolution the museum had divisions for arts, ethnography (founded in 1902), and historical daily-life (istoriko-bytovoi) (founded in 1913), as well as a memorial division devoted to the Emperor Alexander III. With the expansion of its holdings additional space was needed, and in 1912–1916, the neighboring Benois Corpus was constructed nearby, named after its architect L.N. Benois (Benua). The museum was nationalized in 1917, and since 1925 it has been known under its present name of the State Russian Museum. The nationalization of art treasures and the redistribution of museum holdings after 1917 considerably enlarged the collections of the State Russian Museum. Some exhibition space was added to the museum when in 1925, the Summer Palace of Peter I, which had been turned into a museum in 1923, became a branch, specifically under the Historical Daily-Life Division. That division, however, was abolished in 1924, when the Summer Palace became a separate museum, and the remaining collections from Historical Daily-Life Division were transferred to the Hermitage, where since 1941 they formed the basis for its Division for the History of Russian Culture (see H–235). In the 1930s the Oriental and Byzantine art collections from the Russian Museum were likewise transferred to the Hermitage. Also during the 1920s and 30s, numerous items from the Russian Museum—mainly paintings and icons—were taken over by the State Museum Fond (Gosudarsvennyi muzeinyi fond), some for sale abroad, and others for transfer to museums throughout the RSFSR and especially to the non-Russian union republics. There were some direct transfers to other museums in Leningrad. In 1934 the holdings of the entire Ethnographic Division of the Russian Museum were transferred to the State Ethnographic Museum, which is now the Russian Ethnographic Museum (REM—H–272). Balancing such losses from transfers, the Russian Museum collections were substantially increased in the 1920s, and again starting in the 1960s, thanks to museum-funded expeditions sent out, especially to northern regions of the Russian Federation, to gather materials that were in need of preservation, and that were of interest as potential exhibits to the museum. The State Russian Museum is currently the largest museum of Russian art in the country. Archival materials, including manuscripts, are held in a number of museum divisions or sectors, or are classified as separate “fonds” within the rich and varied holdings of the museum. Drawings and graphic materials are usually classified among the visual arts, but many of the museum graphic holdings, and especially photographs and other audiovisual materials, nonetheless are also of an archival interest and are accordingly mentioned, at least in passing, below. The Division of Manuscripts was begun in 1895, and now comprises a structural part of the museum itself. The Fond of Photographic Materials existed since 1898 as part of the Art Division, but was reorganized as the Photograph, Film, and Video Sector in 1990. The Fond of Graphic Arts is based on donations made by Princess M.K. Tenisheva and Prince G.G. Gagarin, together with the nationalized collections of the imperial family and such nineteenth- and early twentieth-century collectors as M.P. Botkin, S.S. Botkin, V.N. Argutinskii-Dolgorukov, and E.E. Reitern. Various other graphic collections from museums that were closed down between 1920 and 1950 have also been turned over to the Russian Museum. The Division of Soviet Graphic Arts was organized in 1979. In 1932 the collection of Soviet graphic arts was already organized as a separate fond, although it still formed part of the Division of Soviet Art. That division was endowed with a number of private collections formed by such collectors as A.P. Ostroumova-Lebedeva (1956), P.A. Shillingovskii (1947), and G.M. Levitin (1984). It was subsequently enriched by a collection of the works of P.N. Filonov presented to the museum by his sister, E.N. Glebova (1977), and in 1985 it received some 200 folios of contemporary graphic art from the Union of Artists of the USSR. A repository for various exhibits relating to Russian ecclesiastical history and icon painting was opened in 1914 as part of the museum’s Arts Division. After the Revolution this was made into the Division of Early Russian Art, but in 1972 it was divided into two separate parts, which now form the Division of Early Russian Painting and the Division of Early Russian Applied Art. Three important palaces in St. Petersburg have recently been turned over to the Russian Museum and now form official branches: (1) Michael (Engineering) Castle (Mikhailovskii [Inzhenernyi] zamok) was turned over to the Russian Museum in 1991. Built in 1797–1800 by the architect Vincenzo Brenna, it was briefly an imperial residence until Paul I was assassinated there in 1801. Subsequently, a large part of the building was occupied by the Main Engineering School, principally known as the Nicholas Engineering Academy (Nikolaevskaia inzhenernaia akademiia), the source of its second name. A national portrait gallery is now being developed there. The Photograph, Film, and Video Sector was moved to this building during 1997. (191011, St. Petersburg, ul. Sadovaia, 2; tel. +7 812 570-51-12; webpages: http://www.rusmuseum.ru/mikhailovsky-...; http://www.museum.ru/M158). (2) The Marble Palace (Mramornyi dvorets) was turned over to the Russian Museum in 1992. It was built in 1768–1785 by the architect Antonio Rinaldi for Count G.G. Orlov, but subsequently was owned by the imperial family (from 1832 by Grand Duke Constantine [Konstantin] Nikolaevich). From 1937 until 1991, it housed the Leningrad Branch of the Central Museum of V.I. Lenin. (191065, St. Petersburg, ul. Millionnaia, 5/1; tel. +7 812 595-42-48; +7 812 314-34-48; webpages: http://www.rusmuseum.ru/marble-palace/; http://www.museum.ru/M157). (3) The Stroganov Palace (Stroganovskii dvorets) was turned over to the Russian Museum in 1991. Built in 1752–1754 by the architect Bartolomeo Rastrelli, in the eighteenth century it was owned by A.S. Stroganov, president of the Academy of Arts, and remained with the Stroganov family until 1917, housing one of the richest private art collections in Russia. (191186, St. Petersburg, Nevskii prosp., 17; tel. +7 812 595-42-48; +7 812 314-83-68; webpages: http://www.rusmuseum.ru/stroganov-pal...; http://www.museum.ru/M159). |
