ART MUSEUMS IN MOSCOW

This Gallery is the foremost depository of Russian fine arts in the world. The gallery was found in 1856, when Paul Tretyakov, a young Moscow merchant, bought the first paintings for his collection. He continued to collect works of the talented artists throughout his life and in 1892 handed over his entire collection to the city government as a gift. Along with his paintings, Tretyakov also generously donated his own house and the surrounding area, which became the initial premises of the gallery. The Tretyakov gallery is still located on the same site, but it is now housed an extended and renovated complex of buildings. The gallery halls feature Old Russian icons (including a big collection of icons by Andrei Rublyov), from 18th century portraits to 20th century canvases by contemporary artists and displays of graphic and applied arts. The Tretyakov"s magnificent collection of Soviet art is now housed independently in the enormous Central House of Artists, opposite Gorky Park, and is well worth a visit for those admirers of 20th-century art. Today this is Moscow's leading art museum which is ranked a close second to the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg. The Tretyakov Gallery contains about 57,000 works of art. The collection gives a clear idea of the history of Russian art.

The Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts has one of the most representative collections in Russia of foreign art dated from ancient times to modern days. The exposition of the Museum includes today a vast collection of tinted plaster casts of famous ancient, medieval and Renaissance sculptures and a collection of original works of foreign artists, sculptors and graphics together with objects of decorative arts.   The rooms of the ground floor present mainly the original works: works of art of Ancient Egypt, antiquities, European paintings of the VII-XVIII centuries; two halls - Italian and Greek courtyards are housing casts. On the first floor there are rooms with casts of Ancient Greece, Rome, Middle Ages and Renaissance. The rooms of painting acquaint the public with the art of the XIXth and XXth centuries.

The museum was established in 1912 at the site of the former Carriage Courtyard by a Professor of the Moscow University of Fine Arts Ivan Tsvetaev (actually the father of a famous Russian poet Marina Tsvetaeva), and on 31 May 1912 there was a ceremonial opening of the museum. From the end of the 1890s Tsvetayev travelled frequently around Europe, Greece and Egypt to make exact copies of statues of Roman governors, fragments of Greek temples, and portals of Roman and Gothic cathedrals. So the early collection was comprised mainly of plaster copies, but it soon became clear that it was destined to play an exceptional role in the Russian art development. However, nowadays the museum boasts paintings by Boticelli, Rivera, Murillo, Rembrandt, Rubens and Van Dyke. The real pride of the museum is the collection of French Impressionists, one of the best in the world. It includes works by Cezanne, Degas, Monet, Matisse, Picasso and Van Gogh.

The Borodino Panorama Museum was inaugurated in 1962 to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the mighty battle fought between the French troops of Napoleon and the Russian soldiers under Field Marshal Kutuzov, which took place in August 1812 just 129 kilometers outside Moscow. The museum is built on the historic site of the village of Fili, where legend has it a council of war was held in a small peasant hut to decide the fate of Moscow and indeed the entire country. Panorama Borodino (as it was then called) was opened on August 29, 1912, in the center of Moscow. The panorama of the Battle of Borodino is the museum's main exhibit. The painting is 115 meters long and 15 meters high. The artist chose to depict the decisive moment of the battle - 12.30 p.m. on the 7th of September - when the most vivid and typical events in the battle took place. It was against this flank that Napoleon struck his main blow.

The museum's exposition is equipped with modern technical appliances. The viewing of the panorama is accompanied by special sound effects, reproducing the battle shooting of the beginning of the 19th century.

The current exhibitions are organized in the museum, displaying paintings, engravings, decorative and applied art, numismatic, etc. dating back to the first half of 19th century

Directly in front of the museum visitors also cannot fail to see the enormous monument built in 1973 to commemorate the heroes of the war of 1812 and topped with an impressive equestrian statue of the Field Marshal. Excursions of the museum are given in Russian, English, French and German.