The partnership project between the Tretyakov Gallery and the Russian State Library is dedicated to two outstanding collectors of the 19th century, whose collections became an important part of the history of Russian museum work. It was they who began to build large collections of Russian painting even before the opening of the famous City Art Gallery of Pavel and Sergei Mikhailovich Tretyakov. Later, these collections became part of the Rumyantsev Museum’s holdings and became the pride of its Picture Gallery.
The exhibition brings together paintings, archival materials, rare books and documents that reveal the fate of two outstanding collectors — the St. Petersburg statesman, privy councilor, who headed the Postal Department of the Russian Empire, mason and philanthropist F.I. Pryanishnikov (1793−1867) and the Moscow merchant-Old Believer, one of the wealthiest entrepreneurs of his time, a generous benefactor and publisher.-educator K.T. Soldatenkov (1818−1901).
Special attention is paid to the fate of the collections after the dissolution of the Rumyantsev Museum in the 1920s. A significant portion of the works later became part of the collection of the Tretyakov Gallery and 54 museums in the USSR. The exhibition concept is inspired by the historical display created before the revolution by the curator of the Rumyantsev Museum, N. I. Romanov, and a special route through the permanent exhibition in Lavrushinsky Lane will allow visitors to see other works that were previously part of the famous collections.
