The Taganrog Art Museum is one of the classic institutions of this kind, where you can enjoy the paintings of famous Russian artists. At the moment, the gallery contains more than seven thousand paintings of great masters. There are paintings by Vereshchagin, Kuindzhi, Aivazovsky, Shishkin … Agree, you can’t ignore such a museum. Read our article, from which you will learn the history of the museum, gather important information for the visitor to the gallery and simply expand your horizons.
A few words about the city
Taganrog is a relatively small southern city of Russia on the coast of the Sea of Azov. However, despite its small size (population is about a quarter of a million people), Taganrog is one of the most interesting tourist centers. The city was founded by Peter the Great as the first naval base in the Russian Empire, Taganrog distinguished himself during the Great Patriotic War, in honor of the merit of its inhabitants in defense he was awarded the honorary title "City of Military Glory" in 2011, and in 2015 the proud name of Taganrog and its coat of arms appeared on coins from the series “Cities of Military Glory”. In addition, the place is famous for its famous inhabitants - Anton Pavlovich Chekhov, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, even Emperor Alexander the First stayed here.
Tourists note
With its rich history and a large number of attractions, modern Taganrog attracts tourists from all over the country and even from abroad. The Faina Ranevskaya Museum, the Chekhov House-Museum, the Taganrog Museum of Aviation Engineering, the Museum of Urban Planning and Life … This is not the whole list of places worthy of attention. One of the first attractions worth visiting is the Taganrog Museum of Art.
Museum History
Taganrog Art Museum was founded in 1898. The opening of the gallery was timed to coincide with the bicentennial of the city, and such famous people as Anton Pavlovich Chekhov were involved in its creation - it was he who owned the idea of creating an art museum in Taganrog, Ilya Efimovich Repin - at his request, the Russian Academy of Arts allocated the first eight to the beginning museum paintings, but not some — among the gifted canvases were such significant works of art as “Pine over a Cliff” by Yu. I. Fedders and “Zaporozhets on Intelligence” by S. I. Vasilkovsky. Many artists themselves donated their work to the museum.
Sad events
Dark times in the life of the museum came with the advent of the fascist invaders. During the Great Patriotic War, almost from its very beginning (namely, from August 17, 1941) until 1943, Taganrog was occupied by Nazi troops, which could not but affect the development of the city as a whole, and the life of its individual inhabitants. The Taganrog Art Museum also suffered from a military invasion. Most of his collection was looted - many valuable paintings and sculptures were exported abroad, and their trace was lost in private collections. Other objects of art, less valuable or those that could not be taken away, were simply destroyed.
Rebirth from the ashes
But despite all the difficulties that the museum had to go through, it lives and thrives to this day. The fact is that, starting from about the sixties of the twentieth century, the collection of the Taganrog Art Museum began to be actively restored. Private collectors of painting, both domestic and art lovers from abroad, took part in this important matter.
Where is?
The fund of the museum was gradually replenished, and now the gallery needed a new building. So, in 1976, her exposition was moved to the remarkable mansion of Khandrin, which in itself is a monument of architecture of the nineteenth century (architect Tenishev). Here is a museum to this day. The address of the Taganrog Art Museum is Aleksandrovskaya Street, house number 54.
Museum collection
But visiting this mansion, you can only get acquainted with the tenth part of the museum’s collection. And it’s not at all that the building is so small. On the contrary, this collection of the museum is so large that it does not fit in the walls of a two-story cottage - the gallery funds contain more than seven thousand pieces of art from paintings to porcelain figurines.
In the open air
Moreover, after visiting all the halls, you can take a walk through the picturesque kindergarten in the backyard of the mansion. Here you will see many marble sculptures that perfectly convey the atmosphere of a noble estate of the nineteenth century. The entire ensemble harmoniously fits into the architecture of the building, despite the fact that the exposition was formed only in 1976, when the museum moved to Alexandrovskaya Street.
Tours
At the request of visitors, employees of the Taganrog Art Museum can conduct a fascinating tour, during which you can learn a lot about the development of Russian art. So, the program “Three Centuries of Russian Art” will acquaint you with various styles and trends that were common in Russia during the eighteenth, nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and on excursions “Russian landscape. From Realism to the Vanguard ”you can get acquainted with different views of artists on nature, at this exhibition you will not only be shown, but also told how the paintings of Semiradsky differ from Burliuk’s paintings.
