Ivanovo Regional Art Museum

Ivanovo Art Museum belongs to a rare type of provincial museums in Russia. The potential of its collections, including cultural values of different countries, peoples and civilizations, is phenomenal: from ancient Egyptian monuments of the XXI century BC to actual art of the early XXI century. The collection, which has more than forty thousand exhibits, is one of the largest in the Central region.
The museum building is located in the historical center of the city. Two-storey building of red brick in the spirit of eclecticism (Arch. V. Sikorsky, P. Troitsky) was built in the 1880s for a real school and school of colorists.
The museum is relatively young. The decision of the government to create it by transferring part of art treasures from the Ivanovo Museum of Local Lore was made in 1959. Fragments of the unique heritage of D.G. Burylin and donations of the 1920-30s from the State Museum Fund, the Tretyakov Gallery and the Russian Museum still determine the prestige and originality of the collection.
Collection belonging to the earliest period of history - monuments of art culture of the Ancient world. These are sculptural images associated with the religious beliefs of the ancient Egyptians - the sun god and patron of the pharaohs Amon, Osiris, Isis with Horus, the goddess Bastet in the form of a cat, sacred scarab beetles, statuettes-shebti. Invariable delight and surprise cause visitors the rarest for the Russian province painted wooden sarcophagus of the shield-bearer Ankh-efa and the mummy of the noble Egyptian woman I thousand BC. Ancient civilization is represented by high quality ancient Greek pottery and vasopainting (amphors, pelicas, oinochoi, cups, crater, etc.), ancient Roman terracottas, famous Pompeii mosaics and the thinnest, almost weightless vessels made of blown glass, as well as tombstones, originals and copies from a Roman sculptural portrait.
The collection of ancient Russian art includes icons, church copper-cast plastic, objects of worship made of precious metals, wood, bones, fabrics, old printed liturgical books, engravings and lubricated religious content, round temple sculpture and bas-reliefs. In the exposition of the museum you can get acquainted with the leading icon-painting schools of the XVI-XIX centuries - Moscow, Stroganov, Northern letters, Volga region, Vladimir-Suzdal region. Truly priceless spiritual relics are the eminent two-sided icon “Our Lady of Shuyskaya-Smolenskaya and Nikola”, the ascetic and restrained main “Deesus”, the touching and naive, provincial in the manner of execution of the temple icon “Reasonable Robber”, the luxuriously ornamented, multi-figure “Trinity of the Old Testament in Actions” of Palekh letters. Among the best in the country, experts include three fragments of a fresco iconostasis from the destroyed Annunciation Church of the city of Yurievets. It is assumed that the work of the artel of masters was led by the last tsarist patronized icon painter of the Armory Kirill Ulanov.
The special pride of the museum is the collection of Russian art of the XVIII-early XX centuries. The large-scale collection, which includes more than 500 originals, allows you to fully trace the logic of the development of artistic life of Russia, various styles, trends and trends of national fine art – from Parsuna, provincial portrait, classicist and academic trends to symbolism and modernity. These are paintings, drawings, sculptures of the largest masters - F. Rokotov, D. Levitsky, V. Borovikovsky, K. Bryullov, V. Tropinin, V. Perov, A. Savrasov, I. Shishkin, I. Aivazovsky, I. Kramsky, I. Repin, V. Surikov, V. Polenov, I. Levitan, A. Korovin, M. Vrubel, P. Klodt, M. Antokolsky, P. Trubetsky, S. Konenkova and many others. Widely represented in the museum halls works of decorative and applied art - furniture items, Kholmogorsk carved bone, works of masters of Russian silver, porcelain and glass of leading Russian factories.
The reference works are recognized as “The Widow” by P. Fedotov, “Portrait of Z.V. Moritz” by V. Serov, “Summer” by M. Nesterov, “Spanish” by A. Golovin, “Lotus” by M. Saryan, “Portrait of T.N. Chizhova” by B. Kustodiev. In many countries of the world, the works of the classics of the national avant-garde K. Malevich, A. Rodchenko, O. Rozanova, V. Stepanova visited.
The collections of the museum contain no less valuable, large-scale and integral collections.
The largest part of the collection (about 25 thousand pages) is printed graphics. Western Europe is represented by the works of masters from Austria, England, Holland, Belgium, France, Italy, Germany, as well as great names – A. Van Ostade, W. Hogarth, J.-B. Piranesi, etc. Russian engraving is the works of I. Bersenev, M. Kozlovsky, F. Tolstoy, N. Utkin, I. Shishkin, V. Mate. Original collection of ancient and rare playing cards of Russia, Europe, USA, China, Japan.
The eastern collection of the museum is the largest in the Russian province. Its geography includes the Muslim Volga region, the Caucasus, Central Asia, Turkey, Persia, India, Mongolia, Manchuria, China, Tibet, Japan. The collection includes cult objects (Islam, Buddhism, Lamaism, Taoism, Confucianism), ethnographic materials (suit, shoes, accessories, furniture, musical instruments, smoking devices, etc.), textiles, ceramics and carved bone, works of metal masters, works of jewelry, Chinese and Persian painting, Japanese graphics, Tibetan scrolls.
A small but rare collection of works of the XVIII-XIX centuries of the German school of bone carvers (large cups framed in silver, elephants from a single elephant tusk) determines the high value of the fund of Western European applied art.
The museum contains works of all genres and trends of modern Russian art - paintings by I. Mashkov, P. Konchalovsky, R. Falk, A. Samokhvalov, S. Gerasimov, Y. Pimenov, A. Deineka, A. Mylnikov, N. Nesterova, T. Nazarenko; sculptures by E. Vuchetich, I. Frikh-Khara, A. Kibalnikov, V. Tsigal; graphics by A. Osmerkin, N. Kupreyanov, L. Soifertis, A. Kiravchenko.
The local art school is represented in the collection by the works of Ivanovo artists I. Nefedov, M. Pyrin, N. Burov, K. Frolov, A. Krotov, M. Malyutin, E. Gribov, V. Fedorov, N. and V. Rodionov, V. Bakharev, S. Kuzmicheva, A. Muchkaev, A. Klimokhin, E. Kuvaeva, etc.
The authority of the museum collection is emphasized by one of the best collections of works by masters Palekh and Holui in Russia. It contains not only lacquer miniatures of artists of all generations – from the first masters, former icon painters, to modern young authors – but also drawing, painting on porcelain and furniture, monumental painting.
Large-scale and valuable collections of the museum have great scientific, historical, cultural and artistic significance. Active work with them, as well as productive cooperation with museums and public institutions of Russia and abroad allow to maintain the prestige of the museum at the international level, to carry out topical exhibition projects of interest in the development of cultural tourism in the Ivanovo region.

Opening hours: The museum is open daily, except Tuesday, from 11.00. until 18:00.