The project "Faces of Russia" in the Russian Museum will become the basis for the Internet Museum

In St. Petersburg, a new exposition has become available for visitors to the Russian Museum, which demonstrates how portrait painting has changed in Russian art. The exhibition presents paintings from the beginning of the eighteenth century to the work of our contemporaries.

The new exhibition, called “Faces of Russia”, was located in the halls of Mikhailovsky Castle, where the organizers divided its exposition into several sections. The first part includes portraits of Russian rulers and members of their families, among them the works of famous painters are presented, starting from the 17th century and ending with the 20th century. Such a selection of paintings is similar to paintings that once made up the famous Romanov Gallery, which was in the Hermitage until 1917.

The second section contains socio-historical portraits. Here are paintings with portraits of not only famous people who lived in the 18-19 centuries, but also portraits of their ordinary contemporaries - peasants, workers and citizens.

The third part of the exhibition is dedicated to a period closer to our time - these are portraits of people representing the Soviet era, starting in 1920 and ending in 1950. Among them are members of the party and government, well-known cultural figures and heroes of labor who have been recognized by their labor activity.

An entire hall was provided for works performed by famous Russian artists who painted their famous canvases in different years. Among them are V. Tropinin, I. Kramskoy, I. Repin, V. Surikov. In the hall you can see both portraits of their contemporaries and self-portraits of the artists themselves. A separate place is occupied by photographs of our contemporaries, who became famous after the 1960s. In the future, viewing this exhibition will be available on the Internet on the website of the Russian Museum.

Ludmila Trautmane