Renewal of the permanent exhibition in the Main Building of the Pushkin Museum. A.S. Pushkin

State Museum of Fine Arts named after. A.S. Pushkin began a gradual renovation of the permanent exhibition of art by old masters, including paintings by Italian and French artists. The exhibition of Spanish art will be presented after the completion of the exhibition “From Gothic to Goya” from the State Hermitage. It is also planned to almost double the number of works and to supplement painting with monuments of sculpture and applied art. The 2024 renovation coincides with the 100th anniversary of the museum’s “art gallery.”

The State Museum of Fine Arts named after A. S. Pushkin has begun a phased renovation of the permanent exhibition of art by old masters. This spring, for the first time since the 2021 re-exposition, which became a temporary solution, paintings by Italian and French artists are returning to the halls of the second floor of the Main Building. Works by Spanish masters will be presented at the museum after the completion of the exhibition “From Gothic to Goya. Spanish paintings from the collection of the Pushkin Museum. A. S. Pushkin" from the State Hermitage. Renovation of the halls of painting of the Italian Renaissance, art of Germany and the Netherlands of the 15th – 16th centuries, and Holland and Flanders of the 17th century on the ground floor is planned for the fall. The number of works presented will be almost doubled, and paintings will be complemented by monuments of sculpture and applied art.

The 2024 re-exposition is timed to coincide with the anniversary of the museum’s “art gallery”: in November 1924, the halls of Dutch-German and Dutch painting were opened; in 1925 – dedicated to the art of Italy, Flanders and France. The renovation of the halls will take place for the first time since 2021, when the re-exposition was a forced and temporary decision related to the holding of two large-scale exhibition projects: “There are strange convergences…” (2021–2022) by the French curator Jean-Hubert Martin and “Brother Ivan. Collections of Mikhail and Ivan Morozov" (2022). Their exhibitions are located in the halls of the second floor, where the art of France from the 17th – first third of the 19th centuries and Italy from the 17th – 18th centuries from the museum’s collection was previously displayed. The exhibition projects themselves included exhibits from these halls. In order not to completely and permanently deprive the public of the opportunity to see the works of Italian and French artists, it was decided to exhibit some of them in the halls of the first floor, reorganizing for this purpose the exhibition of works by old masters, implemented in 2006 in connection with the “moving” of paintings by the Barbizonists, Impressionists and post-impressionists in the building of the Gallery of Art of Europe and America of the 19th – 20th centuries. At the same time, the 2021 project was considered temporary from the very beginning, and a new re-exposition was planned for 2024, which the museum began implementing in March.

This time the museum strives to present its collections more fully. It is planned to almost double the number of works presented, complementing the painting with monuments of sculpture and applied art, of which there are very few in the halls now.

The project for the re-exposition of rooms 17 and 18, dedicated to Italian art of the 17th – 18th centuries, was prepared and carried out by the curator of these works, Doctor of Art History, chief researcher of the department of art of old masters Victoria Emmanuilovna Markova. The altar composition “The Appearance of an Angel to Saint Joseph” by Giovanni Baglione, acquired by the museum in 2014, was returned to the halls from storage; a large allegorical work by Luca Giordano, “Love and Vices Disarm Justice”; canvases by Bernardo Bellotto belonging to the vedata genre. Among the works that have not been presented before, “Landscape with Monks and Hermits” by Alessandro Magnasco and Antonio Francesco Peruzzini, donated to the museum by Baron Thyssen, also stands out. For the first time after restoration, Domenico Fetti’s painting “David with the Head of Goliath” is on display. In addition, the updated exhibition includes busts by Giovanni Battista Foggini and a console table created by Roman craftsmen in the mid-18th century.

A permanent exhibition of French art from the 17th century to the first third of the 19th century will open on April 15 in rooms 21, 22 and 23, curated by Anna Sulimova, head of the old masters department. The number of works here will be double that currently presented in room 8. An important role will be given to sculpture: a bust of Voltaire by Jean-Antoine Houdon and a terracotta portrait of Pierre Corneille by Jean-Jacques Caffieri will return to the halls. Objects of decorative and applied art will also be presented, especially the Rococo room will be filled with them: in addition to paintings, there will be a tapestry of the famous Royal Tapestry Manufactory, candelabra, furniture and a mantel clock with the figure of a rhinoceros, conveying the refined atmosphere of the Gallant Age. Instead of displaying individual works, the curators of the re-exposition follow the principle of ensemble: in this way, each room will find its own “face”.

For the first time after a complex restoration, the work of the most famous French master of the 17th century, Nicolas Poussin, “The Satyr and the Nymph,” will appear before the public. The updated exhibition will also include a painting that had been in storage for many years and was attributed to Anna Sulimova: a portrait of a man by an “unknown master” was painted by Jacent Rigaud, a renowned portrait painter of the French kings Louis XIV and Louis XV.

The overall design solution for the 2024 reexposition belongs to Anna Aleksandrovna Kamenskikh, who heads the exhibition organization service at the museum. The halls of the permanent exhibition now have a high plinth on which labels for works with detailed annotations are placed. In the halls of the second floor, modules designed to display one work have been replaced by exhibition boards designed in 2006 by Sergei Choban and his bureau. Such boards correspond better with the architecture of the halls and make it possible to simultaneously exhibit paintings of different formats, replacing them if necessary when a particular work is on a temporary exhibition or under study in a restoration workshop.

The new exhibition of paintings by old masters will become more holistic and convenient for all visitors, including excursion groups and art students. The renovation will also have a positive impact on the accessibility of the museum. Reducing the number of modular structures in the halls will make visiting it more comfortable for people in wheelchairs. The permanent exhibition will feature tactile replicas of painting masterpieces. Blurred light will not disturb visitors with a low sensory threshold.