Brother Ivan. Collections of Mikhail and Ivan Morozov

"Brother Ivan. Collections of Mikhail and Ivan Morozov” is the main project of the Pushkin Museum in 2022, continuing the story of the great dynasties of Moscow collectors, started by the exhibition “Shchukin. Biography of the collection" in 2019. The most complete and large-scale reconstruction of the famous collections will bring together masterpieces from different museums. The exposition will include works belonging to Ivan and Mikhail Morozov: 67 works from the Hermitage, 63 from the Tretyakov Gallery and 103 from the Pushkin Museum im. A. S. Pushkin. The exhibition will feature works by M. Denis, A. Sisley, C. Pissarro, P. O. Renoir, C. Monet, P. Signac, A. Maillol, P. Gauguin, A. Matisse, P. Picasso, V. Vasnetsov, K. Korovin, I. Levitan, M. Chagall, B. Kustodiev, V. Serov, S. Vinogradov, V. Surikov and other artists.

The exhibition will tell about two representatives of the extensive entrepreneurial Morozov clan, about two brothers - collectors of contemporary art: the eccentric experimenter Mikhail and the thoughtful and sophisticated connoisseur Ivan. The exposition reconstructs the collections of French and Russian paintings compiled by them at the turn of the century. The collection of Mikhail Morozov, who died untimely in 1903, is heterogeneous and eclectic, but nevertheless included the first works in Russia by Gauguin, van Gogh and Munch, and will become a prologue to the “ideal museum” of his younger brother. Ivan Morozov carefully and consistently selected the works of the great impressionists (Monet, Sisley, Renoir and others) and post-impressionists (van Gogh, Cezanne and Gauguin). He ordered monumental and decorative ensembles from the leading masters of his time - Denis, Bonnard and Matisse.

The proposed distribution of works among the halls reflects the main semantic centers of the collection of brother Ivan and the main stages of its history. The most important feature of this collection is the equal presence of French and Russian art in it: a reflection of the innovative view that was characteristic of the young generation of collectors at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. For the first time in a century, the works of French and Russian masters, which once constituted a single collection, will be shown together in Moscow.

Impressionism. Start. Shopping in the famous Parisian gallery of Paul Durand-Ruel became a starting point in the composition of the French part of the collection of Ivan Abramovich. And although Morozov is not the first Russian collector who paid attention to impressionism, only he showed this direction so thoroughly. In the first steps of Morozov the collector, undoubtedly, friendly relations with Russian artists played a role - Sergey Vinogradov, Valentin Serov and Konstantin Korovin, from whom Ivan Abramovich took lessons. Landscapes painted in restrained colors by Alfred Sisley and Camille Pissarro, which appeared in the Morozov house in 1903, looked more modest than the liberated and emotional paintings of the Moscow friends of the patron of the arts, and the collector saw the important for impressionism theme of fast fixation of the states of nature in the sketches of Isaac Levitan. The relentless focus on the legacy of Impressionism helped Morozov to transform from a modest collector into an independent collector-curator with a clearly defined approach. Manifesto works such as Monet’s Boulevard des Capucines or Renoir’s Portrait of the Actress Jeanne Samary became key to the collection.

Cezanne. alter ego. In less than ten years, the collector became the owner of 18 paintings by Cezanne, which made up one of the most significant ensembles in his home museum on Prechistenka. With regard to his beloved artist, Morozov acted as an art historian, deciding to present in the collection the entire range of Cezanne’s work - from the early "Scene in the Interior" to the "Blue Landscape" created in the final years of his life. For this picture, the collector, who sometimes waited several years for the desired canvas to appear on the market, specially kept free space on the wall.

Parisian salons. The role of an expert collector, connoisseur of new art required from Ivan Morozov a deep understanding of the contemporary artistic process. Salons became such a “school of taste” for him - large exhibitions held in Paris annually, in spring and autumn. The collector made the first Parisian purchase - a Louis Legrand pastel - in the spring of 1903 at the calm and restrained Salon of the National Society of Fine Arts. However, since 1904 he has been a regular visitor to the Autumn Salon, famous for its enlightened liberal jury and thoughtful retrospective exhibitions. And every March, Morozov plunged into the atmosphere of complete creative freedom at the Salon of Independents, which recognized neither the jury nor the prizes. In his collection, Morozov compared the works of the French with the works of Russian masters on similar topics.

Denis. Music salon. For the first time, Ivan Morozov bought the work of Maurice Denis in 1906 at the Salon des Indépendants, and soon visited the artist’s studio in Saint-Germain-en-Laye. By this time, he already had a reputation as a leading modern master of decorative ensembles. Morozov invited Denis to decorate the central room of his house, the Musical Salon, with monumental compositions. The master proposed the ancient myth of Psyche as the theme for the ensemble. On the recommendation of the artist, Morozov supplemented the order with “inserted” picturesque panels and ceramic vases by Denis himself and sculptures by Aristide Maillol: by 1912, the ensemble was completely formed. Three paintings by Denis, framing the entrance to the interior, became its original part: “Green Seashore”, “Bacchus and Ariadne” and “Polyphemus”. At the exhibition, the Musical Salon will be recreated in its original proportions.

Bonnard. Lobby Ensemble. The artists who made up the fraternity of the Nabis group in the 1890s turned out to be especially close to Morozov. In the late 1900s, the collector appreciated their talent for creating decorative ensembles inscribed in interiors, and one after another, the Musical Salon, designed by Maurice Denis, and the front staircase with panels by Pierre Bonnard appeared in his Moscow house.

For Bonnard, this commission began in 1910 with the execution of the triptych By the Mediterranean Sea. For both the painter and the prudent collector, the collaboration was bold: Bonnard had never before executed a panel of this size. The customer liked the result, and a new proposal soon followed: the collector asked Bonnard to decorate the side walls of the lobby with two more monumental compositions. Already in 1912, the panel “Early Spring in the Village” and “Autumn. Picking Fruits” were presented at the Autumn Salon. During the First World War, as photographs show, the collector supplemented the Bonnard panel with a sculpture by Sergei Konenkov, creating another synthetic ensemble that continued the line of the Denis and Mayol Musical Salon.

Bonnard. The perfect landscape. Morozov’s personal world, closed to outsiders, was impressed by the aesthetics of Bonnard’s intimism, as if hiding the outlines of people and objects in the rhythm of colorful spots. And the soft painting style, which created the master’s reputation as the "last impressionist", continued in the collection the line begun by the landscapes of Sisley, Pissarro and Monet. Slowly unfolding panoramic views such as “Summer. Dance”, “Summer in Normandy” or “Landscape in the Dauphine”, involuntarily remind of the temperament of the collector himself. The balanced and harmonious art of Bonnard became for Ivan Abramovich the key to understanding both the general principles of French art and the foundations of his dialogue with Russian art. Large melancholic landscapes were a favorite of Morozov, and works by Russian masters with similar motifs are especially numerous in his collection.

Van Gogh. Emotions and history. For Morozov, the artist’s work was the object of thoughtful research and the most important page in the history of new art. Morozov chose each of the five van Gogh works he owned with great care. The collector paid close attention to the complex semantic associations, as in Prisoners’ Walk, and the place of the picture in the master’s biography, as in the case of the Red Vineyards, created at the peak of the creative dialogue with Gauguin, or the Landscape at Auvers, which marks the last weeks of Vincent’s life.

Gauguin. Meditation and exoticism. In creating his collection of 11 paintings by the “French Tahitian” Paul Gauguin, Morozov inevitably followed Sergei Shchukin, tacitly competing with him. The "Morozov" Gauguins are distinguished by exquisite decorativeness, and the collector himself knew thoroughly about the role of each work in the creative path of the master. The allegory of farewell to the motherland - "Flowers of France", and the deceptive calmness of "Landscape with peacocks" or "Tahitian pastorals", and the multi-layered synthesis of world spiritual traditions - the painting "The Great Buddha" are filled with philosophical meditation. In the subtle interpretation of Morozov, the exoticism of Gauguin’s art intertwined with a new understanding of the role of non-European and folk cultures, consonant with the ethnographic and curatorial experiences of the early twentieth century. The collector saw intersections with the aesthetics of Gauguin in the ornaments and local colors of B.

Fauvism. Color and movement. Along with his peers Gertrude and Leo Stein, Ivan Morozov purposefully compiled one of the world’s first collections of the first "ism" of the 20th century - Fauvism. In 1906–1908, he actively bought works by A. Dören, M. Vlaminck, O. Friesz, C. Manguin, A. Marquet and, of course, A. Matisse. Fauvism became for Morozov a kind of "conclusion" from the methodical study of hundreds of paintings at the Parisian salons. The self-confident collector here was unexpectedly swift in purchases, often acquiring works even before the end of exhibiting at exhibitions. However, in this he remained true to his "art history" approach, along with fresh paintings, acquiring those that had already entered the short history of Fauvism, like Derain’s Drying the Sails.

"Open Final". The words of the critic A. Efros, who called Ivan Morozov "a corrected man", are especially true when looking at his collection of early avant-garde art. The collector did not seem to be trying to compete with the emotional and passionate Shchukin. He acquired the first Matisse painting in 1907, but serious interest in the artist’s work developed only by 1909, when Morozov ordered two still lifes from Matisse. One of them, "Fruit and Bronze", is not coincidentally close in composition to Shchukin’s "Statuette and Vases on an Oriental Carpet": in 1908, Ivan Abramovich noted for himself this painting, which already belonged to his Moscow counterpart. Having made up for lost time, Morozov seemed to consolidate his success by ordering his portrait from V. Serov against the background of this composition by the French master. And the "Moroccan Triptych" opened the Moscow public to the "other" Matisse - coldish, suspended. The dazzling sky of North Africa echoed in the Morozov collection with the tones of painting by P. Kuznetsov and M. Saryan.

The works of Picasso first appeared in the house on Prechistenka as if by stealth: in 1908, the collector apparently acquired the early work “Harlequin and his girlfriend” “on trial”, and the purchase of the ironic cubist “Portrait of Ambroise Vollard” is colored by Morozov’s personal attitude to such art dealer close to him. The painting "Girl on a ball" was a rare success: the masterpieces of the "pink period" were already highly valued at that time. Purchased in 1913 from the collection of Gertrude and Leo Stein, it became the last foreign work in Morozov’s collection. Cut off from Paris, during the First World War and the Revolution, the collector focused on acquiring works by local masters. Among them were those whose fame would come to Paris in the 1920s, for example, M. Chagall.

The publication of the complete catalog of the collections of the Morozov brothers is timed to coincide with the opening of the exhibition. The author of the book, Doctor of Arts Natalia Semyonova, as a result of many years of research work, managed to restore the chronology of the addition of famous collections and reconstruct their composition. The book contains over 1000 color illustrations, as well as rare archival documents and photographs.

The general sponsor of the exhibition is VTB

Exhibition “Brother Ivan. Collections of Mikhail and Ivan Morozov” marks the continuation of close cooperation between Russia and France and such major museums as the Louis Vuitton Foundation (Fondation Louis Vuitton), the State Hermitage Museum, the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts and the State Tretyakov Gallery. The collections of the brothers Ivan and Mikhail Morozov were shown with great success in 2019 at the Hermitage (“The Morozov Brothers. Great Russian Collectors”, June 20-October 6, 2019) and at the recently completed exhibition at the Fondation Louis Vuitton (“The Morozov Collection. Masterpieces of New Art ”, September 22, 2021 – April 3, 2022). The Moscow show will differ from the exposition in Paris not only in concept, but also in the composition of the works. The exhibition at the Pushkin Museum will feature works by not shown in France - about 30 works of Russian art and 10 works by French artists. Among them is the world-famous painting “Red Vineyards in Arles. Montmajour”, as well as “Landscape at Auvers after the Rain (Landscape with Carriage and Train)” by Vincent van Gogh, reunited pair works by Maurice Denis “Polyphemus” (The Pushkin Museum) and “Bacchus and Ariadne” (Hermitage Museum).

Inclusive program for the exhibition “Brother Ivan. Collections of Mikhail and Ivan Morozov”

As part of the inclusive program for the exhibition, visitors will be shown the spirits of the times of the Morozov brothers, Ambroise Vollard and Jeanne Samary. Reconstruction of historical fragrances for olfactory accompaniment of the exposition commissioned by the Pushkin Museum im. AS Pushkin will be created by researcher and collector Galina Anni. In addition, the exposition will include tactile reliefs, and inclusive tours will contain elements of body-oriented mediation. Author’s tours in Russian sign language around the exhibition will be conducted by deaf guides of the Gesture in the Museum association Svetlana Bobkova and Anna Degtyareva. Another documentary film in sign language from the Great Collectors series will be shot especially for the exhibition. Prior to this, the films "Sergey Schukin" and "Svyatoslav Richter" had already been released in the series.

The Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts is a museum complex that has one of the largest art collections in Russia of foreign art from ancient times to the present day. The museum has in its fund about 700,000 original works created by masters of different eras, from ancient Egypt and ancient Greece to the present day. In the main building of the museum you can see the iconic works of world art - works by Rembrandt, Rubens, Botticelli, Canaletto, Poussin, masters of the Northern Renaissance and other outstanding artists. Particularly famous is the museum’s collection of French art of the 19th-20th centuries, which was based on the collections of patrons Sergei Shchukin and Ivan Morozov. Represented by iconic works by Claude Monet, Pierre Auguste Renoir, Paul Cezanne, Paul Gauguin, Vincent van Gogh, Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso and other masters, this collection is one of the most famous in the world. The funds of the museum continue to be actively replenished at the present time. Since 2018, the Pushkin Museum im. A. S. Pushkin, within the framework of the “Pushkin XXI” direction, began to form the first collection of media art in Russia.

VTB Bank (PJSC)

VTB Bank (PJSC), its subsidiaries and financial institutions (VTB Group) is an international financial group providing a wide range of financial and banking services.

VTB Bank began cooperation with the Pushkin Museum im. A. S. Pushkin in 2005. During this period, many joint projects were implemented: in particular, the exhibitions “Meeting with Modigliani”, “British Design: From William Morris to the Digital Revolution”, “Cranachs. Between the Renaissance and Mannerism”, “Venice of the Renaissance. Titian. Tintoretto. Veronese. From the collections of Italy and Russia”, “Chaim Soutine. Retrospective" and others. In 2018, VTB Bank became the general sponsor of the Pushkin Museum. A. S. Pushkin; at the same time he supported the large-scale exhibition project Picasso & Khokhlova. In 2019, with his support, the exhibitions “Guests from Naples. Artemisia Gentileschi and contemporaries. From the Museum and Royal Park of Capodimonte and the Pushkin Museum im. A. S. Pushkin” and “Francis Bacon, Lucian Freud and the London School”. In 2020, the bank became the general sponsor of the exhibition “From Dürer to Matisse. Selected drawings from the collection of the Pushkin Museum im. A. S. Pushkin”, in 2021, with the support of VTB, the exhibition “Bill Viola. Journey of the Soul”, and in 2022 – the project “Mummies of Ancient Egypt. The Art of Immortality.