The Princes Baryatinsky:
Art for Their Heirs

The A.S. Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts presents the exhibition "The Princes Baryatinsky. Art for Their Heirs," which continues a 25-year tradition of projects about prominent dynasties of collectors. The Pushkin Museum introduces visitors to another name in the history of Russian culture and collecting — the princes Baryatinsky, whose legacy remained unknown to the general public for many years. The research project, which took over 15 years to prepare, has yielded dozens of discoveries, tracing the history of a single family collection and the development of Russian estate culture over two centuries.

The exhibition "The Princes Baryatinsky. Art for the Heirs" is a joint project of the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, the A.A. Deineka Kursk State Art Gallery, the Kursk Regional Museum of Local History, and its branch, the Rylsk Museum of Local History.

The 18th and 19th centuries are considered the heyday of Russian culture. "Nests of the Noble" became a true phenomenon in Russian life, centers of attraction for the intellectual elite, shaping the cultural environment and everyday philosophy of the era. The collection of the princely Baryatinsky family is an example of a collection where art played a vital role not only in creating the atmosphere of the palace estate but also in shaping the spiritual environment and educating future generations of the family.

The diversity and breadth of its sections distinguished this collection, which once contained over 400 paintings, over 19,000 graphic works, dozens of marble sculptures, numerous bronze and porcelain objects, and tens of thousands of books. The Pushkin Museum exhibition recreates the bulk of the Baryatinsky family collection as a holistic and unique monument to the era.

Lyubov Savinskaya, PhD in Art History and leading researcher in the Old Masters Art Department at the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, said: “The exhibition is the result of the work of a large team of curators and restorers. The project brought together researchers from Moscow and regional museums. It continues the exhibition series dedicated to collectors who made significant contributions to the museum’s collection and rediscovers a major aristocratic collection in Russia. The exhibition catalog will include scholarly articles on all the significant finds and will serve as a culmination of the study of the collection and a basis for further research. Many works will be published for the first time.”

Marina Tarasova, PhD in Art History and Deputy Director for Research at the A.A. Deineka Kursk Art Gallery, said, "This exhibition offers the opportunity to bring together for the first time items from the Baryatinskys’ once-extensive art collection, now scattered among numerous museums, which is in itself extremely interesting. The Baryatinskys’ vast estates were located far from the capitals, but it was here that a palace was built, which, according to I.I. Baryatinsky’s vision, was to become a place for an idyllic and harmonious family existence. The Kursk estate was established as a "family nest," a self-sufficient world where the heirs — descendants of the Rurik dynasty and several of the most noble European houses — would have everything necessary for an education and development, to continue their education on the Grand Tour, and then to serve their country. The Baryatinskys’ art collection reflects a kind of "small history" of the family, which is intimately intertwined with the history of Russia and several European countries."

The fate of the Baryatinsky dynasty and their collection is inextricably linked to the major events of Russian history for nearly a century and a half. Ekaterina Petrovna Baryatinskaya began collecting works of art at the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries, when the formation of art collections in Russia was a matter of state responsibility. This is a rare example of female collecting, undoubtedly inspired by the activities of her contemporary, Catherine II.

The collecting tradition continued through subsequent generations of the family, not only developing the art collection itself but also strengthening the family’s sense of unity. The Baryatinsky collection reflects the transition of entire eras in art — from strict classicism to mid-19th-century realism.

The collection’s fate is dramatic: the works, housed at the Baryatinsky family’s Kursk estate, Maryino, a veritable "Kursk Versailles" with its landscaped park and picturesque ponds, found themselves at the center of the tragic historical events of the early 20th century. During the revolutionary years, the State Museum Fund and the Rumyantsev Museum sent a scientific expedition to the estate to save the nationalized collection: part of the Baryatinsky collection was taken to Moscow. The works were later scattered among museums across the country.

The Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts will bring together items from this collection for the first time. The exhibition will feature over 200 works from 25 Russian museums, including paintings, graphic works, sculptures, miniatures, porcelain, archival documents, daguerreotypes, and photographs. Among them are engravings by Albrecht Dürer, Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn, and Giovanni Battista Piranesi; drawings by Giacomo Quarenghi, Caspar David Friedrich, and Franz Krüger; paintings by Simon Vouet, Luca Giordano, François Deportes, Angelica Kauffman, and Antonio Bruni; and landscapes by Fyodor Alexeyev and Ivan Aivazovsky. Eight paintings (including works by Antonio Bruni, Alexandre François Deportes, and Robert Lefèvre) and a second-century Roman sarcophagus have been specially restored for display at the exhibition. Many works, which have been kept in regional museums for decades, will be presented to the public together for the first time.

A scholarly catalogue is being prepared for the exhibition, which will be the first publication of the Baryatinsky princes’ collection in such a comprehensive format. The project will also include extensive educational and children’s programs, allowing visitors to appreciate the estate culture as a phenomenon in all its diversity.

Participants of the exhibition "Collections of Russia. The Baryatinskys": The Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, The State Historical Museum, The State Hermitage Museum, The Russian State Library, The State Tretyakov Gallery, The Shchusev State Museum of Architecture, The Voronezh Regional Art Museum named after I.N. Kramskoy, The All-Russian A.S. Pushkin Museum, The Yekaterinburg Museum of Fine Arts, The Ivanovo Regional Art Museum, The State Museum of Fine Arts of the Republic of Tatarstan, The Dagestan Museum of Fine Arts named after P.S. Gamzatova, The National Museum of the Republic of Dagestan named after A. Takho-Godi, The Nizhny Novgorod State Art Museum, The New Jerusalem State Historical and Art Museum, The Pavlovsk State Museum-Reserve, The Samara Regional Art Museum, The Saratov State Art Museum named after A.N. Radishchev, Bashkir State Art Museum, Volgograd Museum of Fine Arts named after I.I. Mashkov, State Palace and Park Museum-Reserve "Ostankino and Kuskovo", Chelyabinsk State Museum of Fine Arts

The A.S. Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts is a museum complex housing one of the largest collections of international art in Russia. The museum’s holdings comprise approximately 700,000 works by masters of various eras — from Ancient Egypt and Classical Greece to the present day. The museum’s Main Building displays iconic works of world art, including paintings by Rembrandt, Rubens, Botticelli, Canaletto, Poussin, Northern Renaissance masters, and other prominent artists. Its world-renowned collection of 19th- and 20th-century French art, formed from the collections of philanthropists Sergei Shchukin and Ivan Morozov, includes masterpieces by Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Paul Cézanne, Paul Gauguin, Vincent van Gogh, Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, and others.