Exhibition "Antoine Watteau." Landscape with a Waterfall "

October 5, 2017 at 12:00 in the Kaluga Museum of Fine Arts (ul. Lenina, 104, the main exhibition) will open the exhibition "Antoine Watteau. "Landscape with a waterfall." From the collection of the State Hermitage. ” This is the second exhibition organized in the framework of the Agreement on Cooperation between the Kaluga Region and the State Hermitage Museum concluded in 2015.

The exposition of the Hermitage exhibition acquaints Kaluga residents and guests of the city with the work of the outstanding French painter of the 18th century Antoine Watteau (1684 - 1721), who paved the way for both the masters of the Rococo court style and the brilliant galaxy of realist artists with his complex, multifaceted art. Despite the fact that the main creative period of Watteau covers only 10-12 years, he managed to create many masterpieces that are now in the most famous museums in the world - the State Hermitage Museum, the Louvre, the Dresden Gallery, the London National Gallery, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, the National Museum of Sweden and others.

At the exhibition in the Kaluga Museum of Fine Arts, one of Antoine Watteau’s most interesting works, “Landscape with a Waterfall” (c. 1715, oil on canvas. 72x106), is in the collection of the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg. The painting belongs to the mature style of the master and is a very rare example of his landscape works. Filled with soft lyricism and a bright poetic feeling, she is unusually beautiful and harmonious. The artist masterfully conveys silence prevailing in nature, broken only by the shepherd’s pipe and river rifts of the waterfall. The landscape was painted in a free, quick manner, giving the whole image a lively nervous trepidation and sophistication.

In addition to great artistic value, the work of Antoine Watteau “Landscape with a Waterfall” is of great interest from the point of view of the history of its existence. It is known that at the end of the 18th century, the painting was brought to Russia by Count A.P. Shuvalov and until 1882 was in the Shuvalovs’ collection in St. Petersburg, inheriting from father to son. In 1882, the daughter of the aide-adjutant A.P. Shuvalov, Maria Alekseevna Shuvalova, married Nikolai Ivanovich Bulychov and received a painting as part of a dowry. Soon the young moved to Kaluga, where for 35 years the landscape of Watteau was in the Bulychevs’ house. In 1919, after the death of N. I. Bulychov, by the way, the last leader of the nobility of the Kaluga province, the work of Watteau was transferred to the art museum. In 1930, "Landscape with a Waterfall" was taken for examination to the Leningrad antiques, and then in 1931 it was transferred to the Hermitage collection.

The next 2018 is a special, anniversary year for the Kaluga Museum of Fine Arts. Exhibition “Antoine Watteau. "Landscape with a waterfall." From the collection of the State Hermitage ”opens a series of ceremonial events dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the museum. This wonderful exhibition, kindly provided by the Hermitage Directorate, is for all of us, of course, a bright, significant event.

For visitors, the exhibition will run from October 5, 2017 to February 4, 2018.

A special program, Hermitage Days, has been prepared for the exhibition.

The exhibition will offer excursion services for audiences of different ages, thematic classes for children.

Museum opening hours: daily from 10:00 to 18:00, except Mondays, Saturdays from 11:00 to 19:00. The last Friday of the month is a sanitary day.