The All-Russian Museum of Decorative, Applied and Folk Art presents an exhibition called ‘the Treasures of the Russian Style’.
Abramtsevo estate became popular thanks to its celebrated owners such as S.T. Aksakov and S.I Mamontov who was a philanthropist and a renowned figure in artistic and theatrical circles. S.I Mamontov was one of the first to have drawn attention of the artistic world to the individuality of Russian national culture.
During Aksakov’s time the estate was the home for such writers as Gogol, Turgeniev and Zagoskin, actor Shepkin, historian Pogodin, poet and philosopher Khomyakov and other renowned figures the Russian creative elite. When the estate belonged to S.I Mamontov Repin, Polenov, Antokolskiy, Vasnetsovs, Servo, Vrubel, Surikov, Korovin, Nesterov, Shalyapin and other famous artists and actors used to work here. Later on the Abramtsevo Artistic Circle was founded in Abramtsevo estate.
Abramtsevo estate as a center of artistic and social life is important because it has to do with the idea of the Russian Style which was very popular with the Russian elite of fin-de-siècle. A new interpretation of the Russian Style inspired the interest to age-old forms, ornaments, stories, the insight of how Old Russian art patterns are created.
For the first time Russian Style works were presented internationally in 1900 at the Exposition Universelle of 1900 in Paris and recognized immediately by European elite. Later on Russian philanthropists organized a number of national exhibitions all over Europe that were immensely successful and whose exhibits were sold out thereafter very quickly. The exhibition consists of several sections each of which reflects a particular area of activity of the Abramtsevo circle and put together they represent the whole picture of diversities of the Russian style. The main attraction of the exhibition is the Holy Doors of the Abramtsevo carpenter's workshop displayed for the first time in one hundred years after the Exhibition of Russian Handicrafts that took place in Saint Petersburg in 1913. It is an exact replica of the famous Holy Doors of the 15th century from the Church of Nikola at Ishna near Rostov Velikiy. Due to the efforts of art conservators of the museum the Holy Doors were restored in 2013 and now are available for exhibition again.
In the main section of the exhibition there are pieces of furniture made by E.D. Polenova, N.Y. Davydova, A.M. Vasnetsov during the period from 1880’s to 1920’s. This section also includes woodcarvings of E.D. Polenova and A.S. Mamontov. The ecclesiastical theme is also presented in watercolor works and sketches of the decoration of the church at Abramtsevo estate made by V.D. Polenov, V.M. Vasnetsov. Architectural section of the exhibition displays layouts of some buildings of Abramtsevo estate and a mock-up model of a ‘hut on chicken legs’ made by V.M. Vasnetsov. The porcelain section of the exhibition is worthy of special attention. Here visitors can see excellent porcelain works of Russian Modern made by M.A. Vrubel and N.Y. Golovin.
In general there will be more than 100 works of prominent Russian artists and craftsmen on display during the exhibition.
