Africa in Russian Art

This exhibition introduces visitors to a selection of the Russian Museum’s small but interesting and diverse collection of works by Russian artists of the 19th and 20th centuries dedicated to and inspired by Africa.

Most of the works on exhibit are watercolours and painted studies made by artists during their travels. The featured artworks include “Egyptian” watercolours by the brothers Nikanor (1805–1879) and Grigory (1802–1865) Chernetsov, pieces by Prince Grigory Gagarin (1810–1893), watercolours and studies by Konstantin (1839–1915) and Nikolai (1841–1886) Makovsky, and the famous painting Handing Over of the Sacred Carpet in Cairo (1876) by Konstantin Makovsky, one of the most vibrant examples of Orientalism in Russian art of the 1870s. At the turn of the 20th century, the areas of the map explored by Russian artists broadened to include Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia in addition to Egypt. Among the artists who made the trip to these exotic locales were Jan Ciągliński (1858–1912), Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin (1878–1939), and Zinaida Serebryakova (1884–1967), whose works on this theme can be seen at the exhibition. The unique 1902 series of portraits by Stepan Alexandrovsky of the participants in the first Moroccan Embassy to Russia will be shown for the first time ever. The paintings and drawings are complemented by a few Soviet sculptural works of the 1920s–1970s.

General partner of the exhibition – PJSC Sberbank.