Viktor Vasnetsov. 175th Anniversary of the Artist’s Birth

Viktor Vasnetsov. 175th Anniversary of the Artist’s Birth is the first retrospective anniversary exhibition over 30 years that will open in the Benois Wing of the State Russian Museum in December 2024.

It features Vasnetsov’s prominent epic and fabulous paintings including Alyonushka (1881, State Tretyakov Gallery), Tsarevich Ivan on a Grey Wolf (1889, State Tretyakov Gallery), Flying Carpet (1880, Nizhny Novgorod State Art Museum), Knight at the Crossroads (1882, State Russian Museum), Battle Between the Scythians and the Slavs (1881, State Russian Museum) and others. The public will be able to see Frog Princess, one of the best paintings from the Poem of Seven Fairy Tales series (1918, Viktor Vasnetsov House Museum) for the first time ever.

The exhibition brings together about 120 Vasnetsov’s works from the collections of the leading Russian museums, including the State Russian Museum, the State Tretyakov Gallery, the Viktor Vasnetsov House Museum, the Viktor and Apollinary Vasnetsov Art Museum of Vyatka, the Nizhny Novgorod State Art Museum, the Abramtsevo State History, Art and Literary Museum and Reserve, the Vasily Polenov Fine Arts Museum and National Park, the State Museum of the History of Religion, etc.

Great importance is given to the artist’s authentic monumental paintings on religious themes, created for the decoration of St Volodymyr’s Cathedral in Kyiv, the Church of the Saviour on the Spilled Blood in St Petersburg, St Alexander Nevsky Cathedral in Sofia, etc. Selected so-called Parisian works, landscapes from nature, and portraits, made in the mature period of Vasnetsov’s oeuvre, complement the exhibited paintings. No less significant are his graphic works brilliant in their execution manner, some of which are presented to the visitors for the first time ever.

Apart from being a gifted painter, Viktor Vasnetsov was great at designing buildings and furniture, and creating objects of decorative and applied arts and costumes. The new comprehensive exhibition shows these talents of the master as well.

Age restriction: 6+

Prime Sponsor of the exhibition: LUKOIL.