Russian Art of the First Half of the XIX Century

The display shows masterpieces representing the variety of trends in Russian art of the time (classicism, romantism, and beginning in the second third of the XIX century realism). The works by academic school masters are also widely represented: the canvases by Karl Brullov (the famous «The Last Days of Pompeii», religious compositions and portraits of the artist’s contemporaries), historical paintings by Grigory Ugryumov, Alexander Ivanov, Alexey Egorov, Fyodor Bruni.

The display highlights are landscapes by Sylvestr Schedrin, painted while his stay in Italy, as well as the works by Alexander Ivanov (the studies and the big sketch to the well-known canvas «Christ’s Appearance to the People», storied in the Tretyakov Gallery). The display also includes canvases by the most prominent romantism diadochos of Russian portraiture Orest Kiprensky, an outstanding marine artist Ivan Aivazovsky, leading genre painters Pavel Fedotov, Alexey Venetsianov and his students (Grigory Soroka, Alexey Tyranov etc). Moreover, the department shows the statues by significant sculptors of the epoch (Ivan Martos, Stepan Pimenov, Nikolai Pimenov, Vasily Demut-Malinovsky, Boris Orlovsky etc). White Hall, an independent part of the first half of the XIX century display, is the only interior of Mikhaiovsky Palace which has preserved its original design and interior objects made according to the sketches by architect Rossi.