colors were exhibited at the Royal Academy when he was only 15. At 18 he
started his own studio and received a commission to make drawings for
magazines. For some years he tramped over Wales and Western England. As
Turner never married, he devoted his life to art. Visitors were rarely
admitted to his house and no one was aloud to see him at work. He loved his
paintings as a man loves his children. At the age of 27 he was elected as
a Royal Academician. From that time his paintings became at great demand
and brought good money. The last years of his life he spent in a little
cottage at Chelsea.
He liked to watch the sunrise and sunset. And it is said, that only a
hour before his death he had his chair wheeled to the window, so that he
might look for the last time at the sun, shining upon the river.
During his life Turner created some hundreds of paintings and some
thousands of water-colors and drawings. After his death his own entire
collection of paintings and drawings was willed to the nation. They are
exhibited at the National and Tate Galleries in London. Some of his famous
pictures are: “The Fighting Temeraire”, “Rain, Steam and Speed”, “Light and
Color”, “Fisherman at Sea” and others.
William Turner dedicated most of his paintings to the sea. He was a
sailor and the sea in itself absorbed him. He gave to his seas mass and
wave as well as movement. His waves seem to be alive.
“Calais Pier” is one of his greatest creations. The picture of a storm
in it is real and impressive. In the center of the picture there is a boat
with people in it. All the figures are living individuals. The farther
objects in the picture failed in the darkness, attracting our attention to
the people in the boat. Those who look at the picture can smell the water
and hear the shout of the wind. Color as well as tone in William Turners
pictures produces the effect of sunlight.
The name of William Turner is famous above all other landscape painters.
So if portrait painting is one of the glories of English art, landscape
is another: in both directions it rose to supreme highs.
Russian painting
The Tretyakov Gallery
The state Tretyakov Gallery is one of the best-known art galleries in
Russia. Different genres of painting are exhibited there. It takes its name
from its founder Pavel Tretyakov, a Moscow merchant and connoisseur. In the
middle of the XIX th century Pavel Tretyakov began to collect Russian
paintings. A man of high culture and fine aesthetic taste, he selected the
most significant and characteristic works of the Russian school of
painting. He dedicated 40 years of his life to his main calling: the
establishment of a National Art Museum. Many works of “Peredvizhniki” are
exhibited in this gallery. Tretyakov started by collecting contemporary
paintings, but soon he extended the boundaries of his collection. Art of
the XIX th century, works of Brulov, Ivanov, Vasnetsov; works of Art of the
XVIII th century and ancient Russian art - all gradually found their way
into Tretyakov`s collection. More than once he had to add wings to his
house in the Lavrushinskiy pereulok. In 1881 he opened his collection to
the public. In 1892 he denoted his collection to the city of Moscow. Since
then, the gallery had received hundreds of pictures from other museums and
private collections. It has a rich collection of old Russian icons. The
world famous icon, "The Trinity”, painted in the early XV th century by
Andrey Rubliov is exhibited there. The gallery contains halls, devoted to
the magnificent works of such XVIII th century celebrities, as Rokotov,
Levitskiy, Borovitskiy, Shchedrin. The first half of the XIX th century is
represented by brilliant works of Brulov, Ivanov, Tropinin, Venitsianov.
The second half is especially well represented. The gallery has the best
collection of the “Peredvizhniki”, such as Kramskoy, Perov, Yaroshenko,
Myasoedov and others. Linked with “Peredvizhniki” are such great names, as
Surikov, Repin, Vereshagin, Vasnetsov, Levitan. Here you can see historical
painting, portraits, stylists, landscapes, seascapes and others. Nowadays
the gallery is an important source for studding and promotion of Russian
Art.
The Hermitage
The Hermitage in St.-Petersburg is one of the most famous museums in the
world. The museum's foundation dates to 1764, when Katherine the Great
received 225 west - European paintings as a dept from Berlin merchant
Yoghant Ernst Gatskovskiy. First the museum was intended to be a place of
solitude, resembling the park pavilions, which were called at that time
“Hermitages”. It consisted of two pavilions - Southern and Northern and a
garden, suspended between them. Walls in the Northern pavilion were hung
with pictures. Later the whole collection of paintings and antiquities got
its name.
The museum grew rapidly throw out the XVIII th century and soon became
one of the greatest art galleries. At the start of the XIX th century it
was reorganized into special departments and the school of restoration was
added.
Today the Hermitage collection consists of some 3 million pieces which
are exhibited in 353 rooms, occupying 5 buildings: The Winter Palace, Small
Hermitage, Large (Old) Hermitage, New Hermitage and Hermitage Theatre. All
of them can be seen from the Neva river. The museums six departments boast
works of art and culture, dating from ancient times to the present day.
The department of Pre-historic culture has one of the richest
collections of ancient archeological funds.
The department of classical antiquity contains a unique collection of
Greek and Roman sculpture, painted antique vases, cut jams and jewelry.
The department of East houses exhibits from ancient civilizations of
Egypt, Asia, Turkey, Mongolia, China and Japan.
The department of Russian culture preserves and exhibits materials,
dating from early Slavic times to the second half of the XIX th century.
Here you can see old Russian icons, portraits, water-colors, pencil
drawings, objects of applied art - porcelain, glass, stone, metal jewelry,
costumes, carpets and tapestries.
The department of numismatics owns a collection of over 1 million coins,
orders, medals from different countries and times of which any world museum
would be proud.
The most famous of all the Hermitage departments is the department of
West-European art, comprising a picture gallery and a collection of
sculpture and decorative art. They date from the medieval era to the
present day, including canvases of the foremost artists of Italy, Spain,
Holland, France, Germany, England as well as sculptures, pencil-drawings,
works of applied art.
The Perm State Art Gallery
The Perm State Art Gallery is one of the oldest Art museums in the
country. Its history began long before the revolution. The special art
department attached to the Perm Scientific Industrial Museum was created in
1902 and the first exhibits were received by the museum. The Art Academy
presented paintings and 24 engravings from the pictures by Repin, Brulov
and Vasnetsov.
In 1907 the gallery were given pictures and landscapes by Vereshagin.
The exhibition was organized in 1907 and many works from Perm,
Ekaterinburgh and Vyatka were left at the gallery.
After the revolution of 1917 the Scientific Industrial Museum undertook
a serious and hard work in saving art values. As a result of this work in
1920 the second exhibition was held in Perm. Visitors could observe works
of Aivazovskiy, Vasnetsov, Korovin-Nesterov and other famous masters. Later
the gallery was extended by exceptional examples of wooden sculpture. It
also got the pictures of the famous Russian painters of the XVII th - XIX
th centuries. In such a way the gallery was enriched.
In 1927 the Art Museum was named The Perm Gallery. In 1932 it possessed
so many exhibits that had to move to a former cathedral, a unique monument
of Russian classicism. In 1945 the gallery got the name of the Perm State
Art Gallery.
Not many Art galleries of the country can match the collection of the
Perm State Art Gallery in variety and artistic worth. Our gallery ranks
with such treasuries as the Hermitage, the Tretyakov Art Gallery and the
Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts.
Now the gallery possesses more than 36000 exhibits, including Russian,
Soviet and West-European paintings, sculpture, works of the decorative Art
and numismatics.
The Old Wooden Sculpture of Perm represents an original sphere of the
XVII th - XIX th centuries Russian sculpture. It was inspired by old
Russian Traditions and the Perm local style of wood carving. Wooden
Sculpture of Perm is produced in the technique of sculptural relief and is
regarded as “carved icons”. The sculptures are marked by a powerful
spiritual potention and produce a great emotional effect.
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