National Art Museum of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia)

Sakha Republic
Kirova str., 9, Yakutsk
Phones: +7(4112)33-52-79
Web site: http://www.sakhamuseum.ru/

Its rich collection crystallizes the social experience of many generations of Yakut People who cultivated the image of the northern region in the difficult historical conditions of strengthening the Russian statehood. The museum fund includes all types and genres of fine art, works of foreign, Russian, and Russian masters of the XVI-XX centuries, a wide panorama of the art of Yakutia of the XVIII - early XXI centuries.

The basis of the museum's collection is 27 paintings from the funds of the State Tretyakov Gallery, donated to the republic back in 1928. This small collection represented a selection of typical examples of Russian painting of the second half of the XIX – early XX century. Among the paintings are a small landscape "Late Autumn" by I. I. Levitan with his brother's autograph, confirming the author's ownership of the brush of the famous artist; sketches by V. D. Polenov from the Palestinian series; widely and freely painted still life "Bouquet" (1908) by K. A. Korovin, which reflects the characteristic features of "Russian impressionism" and two portraits-attractive female images - "The Lady in Black" (1864) by K. E. Makovsky and " Portrait of Elena (?) Snegirevoy" (1897) by V. E. Makovsky, originating from the Tsvetkov Gallery. These works, by their pictorial merits and by the meaning of the names presented, initially set a qualitative level, which largely determined the ways of further formation of the collection.

The collection is based on the proceeds from the storerooms of other museums. In 1954-1955, a small but interesting collection of small bronze and bone plastics, porcelain, objects with cloisonne enamel, paintings on scrolls by masters of Japan, China, Tibet and Mongolia of the XVII-XX centuries was transferred from the funds of the Museum of Oriental Art. Among these items, the Japanese folk miniature sculpture – the famous netsuke, as well as openwork Chinese carvings-is of undoubted interest. The section of Oriental art continues to be replenished due to the gifts and acquisitions of the museum.

A bright page in the history of the museum business in the republic was the free transfer in 1962 of more than 250 works of Western European art of the XVI-XIX centuries from the family collection of the famous Yakut scientist, Doctor of Economics, Professor Mikhail Fedorovich Gabyshev (1902-1958). The gift includes Italian masters-Niccolo Renieri (c. 1590-1667), Giovanni Battista Pittoni (1687-1767), Dutch artists - Alexander Adriansen (1587-1661), Frederico de Moucheron (1633-1686), excellent portraits of an unknown Flemish master of the first quarter of the XVII century. Based on the paintings from the collection of M. F. Gabyshev in 1970, in the former building of the Yakut county Treasury, built in 1909, a branch was opened – the "Museum of Western European Art", transformed in 1995 into the "Gallery of Foreign Art named after Professor M. F. Gabyshev".

The collection of Russian art, which marked the beginning of the Yakut Art Museum, continued to grow in the following years. Painting complement prints, drawings, watercolors artists of the EIGHTEENTH and NINETEENTH centuries Ukhtomsky, A. G., M. I. Makhaev, N. G.Chernetsov, I. N. Kramskoy, I. Repin, V. Serov, and many others, decorative arts - porcelain Russian Imperial porcelain factory, and the famous Russian factories F. Gardner, A. Popov, M. S. Kuznetsova, sculpture P. K. Klodt and E. Lansere, as well as items made of silver with gilding and blackening.

From the very beginning of the museum's history, the second largest department of art of the twentieth century began to develop. It presents the works of P. P. Konchalovsky, A. M. Korin, G. G. Ryazhsky, A. P. Ostroumova-Lebedeva, V. A. Favorsky, A. T. Matveev. The collection was replenished every decade with new exhibits that reflected the artistic processes that took place in the country. So, in the late 1980s and early 1990s, a number of interesting works by artists of the 1920s and 1930s, V. P. Belyaev, S. A. Luchishkin, D. I. Mitrokhin, and modern masters G. M. Korzhev, P. P. Ossovsky, T. G. Nazarenko, N. I. Nesterova, O. K. Komov, V. H. Dumanyan, were received.

The Russian art section includes a collection of folk art – Russian crafts - Kholmogorskaya bone, Dymkovskaya and Filimonovskaya toys, Arkhangelsk woodchip birds, lacquer miniatures, silk paintings, porcelain, etc. Jewelry art is represented by a variety of techniques and materials: products made of non-ferrous metals, silver, stone, enamel.

The most important part of the museum collection is the art of Yakutia, the collection of which is characterized by completeness and chronological harmony. The ways of development of the Yakut professional fine art are complex and dynamic, it reflects the philosophical and aesthetic ideas of the Sakha people, the commonality of artistic tasks and searches that arose before the first generation of artists who sought to create their own national art school. Among the founders Yakut fine art folk artists of Yakutia: I. V. Popov (1874-1945), whose work was the first experience of visual culture and development of traditions of the Russian art Yakut earth; M. Nosov (1887-1960), whose works are distinguished by the interest in folk stories and material culture of the Sakha people; P. P. Romanov (1902-1952), whose name is related to the professional development of the Union of artists of Yakutia and the establishment of the Museum.

The Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) is the largest land in the Russian Federation, rich in various natural resources, and one of the most important economic subjects of Russia. The peoples of Yakutia managed not only to live in the cold land, but also to create a unique culture in extreme climatic conditions, with its inherent supersensible form of artistic awareness of the world, embodied in the epic poetry of olonkho, harp music, ornamental and decorative art.

Today, the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) is a modern cultural center in the north – east of Russia, living a full-blooded, busy life, where higher and secondary educational institutions, research institutes, the Academy of Sciences, the Academy of Spirituality, theaters, museums, libraries and other cultural institutions are concentrated. Its capital - the city of Yakutsk, founded in 1632 by Russian explorers, is located on the banks of the Lena River, which is fed by more than 200 thousand rivers and streams. Old Yakutsk served as a strong point for the detachments of Semyon Dezhnev, Vladimir Atlasov, Vasily Poyarkov, Yerofey Khabarov, equipped for the development of new lands. In the XVIII century, the city was the starting point of the academic expeditions of V. I. Bering, J. I. Lindenau, the brothers D. Ya. and H. P. Laptev, G. A. Sarychev and many others. Already in 1638, the far northern city became an independent administrative unit, the center of a huge territory. This is a city with its own unique destiny and biography. Many of its streets and individual buildings still bear the charm of"old wooden Yakutsk".

A prominent role in the modern cultural space of the republic is occupied by the National Art Museum-an intermediary between the culture of the past and the present.