The charm of Russian art

Press, 20 November 1987, Page 21

The charm of Russian art

> gANY Western visitors to Leningrad are Iwlutety to nave a priority target — the BHe tage ’»um and ArtGaliery. , , 1 I ts the aw Tsarist capital of St Petersburg, on the eastern end of the Baltic Sea, in thenorth of Europeanßussia. < The Hermitage is the old Tsarist Winter Palace, bn the bank of the Neva River, just across from the ’ gleaming spires of the Peter and Paul fortress. Since the communist revolution pf 1917, the art collecttons of St Petersburg’s former aristocracy and . wealthy residents have been consolidated in the Hermitage. Now it has one of the greatest collections of Western European art in the world, standing comparison with London's National Gallery or the • Louvre in Parts, and is superior to either In some of its departments. 1 To walk through the Hermitage is to be overwhelmed by Titians and Tintorettos, Rembrandts and El Grecos, and more than 40 paintings by Reubens. ,\£ '. • But these are pictures familiar from reproductions, or familiar because similar pictures, by the same artists, exist in a score of galleries easily accessible in the West. In the Hermitage today, the organised tour groups are ushered through at a set speed and in careful order. There is little time to linger and enjoy particular worts. ‘ X? Although one young American boy, confronted by a Leonardo da Vinci Madonna suckling an Infant Jesus, paused long enough to remark: "Look mummy that boy's got a balloon." ; But given a choice, if you are in Leningrad, instead of the Hermitage, give old Mother Russia a ' chance. Lose an afternoon in the Museum of Russian /--Art, three blocks away amid ./■liUlt,,,* li» i if In

<*<****** >,^> i i ii • By NAYLOR HILLARY, who was in the Soviet Union as a guest of the Soviet State Committee lor Foreign Tourism: "r'-iiri'i'• n'ii i■ i ■■ i mi proportiOTied eighteenth century buildings of central The gallery itself, the centre-piece of a Square of Arts, is worth seeing. Designed by Charles Rossi in the 1820 s, It was built as a palace for the Grand Duke Michael, youngest son of the Emperor Paul, v Nicholas 11, the last Tsar, turned it into a museum of, Russian, art in 1896. » The names of most of the artists will mean very little to most Westerners, although particular pictures may strike chords of memory. Here, tor instance, is the original of the “Volga Boatmen" by Ilya Repin; the original "Ninth Wave," one of the vast seascapes by Ayvazovsky; a host of portraits by Serov including the remarkable “Countess Olga." Back further in time, the museum has Icons from the twelfth century and later religious works,by Rublev and Ushakov. But most of the pictures have the charm of novelty, and of novelty that still strikes faint chords. Here is what happened to Western styles in art, from the seventeenth century onwards, when those styles were translated to a world on the fringes of Asia. There are portraits that might be by Reynolds, but aren't; landscapes that might almost be Constable; impressionism that could be Manet, mists that could be Monet It is a world worth discovering, a European s -!

centuries or; so before the Revolution when Russia was trying to decide Whether it was an Arian or European State, and was desperately trying to be European. > Since 1917, the decision has been relatively easy. Today’s Soviet Union regards itself as the centre of a-new, universal world empire to the making. The result may be great political success, at least in Soviet, eyes, but so rar it has been an artistic tragedy. ■. Manage, if you can, to see also an exhibition of contemporary Soviet art as a contrast to the pre--1917 collections. Soviet art has, at least, transcended the Seven-Brave-Tractor-Drivers stuff of the 19305. Now it may well portray a Palestinian terrorist striding towards the dawn; or brave helicopter pilots dropping concrete on the rogue nuclear reactor at Chernobyl. Stirring stuff, perhaps, but ope is left with the feeling that little of abiding beauty or worth has been produced in the Soviet Union since 1917. That makes even more precious a collection such as that in Leningrad, demonstrating what the Russian genius has been capable of when relatively free of the constraints of. ideology; But award points to the present system for preserving and making accessible such collections. Points, too, for preserving and restoring sensibly the miles of pre-Revolutionary buildings that make the centre of Leningrad a living museum, still with the harmonious proportions its builders intended. in Leningrad, keep the Hermitage's collections of Western art on the “ought-to-see” list, but put the Museum of Russian Art in the Michael Palace first For sheer unexpected delight its offerings knock the Titians and Rembrandts of the Hermitage into an old St Petersburg canal.