About Pushkin, but without Pushkin
"Encyclopedia of Russian Life" at the Pushkin Museum
Museum of Personal Collections of the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts. Pushkin contributed to the celebrations of the 200th anniversary of “our everything” - A. S. Pushkin. And it should be noted that it is extremely worthy: the exhibition does not try to make a deep nod to the “Pushkin studies” that are fashionable this year, but simply demonstrates high-quality art of the first half of the 19th century. The museum owes this to the excellent exhibition “Pushkin’s Contemporaries. 100 Watercolor Portraits from the Parisian Collection,” provided by the French gallery “Popov and Co.”

If the museum had pedantically adhered to Pushkin’s theme, then out of 100 watercolors the viewer would have seen no more than 10-20. These would be portraits of Alexander Sergeevich’s family, friends and just acquaintances. A kind of small “family album”. There would have been a portrait of A.S.’s widow, 32-year-old Natalie (by Vladimir Gau), images of the sister of Pushkin’s friend Pyotr Vyazemsky (Ekaterina Shcherbatova) and his wife (Vera Fedorovna) by Alexander Molinari, several portraits of reigning persons who persecuted poet, they patronized his family, and as a finale - a portrait of the artist Apollo Mokritsky, who captured Pushkin in the coffin.
Formally, everything would be true and accurate. But from the point of view of a local history or literary museum. The Pushkin Museum is still a museum of beaux arts. And therefore it shows fine art, and not anniversary documentation. He owes this to the excellent collection of the Parisian gallery of Russian art "Popov and Co." And I must say this exhibition is truly an “encyclopedia of Russian life”, which alternates portraits of famous, little-known and completely unknown characters of Russian high society and intellectual society.
It's a luxurious historical backdrop. Its foundation was laid back in 1920 by Russian officer Alexander Popov, who founded a Russian gallery in Paris after the First World War. According to unconfirmed information, before the war he was a Kyiv antique dealer and seemed to be related to the family of the “kings” of Russian porcelain - the Popov company. One way or another, “Popov and Co” specialized in Russian porcelain and watercolors. The gallery adheres to this orientation to this day, although for thirty years it has been owned by the French family of antique dealers Baruch. Maurice Baruch, the current owner and director of the gallery, a Russophile and a Russophone, has doubled the collection of watercolors of Popov and Co. Plus, I re-attributed some of the portraits. If Russia had an Order of the Legion of Honor in the category “Cnight of the rank of literature and art,” then Mr. Barush would be one of the first contenders. It would be understandable if he donated part of his collection to Russian museums.
If you imagine, this would be a very significant contribution. Firstly, these are famous names - Pyotr Sokolov, the brothers Karl and Alexander Bryullov, the Gau brothers Vladimir and Eduard, Franz Kruger and Christina Robertson, who visited Russia, and, finally, our picturesque “everything” - Orest Kiprensky, whose canonical portrait of Pushkin has been replicated from "Native speech" to assorted candies. Secondly, the preservation of the works is exceptional: in the opinion of Russian private collectors and even museum workers, the Parisian collection is too well preserved (our custom is that if it’s old, it means it’s stained and has warped leaves).
The gallery "Popov and Co" rarely showed its treasures: the late 1920s in Brussels, the early 1930s in London, the early 1950s in Paris. Watercolor is afraid of direct daylight - it fades; does not tolerate an abundance of public - there are too many sighs (and this harms the temperature regime). But most of all, an old watercolor portrait does not like familiar treatment. Therefore, no matter how much the audience likes this or that miniature, you should not run your fingers over it, which was noticed at the vernissage.
Let the exhibit live until July 4th when it closes.

MIKHAIL B-BODE

Newspaper "Kommersant" No. 84 dated May 20, 1999, p. 10

Themes: