Nesterov Museum - a unique heritage of Russian culture

For true connoisseurs of art, the Nesterov Museum in Ufa (address: Gogol St., 27) is a gold treasure trove, where everything is the best that a man has created for many centuries. It is here that you can contemplate masterpieces of painting, icon painting, unique creations of sculpture and graphics. The Nesterov Museum is also a place where exhibitions of works by contemporary artists are regularly organized. The viewer's court brought linens from various parts of Russia. And those who prefer the classics, can personally enjoy the works brought from the Russian Museum and the Tretyakov Gallery. Of course, in this eminent temple of art the best collections of Bashkir folk and fine arts are presented.

A short excursion into the past

Naturally, the Nesterov Museum has its own history. He is in a mansion, which in 1913 was built by the wealthy merchant Laptev. When the power in the country passed into the hands of the Bolsheviks, the owner of the mansion was killed by the "reds."

Soon the Communists organized the headquarters of the Red Guard in the mansion. Only in 1919 the local committee was able to convince that the house ownership of Laptev is not the most ideal place for the headquarters. After a while there was already located a cultural institution - the Nesterov Museum. And even then it was, that show people. The fact is that in 1913 a well-known artist gave his home town of Ufa several dozen paintings by famous painters of Russia: Levitan, Shishkin, Arkhipov, Polenov, Korovin. It was their paintings that became the foundation of the first collection of the museum. And the creations of the painters were originally in Moscow, and transporting them to the Bashkir capital turned out to be quite a complicated and troublesome business. Museum Nesterova first opened its doors to visitors in January 1920.

The creations of the maestro

On the huge square for the exposition, of course, there are pictures of Mikhail Nesterov himself.

More than one hundred creations of the famous artist, including graphics and painting - is a huge layer in the museum's collection. For the viewer, the creations that were created before 1917 are of special interest. It was in them that the artist most brightly and maximally embodied the ideas of seeking a spiritual ideal, the harmony of nature and man.

Old Russian Painting of the 15th-19th Century

The exposition consists of more than one hundred works. Visiting the museum Nesterov, you can see the unique creations of icon painting ("Evangelists", "Annunciation", "Descent into Hell" and so on). Their authors comprehended the basics of drawing in the icon-painting schools of Veliky Novgorod, Moscow and the Russian North.

Among other things, the exposition presents rare items of wood and metal, which belong to church utensils.

Russian fine arts (XVIII-XIX century)

Here are the works of such famous masters of the brush as V. Borovikovsky, D. Levitsky. The exposition also includes the works of serf artists.

The main tendency of the portraitists at the end of the 18th century was the gradual transition from medieval canons to new trends.

As for the works of Russian painters who created in the XVIII-XIX centuries, the M. Nesterov Museum can offer the most unique creations. In particular, we are talking about the pictures of Lev Lagorio ("Italian mountain landscape") and Sylvester Shchedrin ("Harbor in Sorrento"), as well as I. Aivazovsky ("Moonlit Night in Venice"). Shishkin, Savrasov, Stefanovsky, Repin - their colorful works are also regularly on display.

Russian graphics

Fans of this genre will have something to see if they once come to the art museum named after MV Nesterov. The collection was presented by the maestro himself. It includes such works as "Stasov and artists" (P. Shcherbova), "On the Edge" (E. Polenova), "Portrait of a Girl" (S. Malyutin), "Sentimental Walk" (A. Benois).

Bashkir Painting and Graphics

The above collections date back to the foundation of the museum. At the moment, it presents more than three thousand paintings of Bashkir artists.

Among them P. Salmazov, B. Domashnikov, A. Lezhneva, T. Nechaeva, A. Sitdikova and others. The watercolors and drawings of K. Devletkildeev, a true master of drawing art, are especially admired by visitors.

It should be noted that the museum of Nesterov has long produced a retrospective collection of Bashkir painting, in which all the stages of its formation and development are fixed. Even in the first quarter of the XIX century, the Ufa art circle was formed, whose members held the first exhibition of paintings that laid the foundation for the national perception of fine art.

Collection of Western Europe

Its formation began in the 20s of the last century. Most of the works were taken from the State Museum Fund, and only selected works were purchased by collectors. The paintings belong to the brush artists of Holland, Germany, France, Italy, Denmark, Belgium.

In the museum there is a small part of the sculptural works made by Western European masters. In particular, the sculpture "The Sleeping Boy", made of marble by an unknown Italian, is of particular interest. Arouses genuine admiration for the work of the French sculpture of Claude-Louis Michel, who in the 18th century made bronze bronze statuettes of satyrs and fauns. At the exposition you can also get acquainted with the sculptural creations of the Bashkir masters.

That's how the museum of artist Nesterov possesses untold riches. Everyone who considers himself a true connoisseur of art is indebted to them. The institution is open for visitors from Tuesday to Sunday (closed on Monday). Working hours: from 10.30 to 18.30. (Except Thursday - from 12.00 to 20.30.).