Portrait of Ivan Morozov, Valentin Serov
This exhibition will open its doors in Paris one year after the scheduled opening date
After years of being hidden, the Morozov collection is finally going on display. This exhibition will open its doors in Paris one year after the scheduled opening date. A trove of 200 paintings, sculptures, photographs, and a second collection featuring the major Russian collector, the Morozov exhibit will open, bringing with it a record-breaking 1.29 million visitors to the Shchukin show from 2016-17.
After passing through a door with a relief carving of the Moscow Art Theatre's front entrance sculpture, the visitor comes face to face with the "Morozov clan," which consists of family and friends of the brothers Mikhail and Ivan. The works rooms of Manet, Renoir, Toulouse-Lautrec, Monet, Picasso, Gauguin, Bonnard, Vuillard, Rodin etc. then follow one another. In another space, a famous painter who is barely known today, Vincent Van Gogh, captures the attention of visitors with his 1890 painting "The Round of the Prisoners."
Pond at Montgeron, Claude Monet, Hermitage Saint Petersburg
Who were the Morozovs?
In 1870 and 1871, two brothers named Mikhail and Ivan Morozov were born into a Muscovite family of textile manufacturers of serf heritage. Their mother, who had been educated in the arts, taught them to draw by enlisting Russian artists to work with them. The curator of the exhibition, Anne Baldassari, says that this impressive level of selection and discernment must come from somewhere, and she suspects it may be from there.
After turning 20, Mikhail, the eldest, had traveled to Paris and purchased his first paintings. Baldassari claims that he is gutsy for purchasing Van Gogh and Gauguin, who were both unknown at the time. It was he who introduced works by these two painters to Russia for the first time. Despite his premature death at 33, his already extensive collection included works by important artists like Monet, Toulouse-Lautrec, and Renoir.
Portrait of the actress Jeanne Samary, Auguste Renoir, Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts. The Bridgeman Art Library, Object 47990
Those who love Picasso will be excited by the pieces on display
After that, Ivan assumes control of the family business and puts his painterly aspirations on hold. He buys in Paris as well, but not as ostentatiously as his elder brother does. Above all, Cézanne. Ivan's taste in contemporary Russian painters was not limited to Prokofiev. Those who love Picasso will be excited by the pieces on display. He claims they are all masterpieces and are Picasso's milestones of his career.
The Bathers (study), circa (1890-1894), Paul Cézanne, Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts. The Yorck Project (2002) 10,000 Meisterwerke der Malerei (DVD-ROM), distributed by DIRECTMEDIA Publishing GmbH
This exhibition is being put together in partnership with three Russian museums: The State Hermitage Museum (Saint Petersburg), the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts (Moscow), and the State Tretyakov Gallery (Moscow) (Moscow).
This show is the first time that this incredible set of artworks has been displayed outside of Russia.
The exhibition is on view at the Louis Vuitton Foundation in Paris (France) from September 22, 2021 to February 22, 2022.
Jean Dubreil