Sergei Shchukin
Sergei Ivanovich Shchukin (Russian: Сергей Иванович Щукин; born May 27, 1854 in Moscow, † January 10, 1936 in Paris) was a Russian businessman who became known as an art collector and patron -.
Life and work
Schtuschkin began his collecting activities with traditional works of Russian realists. After a visit to Paris in 1897, Shchukin bought his first Monet, Rouen Cathedral. He was mainly interested in works of Impressionism, Post-Impressionism and Fauvism. Later he acquired, among other numerous works by Paul Cézanne, Vincent van Gogh and Paul Gauguin. The paintings were initially intended for his private house in Moscow. In the years from 1897 to 1904 Claude Monet was the focus of his interest, from 1904 to 1910, he primarily collects Cézanne, van Gogh and Gauguin. Subsequently, from 1910 to 1914, he concentrated on the works of André Derain, Henri Matisse, and Pablo Picasso. Shchukin was a collector who acquired the most daring works of the 20th century not only Russian, but also by Western European standards.
Shchukin was particularly known for his close relationship with Henri Matisse, who for his house, and especially for him one of his most famous painting, The Dance, created decorations. The dance is often considered a key work of Matisse's artistic career and the development of modern art. Henri Matisse created this painting for Shchukin as part of a contract which included a second image, Music, also from the year 1910. An earlier version of The Dance of 1909 is exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
Schtschukins collection also included numerous works by Pablo Picasso, including many of his early cubist works, supplemented by several works from the Blue and Rose Periods.
Shchukin was related to Pavel Mikhailovich Tretyakov, who, if not served him as an example as a model. Tragedies like the death of his wife, the self-mode two sons and his brother Ivan have changed Schtschukins view of the world and its role as a servant of art drastically. On the night of 4 ( 17 ) April 1907, he bequeathed his collection bequeathed the Tretyakov Gallery. Then, with the understanding that his collection belong to the public, he also made them accessible and opened in 1909 his house to the public. The significance went far beyond that of a museum. Some painting found its way still damp on the walls of Shchukin. His house was thus also to a salon for young artists and fueled the conflict between students and faculty in the academies. Beginning of the 20th century, it could only record the collection of Leo and Gertrude Stein with that of Shchukin.
However, the Russian society of the turn of the century even held the Impressionists nor charlatans, and who began to collect their paintings, gained the reputation of being an even bigger charlatan. The critic James Tugendhold wrote in 1914, when the memories were still awake at the start time of Schtschukins collection that first acquired by him works by Monet " as much indignation aroused as at present the works of Picasso: Not for nothing was a painting by Monet in protest by a guest of Shchukin scratched with a pencil. "
Following the Russian Revolution of 1917, the government confiscated his collection. Shchukin emigrated to Paris. 1948 was the collection that was temporarily merged with Ivan Morozov's Museum of New Western Art, divided between the Pushkin Museum and the Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg.