Matisse in Moscow, Picasso in St Petersburg, and the World's First Museum of Modern Art

This day of lectures tells the story of how Sergei Shchukin and Ivan Morozov brought hundreds of paintings of the French avant-garde to Russia at the beginning of the 20th century, how Matisse spent his time when he visited Moscow, and what happened to all the canvases by Monet, Cézanne, Gauguin and Picasso after the Revolution.

Matisse in Moscow: The Revolutionary Collection of Sergei Shchukin
In 1909, Henri Matisse received a his Moscow patron Sergei Shchukin for two enormous canvases. After creating a scandal by showing Dance and Musicat the Salon d'Automne, Matisse travelled to Russia to help install them in the stairway of Shchukin's mansion. This lecture tells the story of how a Russian industrialist fell in love with Matisse after infatuations with Monet and Gauguin, how Matisse fell in love with Russian icons, and how his riotous paintings electrified the artistic rebels of Moscow's young avant-garde.

From Van Gogh to Cézanne: The Morozov Brothers and the Parisian Avant-Garde
Mikhail Morozov, scion of Moscow's most famous merchant dynasty, became the first Russian to buy a painting by Van Gogh. After he died in 1903, having been becoming the first Russian collector of Picasso, and gradually amassing eighteen works by Cézanne, his favourite painter. This lecture discusses the brothers' remarkable collections and their interest in contemporary art.

Picasso in St. Petersburg: The Hermitage and its Masters of Modern Art
The pioneering Moscow collectors Shchukin and Morozov emigrated after the Revolution and their collections were united to create the pioneering State Museum of New Western Art. In 1948, however, Stalin ordered its closure. This lecture recounts the museum's history. It tells how a brave female curator helped rescue the museum's most radical paintings for the Hermitage amid fears they would be destroyed, and what happened next to Matisse's The Dance and 27 Cubist masterpieces by Picasso.

How to book this event:

Time:           10:30 for 10:45 am – 3:30pm
Cost:            £38
Contact:       Tricia Savours by email: psavours@gmail.com

THE ARTS SOCIETY ACCREDITED LECTURER

Dr Rosamund Bartlett

Rosamund Bartlett a writer, lecturer and translator whose work as a cultural historian ranges across the arts. She completed her doctorate at Oxford and is the author of several books, including biographies of Chekhov and Tolstoy, and a study of Wagner's influence in Russia. She is currently writing a history of the Russian avant-garde. Her new translation of Anna Karenina for Oxford World’s Classics was published to acclaim in 2014. She has written on art, music and literature for publications such as The Daily Telegraph and Apollo, and received commissions from institutions including the Royal Opera House, Tate UK, and the Salzburg Festival. Her lecturing work has taken her from the V&A and the National Theatre in London to the Art Gallery of New South Wales in Sydney, and she contributes regularly to Proms events and opera broadcasts on the BBC.