25 November 2016 at the State Pushkin Museum on Prechistenka was held cognitive, emotional and brilliant event, a social event for lovers of art, architecture and music. The culprit of the celebration was a publisher, collector, philanthropist and good friend of the Museum Andrew Rudentsov.
The publishing house Rudentsovyh, founded in 2005, is focused on exclusive and premium books and business materials (business cards, catalogs, souvenirs) production.
Honorary guests of the evening: critics, patrons and collectors had the opportunity to visit the Museum area and to see the lovely collection of Russian inlaid furniture, part of which was formed by the collection of A. Regentov (his private gallery “Three centuries”).
At the event A. Rudentsov presented the novelty of his publisher house – monograph from the series “Architectural heritage of Russia”, dedicated to the Russian architect Roman Klein, who built TSUM and the Pushkin Fine Art Museum among sixty buildings in Moscow. The latter earned him the title of academician of architecture.
Roman Ivanovich Klein (1858-1924) – the architect, who studied at V. O. Sherwood and A. P. Popov, at Academy of fine Arts and trained in Italy and France, by S. Garnier. The architect was one of the first who used new construction (concrete, steel, glass). He worked in the styles of art Nouveau and neoclassical styles, but also widely used elements of ancient architecture, Gothic and palladiana.
And, most importantly, visitors to the Museum witnessed the presentation of gift to the Museum portrait of General I. O. Sukhozanet, member of the war of 1812, the contemporary of Pushkin, whom the poet knew personally and mentioned in his diary of 1833-1835 in connection with his appointment to the post of Director of cadets and all the land corps and the Noble regiment.
The General has played a role in the shelling of friends of Pushkin on 14 December in the Senate square, when his artillery scattered the caret of the Decembrists. Mentioning Suhozanet on 29 November 1833, the poet described him as “a man stained, included in the people through Jachville – bugger and a notorious player, comrade of Martynov and Nikitin”. The general was also a member of the military Council of the Ministry of war and led the Imperial military Academy. Thus, the portrait of a striking and significant political figure of the era of the brush of Thaddeus Mayer will certainly enrich the collection of the Museum of A. Pushkin, its panorama of Pushkin’s time.
All three events were accompanied by a beautiful Opera concert with singers from St. Petersburg who sang the masterpieces of world vocal music and romances with words by A. Pushkin. So, Pushkin Museum, in a building which once belonged to the princes of Baryatinsky, then Khrushchev-Seleznyov came back to life in the splendor of evening dresses beautiful ladies and serious gentlemen. Cultural-political magazine “E Vesti” asked Andrew Rudentsov:
E Vesti: Tell me, please, what caused Your attention to Museum of A. S. Pushkin and giving him the gift? You’re a big fan of the Museum, a fan of the poet?
Rudentsov A.: You know, I’m a fan of art in its various forms: in architecture, poetry and music. It is happened that this Museum have a special relationship with me, and my love for the poet played the role too. You know, there are many other museums in honor of people I love, but the relationship with the Museum doesn’t go as this. That is, the first was the genius of the place, then the people who work here, they were able to open more nuanced.
E Vesti: Please tell me why You bought this picture? General Suhozanet not one of the most famous…
Rudentsov A.: I love portraits, I love watercolors, collecting Russian portrait miniatures, I have about 300 pieces.
As for this portrait, it seems to me that it was beautiful and appropriating to present it, because the Museum tells not of Pushkin only, but also about the people who surrounded him. If they can’t buy – they can take it as a gift. Until today this person was not represented in the Museum.
I bought this picture because I had no paintings of the artist Thaddeus Meier, and also because this portrait is a good painting.
Suhozanet is a special person, a fighting General who fought in the war of 1812, he headed the Military Academy for 20 years. Most of those people who were portrayed at the time – they are exceptional people.
