THE GREAT. THE IMAGE OF WOMAN IN RUSSIAN ART

An exposition unprecedented in composition and scale at the Mikhailovsky Palace — the main building of the Russian Museum — brings together more than 300 works by Ilya Repin, Karl Bryullov, Valentin Serov, Ivan Kramskoy, Nikolai Ge, Boris Kustodiev, Dmitry Levitsky, Alexey Venetsianov, Konstantin Makovsky, and many other famous artists of the 18th — early 20th centuries.
In 11 state halls on the ground floor, masterpieces from the rich collection of the Russian Museum and selected works from leading Russian museums and private collections are presented.
The exhibition presents painted, sculptural, and graphic portraits of women who lived in the capital of the Russian Empire and influenced the development of national history, Russian thought, public morals, and tastes. The halls of the Mikhailovsky Palace display portraits of empresses, grand duchesses, aristocrats, representatives of celebrated and influential families, as well as members of the Russian intelligentsia — writers, patrons of the arts, actresses and ballerinas, female artists, and the inspirational wives of famous painters.
The epigraph of the exhibition is the "Russian Mona Lisa" — the only unnamed heroine in the exposition, Ivan Kramskoy's "Unknown Woman" (1883) from the collection of the Tretyakov Gallery. This painting practically never leaves the walls of its home museum. A special exhibition solution for this hall — a play of light and multimedia effects — will allow visitors to immerse themselves in the atmosphere of the era and even hear the heroine's carriage passing along Nevsky Prospect.
Specially for the exhibition, an audio guide was prepared for visitors — for the first time in the format of a theatrical audio performance. In it, professional actors perform the roles of an artist, a 19th-century salon hostess, and a muse-inspirer. These characters will introduce guests to the great heroines and great works and turn a walk through the exhibition halls into a fascinating journey through the epochs. Music, sound effects, and poetry will create an atmosphere of complete immersion in the world of the greatest women and Russian history.

Alla Manilova, General Director of the State Russian Museum
Curatorial Group: Grigory Goldovsky, Alla Berezhnaya, Alexander Borovsky
Exhibition Architecture: Planet9, Agniya Sterligova, Viktoria Kosarev, Darya Pozdeeva
Graphic Design: Marina Sayfudinova, Elizaveta Tamang
Photo: Vasily Bulanov