History of creation

664000,. Irkutsk,
Lenin street 5
E-mail iohm@irk.ru

History of creation

The Art Museum of Irkutsk ranks among the best art repositories of Siberia. This fact, although significant in itself, is hardly surprising when viewed from historical perspective.
Irkutsk is one of the oldest Siberian towns. In fact, from its early years Irkutsk, then a small borderline settlement, founded on the banks of the Angara River near Lake Baikal, was to become the meeting place of the major trading and diplomatic routes connecting Russia with its eastern neighbours. In the seventeenth and eighteen- the centuries, with its churches being erected and numerous works of art acquired, Irkutsk was regarded as the major seat of culture in Siberia. In the 1850s Irkutsk saw the creation of its art museum, one of the first in Siberia. Inaugurated under the auspices of the Main Department of Eastern Siberia, it was later affiliated with the East Siberian Division of the Russian Geographical Society. The names of art collectors are first mentioned in the town's annals as far back as the eighteenth century. Thus we know that the Irkutsk governor Mikhail Sibiriakov, a 'distinguished citizen' and owner of gold mines in Siberia, acquired a fine collection of painting and engravings with views of Siberian towns. It was to him that the outstanding Russian poet and statesman Gavrila Derzhavin presented, in 1801, a portrait of himself by the Italian artist Salvatore Tonci.
The most remarkable and extensive collection of paintings belonged to Vladimir Sukachov (1849 - 1920), the onetime mayor of Irkutsk. It was this collection that formed the nucleus of the future museum. To set up an art gallery accessible to the general public was Sukachov's life-long ambition; with this purpose in mind, he made trips to St.Petersburg in the 1870s where he bought a number of canvases mainly by progressive-minded Russian artists. By the turn of the century Sukachov's collection had contained over eighty excellent works by Russian and Western European artists as well as some items of sculpture. Paintings by Ilea Repin, Constantin Trutovsky, Leonid Solomatkin, Vasily Maximov and Konstantin Makovsky were the pride of his collection. Sukachov's mansion, which housed the only art gallery in Siberia, was open to townsfolk and visitors alike. An interesting account of it was left by Jules Legard, professor of Bordeaux University, who made a trip to Siberia in 1897s. In this book "Across Siberia", published in Paris two years later, Professor Legard wrote: "The other day I was introduced to the local mayor Mr.Sukachov. He is an elegant Siberian gentleman whose name is familiar to many people in Paris. Few of them, however, have had the same pleasure as I did of seeing his charming gallery which is obviously one of the rarities of Siberia... The collection is made up almost exclusively of works by Russian artists: here is a fine example of true patriotism, which I find highly commendable". And indeed, a man with wide interests and a real concern for the welfare of Siberia, Sukachov did much for the cultural development of the region. It was on his initiative that a new theatre was erected. While holding the office of Chairman of the East Siberian Division of the Russian Geographical Society, Vladimir Sukachov authorised funding for the scientific expeditions of Gregory Potanin, the noted Russian explorer of China, Tibet and Mongolia. He also financed the building of several primary schools in the town, published books on the history and culture of Irkutsk. Besides this, he rendered the necessary assistance to the young Siberians who studied in St.Petersburg.
Before leaving for the Crimea - his wife was in poor health - where he intended to settle down for good, Sukachov offered his collection as a gift to the town; his generous offer, however, was turned down by the local authorities who did not want the trouble of looking after the collection, and for a time it was without an owner. With the establishment of Soviet power in Siberia, by a special decree of the Irkutsk Gubernia Committee the gallery became the property of the young Soviet Republic. Whereas in 1920 the collection contained about hundred pictures, by the end of the decade it had increased to two thousand. Its further growth was ensured by the Leningrad and Moscow branches of the State Museum Fund, as well as various municipal bodies of Irkutsk. In 1936 the art gallery was made independent of the town's museum of local lore.
In recent decades the Museum received large donations from Moscow collectors, including paintings by the outstanding masters Gerard Seghers and Michele Marieschi, presented by Felix Vishnevsky. About two thousand works, among them icons, paintings, objects of early Russian applied art, prints and drawings - a huge collection by any standard - were donated by Nikolai Velichko.