Page 116 - B-ALL#19

The inventory of these marvels leaves one dreamy in the face of his fifty-four Picassos, forty-one Matisse, eleven Cezanne, sixteen Gauguin Tahitians, fifteen De- rain, thirteen Monet including Lunch on the Grass, five Degas, and four Van Gogh and an impressive list of dozens of other iconic works from the modern art of Douanier Rousseau, Renoir, Toulouse-Lautrec, Manet, Marquet, Pissarro and Vuillard. By order of Stalin, this fabulous collection had been dispersed in 1948 between the Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg and the Pushkin Museum in Moscow.
This is the first time that half can be reunited in a vibrant tribute to its creator.
Man of contrasts, Chtchoukine was an original, voluble in spite of his stuttering, des- cended from the religious and fundamentally conservative bourgeoisie.
This little man with a great mind succeeded with audacity in going against the tastes of his milieu at the time. His grandson, André Marc Delocque-Fourcaud, the project’s historical advisor, describes him as a «bright snob».
Discoverer of talents, Chtchoukine wanted to give birth to others in his country and, in 1908, he opens the doors of his palace for free so that the small people can contemplate his collection and that the germs of French avant-gardism come contaminate Russian academicism.
The exhibition shows brilliantly changes in Chtchoukine’s own choices, starting from conventional bases, it engages the Post-Impressionist and Symbolist field to go further and surf with strong reluctance and perfect ease on the waves of the avant-garde.
Chtchoukine liked to describe himself as «crazy» and took up this term, laughing when he unveiled his first Gauguin, Venus of the Maoris at the fan, «one crazy painted it, and another bought it.»
Georges Braque, The Castle of La Roche-Guyon, 1909 Oil on canvas
92 × 73 cm
State Museum of Fine Arts Pushkin, Moscow
© ADAGP, Paris 2016
Photo © Moscow, State Museum of Fine Arts Pushkin
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