Vasily Tropinin museum (Moscow)

 mansion / manor house / villa, Classicism, listed building / architectural heritage, 19th century construction, object of cultural heritage of regional importance (Russia)

www.museum.ru/M342

This neo-classical building is the home of the Tropinin Museum. Vasily Tropinin (1776 -1857) was a serf whose unusual artistic talent was noted at an early age. He was sent to St. Petersburg to study art, although only briefly as his master brought him back to do more mundane work. In 1823, he and his wife gained their freedom and moved to Moscow. By the time of his death, he had produced more than 3000 paintings. His works were unusual at the time, both for his interest in portraying merchants and crafts people and also his portraits of the rich and famous.

The collection of Feliks Vishnevsky (1902 -1978) forms the nucleus of the museum's pieces that also include the works of Tropinin's contemporaries from the St. Petersburg Academy of the Arts, including Dmitri Levitsky and Orest Kiprensky. Vishnevsky came from an artistic family, but still managed to continue his collecting throughout the Soviet period. The furnishings and decorative ornaments, which round out the museum's collection and complement the artwork, also date from Tropinin's time and are mostly in Empire style.