11 October 2019

  Restoration of the painting Holy Rus by Mikhail Nesterov (No.J-1850, size 233 cm x 375 cm) has compled in the Russian Museum’s Oil Painting Conservation Studio.

Holy Rus first went on public display at the artist’s personal exhibition in 1907. Nesterov believed that this painting and, in fact, all his art, would bring peace to Russian society, which was at the time shaken by massive unrest. The painting was purchased on the spot for the museum of the Imperial Academy of Fine Arts. In 1921 Holy Rus was forwarded into the custody of the Russian Museum, where it was afforded a place of honor in the main exposition. In the late 1920s, as pressure on religion increased, the painting was removed from display and relegated to the archives. Holy Rus would remain there until the late 1980s, when the museum put it back on permanent display.

 

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20 September 2019

  The Russian Museum's Laquered Furniture Conservation Studio has completed restoration of Peter the Great's wooden chair (LD-374), part of the permanent exhibition in the Office room of the Cabin of Peter I (6 Petrovskaya Embankment, St.Petersburg).

The chair was made in the style of English library chairs of the 18th century, and known as a reading chair. One of their unique features was that readers were to sit on them backwards, with their front facing the chair's spine. To the chair's back was attached a collapsible desk on which the books rested. The spine of Peter I's chair has an open mortise for such a desk to be attached. The attachement, however, had already been lost by the early 20th century...>>>

12 September 2019

  The Old Russian Painting Conservation Studio is continuing its complex restoration of the 16^th-century icon The Miracle of St. George and the Dragon.

The icon came to the Russian Museum in 1937 from Leningrad Oblast’s State Museum Collection. It was previously kept in the Church of St. Nicholas the Miracle Worker in Soginitsy, Leningrad Oblast.

Earlier attempts at restoration had covered the entire image with overpainting. In 1970, restorer Irma Yarygina managed to remove some of the layers of dark varnish and additional paint from the original work.    

8 July 2019

  Complex restoration is in progress on the painting Assumption of the Theotokos by Ivan Belsky (87.5 cm x 52 cm, Inv. No. J-7921). The Oil Painting Conservation Studio undertook the task in the run-up to the artist’s solo exhibition, which the Russian Museum is planning for the end of 2019.

Russian artist Ivan Belsky (1719-1799) was a descendant of the Belsky family of artists, prominent in the 17^th and 18^th centuries. He was highly acclaimed for his historical paintings and decorative art for theatres.

24 April 2019

  In a challenging new project, the historical decorated frame (No. 4704) of the 1834 painting The Death of Inessa de Castro by Karl Bryullov (oil on canvas, 213 cm x 290.5 cm, No. J-5085) goes into conservation.

The seven conservators on the project team represent three Workshops of the Russian Museum’s Art Conservation Department: Irina Vesnina, Marina Ilyukhina, Tatyana Maslova, and Melkhola Kozlova specialize in conservation of carved and gilded wooden objects, Yuri Makarov and Alexander Derevenskov come from the section focusing on lacquered furniture conservation, and Vitaly Kopyakov is a restorer of carved icons and wooden sculptures. Following a tentative visual survey of the frame, the conservators on the team are now in a position to draw some preliminary conclusions about its condition...

25 March 2019

  The department has completed the first phase of conservation on a small 17th-century double-sided icon, one side of which depicts the Anointing of Christ in the house of Simon the Leper, while the other shows the Washing of Feet (No DRZ-2391). The icon arrived in the Russian Museum on December 2, 1912 from the Joseph Volokolamsk Monastery of the Assumption, founded in 1479.

There is a special name for such small double-sided icons painted with tempera on primed canvas rather than on wood: tablet. Tablets are usually very thin and fragile, and small as well. Many of them have been restored and repainted several times.

28 February 2019

  The Russian Museum’s Plaster and Stone Sculpture Conservation team has completed restoration of a marble bust of Empress Catherine II of Russia (No. SK-215) crafted by an unknown sculptor in the late 18th century.

The sculpture, broken into two pieces, arrived for restoration in 2002. Sizable fragments of the face, hair, attire, and décor were missing. There were multiple places where parts of the marble had broken off, and much of the marble was badly scuffed. The pedestal was missing, and the entire surface was soiled with adherent grime.

19 February 2019

The complex restoration of the precious top plate of the coffin of Saint Alexander of Svir (No. BK-2891), created in 1644 by the engravers of the Silver Chamber in the Moscow Kremlin, is now complete.

This restoration was part of exhibit preparation for an exhibition entitled The Autumn of the Russian Middle Ages, opening in the Benois Wing of the Russian Museum on February 21, 2019.

 

12 February 2019

The restoration of the carved gilded frame of the painting Full-Dress Portrait of the Daughters of Emperor Nicholas I, Grand Duchesses Maria Nikolayevna (1819-1876) and Olga Nikolayevna (1822-1892) by Timofey Neff (1805-1876) was completed earlier today.

The Russian Museum’s Conservation Commission decided that the frame should be fully restored in preparation for the exhibition Nicholas I. In view of the many challenges this conservation task presented, a multi-expert team was hand-picked from various specialized workshops of the Russian Museum’s Art Conservation Department: Irina Vesnina, Marina Ilyukhina, and Melkhola Kozlova from the section for conservation of gilded wooden carving, Vitaly Kopyakov from the section for carved icons and wooden sculptures, and Yuri Makarov from the lacquered furniture section.

12 February 2019

Conservation has been completed on the painting Ceremonial Session of the State Council on 7 May 1901 (400 cm x 877 cm) by Ilya Repin to prepare it for shipping to an exhibition in the Tretyakov Gallery.

The conservators then carefully freed the edges of the canvas from the metal staples that held it on the planks of the stretcher. The stretcher was removed and dissembled. At some point in the past, the worn edges of the canvas had been reinforced with strips of linen canvas, but during the intervening years the edges had relapsed into an unsatisfactory condition. In some parts, the conservation adhesive used in the past to glue the new strips onto the original canvas had disintegrated beyond repair, and the conservation strips had begun to peel off.

1 February 2019

  Restoration completed on Portrait of Grand Duke Michael Pavlovich by George Dawe (No. J-459)

A meeting of the Russian Museum’s Conservation Commission in mid-2018 came to a consensus that this painting was no longer display-worthy and had to be restored.

The Russian Museum received this painting from Dmitry Ivanovich Tolstoy in 1904.

30 January 2019

We invite you to visit our Online Video Theater, where you are welcome to watch our latest videos and reports on art conservation projects completed by the Russian Museum’s Art Conservation Department.

Recently added material includes videos documenting the preparatory conservation of paintings for the exhibition Nicholas I (2019) and the unprecedented restoration of the monumental canvas Orgy by Vasily Kotarbinsky.

15 January 2019

  Restoration of the painting Portrait of Nicholas I of Russia by Vasily Golicke (No. J-3490) has been completed.

At one of its meetings in mid-2018, the Russian Museum’s Conservation Commission decided to hand this canvas over to the oil painting conservation team for restoration.

The Russian Museum received this painting by Vasily Golicke (1802-1848) from the Sheremetyev Palace Museum in 1931.