Wrangel, Nikolai Nikolaevich

Born July 2 ( 14 ), 1880 ^[1] in the estate of Wrangel Golovkovka in the Kiev province - the son of Nikolai Yegorovich Wrangel (1847-1923) and Maria Dmitrievna Dementieva-Maykova (1856-1944). His older brother is one of the main leaders of the White Movement during the Civil War in Russia, Pyotr Nikolayevich Wrangel (1878-1928); the younger brother Vsevolod (1884–1895) died in childhood.

In 1890, the family moved to Rostov-on-Don, where Nikolai studied at a real gymnasium. In 1897, after the family moved to St. Petersburg, he continued his studies at the St. Petersburg Petrovsky fourth real school, which, due to poor health, could not finish; was taken abroad by his parents and was treated in Italy for more than a year.

In 1900, he finally settled in St. Petersburg.

As F. M. Lurie noted:

In fact, he received home education, to a greater extent - self-education. He did not continue his visit to educational institutions, and this was not required: even then, many well-known specialists were surprised at his knowledge, and soon his amazement and admiration caused unusual work capacity and depth of research. Formally, based on generally accepted concepts, Wrangel should be called an amateur.

In November 1901, he entered the service of His Majesty’s Own Chancellery for the Establishment of Empress Mary ^[2] .

The years of vigorous activity of N. N. Wrangel coincided with the heyday of Russian art criticism. Engaged in the collection and organization of art exhibitions. The last exhibition, organized by N. N. Wrangel, was held in 1912.

In 1901, Baron Wrangel organized the exhibition "Russian Portraiture for 150 Years (1700-1850)", which opened in the halls of the Academy of Sciences in March 1902. The catalog of the exhibition, compiled by him, became the first printed work of N. N. Wrangel. In the same year, he took a long trip to Russian estates, along the Kama and the Volga, in order to search for works of art in them, in search of materials about the “Arzamas School” by A. V. Stupin , visited Arzamas.

In 1903, he took an active part in organizing the exhibition “Old Petersburg” on Morskaya Street, together with S. A. Shcherbatov and V. V. von Meck ; compiled a catalog of the exhibition. In March 1905, with the energetic participation of Wrangel, S. P. Diaghilev arranged an exhibition of portraits in the Tauride Palace, for which Baron N. N. Wrangel compiled a biographical index of artists and published an article about the exhibition in the journal Art, which was an attempt to give a historical overview of Russian painting.

In 1904, he also compiled and published a two-volume catalog with scientific commentaries, “ Russian Museum of Emperor Alexander III . Painting and sculpture. " A modern researcher notes:

Already in this edition the individual style of N. Wrangel was determined. He meticulously described works, collections, and exhibitions (the number of footnotes in some articles exceeds two hundred). Such an approach was supposed to affect the author’s life, filling it with intense, dedicated work in the archives, libraries, personal funds of St. Petersburg and Moscow, a close study of scripts in museums, private collections in Russia and Europe

In 1906 he entered the service of the painting department of the Imperial Hermitage and stayed there until 1908.

In 1907, the first issue of the magazine “ Old Years ” was published, in which Baron N. N. Wrangel became a permanent author: it published 47 of his messages and 23 articles.

"Wrangel was not an introverted specialist - a scientist. Wrangel was a public figure. Wrangel did not engage in the past. To find in him the creeping <...> power of oblivion. Wrangel in the past also looked for a clue to what modern Russia is. One excitement of his searches shows in it extraordinary love for the motherland, and from true love the direct road almost always leads to understanding. " - A.N. Benois

In 1907, he composed the section “Sculpture” for the “ History of Russian Art ” published by I. Knebel edited by I. Grabar . He worked in the general archive of the Ministry of the Imperial Court ^[2] .

In October 1908 he became one of the founders of the Museum of Old Petersburg ; in November, organized the exhibition "Old Years" at the St. Petersburg Society for the Promotion of Arts, accompanied by a scandal between Baron Wrangel and MP Botkin . At the end of the year he went abroad; visited Munich, as well as Rome, where, together with A. A. Trubnikov, studied the collections of Count G. S. Stroganov; traveled around Italy, visited Paris and The Hague. In the spring of 1909, after returning to St. Petersburg, he spent some time under arrest for “insulting the actions of MP Botkin”.

In the summer of 1909, together with A. A. Trubnikov ^{[3] he} traveled around 25 landlords' estates throughout Russia and wrote an article entitled “The Art of Landlord Russia”, published in 1910. In July, he visited the estates near St. Petersburg - the Potemkinskaya Dacha at the Ostrovka station, the Pella manor of Savva Yakovlev, and others; in August, together with S. Makovsky and A. Trubnikov, visited the estates near Moscow: Nikolskoye of Prince Golitsyn, Pokrovsky of Princess Shakhovskaya-Glebova-Streshneva. Also visited Kaluga, Orel, Ryazan, Tula. Wrangel compiled a list of estates, a description of their decoration, indicated the printed works where they were mentioned. At the exhibitions organized by him subsequently, attempts were made to recreate the atmosphere surrounding a particular thing, a detailed study of the estate culture of Russia of the XVIII century ^[4]

In October 1909, he was elected a member of the Directorate of the Museum of Old Petersburg .

In the spring of 1910, March 2, he was reinstated in the Imperial Hermitage; in April he went to Brussels for two months to participate in the organization of the Russian department at the International Exhibition.

In 1911 he began to edit the art and literary magazine Apollo - until November 1912.

In the spring of 1911 he organized an exhibition of A. G. Venetsianov from private collections, as well as a historical exhibition of architecture in the halls of the Imperial Academy of Arts. In April 1911, at the Society for the Protection and Preservation of Monuments of Art and Antiquities in Russia, he made a report on "Estate of Russia." From May to July 1911 - on a business trip abroad: Dresden, Frankfurt, Heidelberg, Reims, Paris, Copenhagen, Stockholm, at the end of July returned to St. Petersburg.

In November 1911, in Paris, he selected works for the exhibition "One Hundred Years of French Painting", which opened in January 1912 in the house of Countess Sumarokova-Elston on Liteiny Avenue. In December of the same year, he organized the exhibition “Orest Kiprensky in Private Collections” at the Russian Museum.

In 1912-1915, he lectured on the history of Russian and French painting at the Institute of the History of Arts of Count Zubov .

In 1912 he became the commissioner of the exhibition at the Academy of Sciences “Lomonosov and Elizabethan Time”, and then in the same place - a similar Romanov exhibition.

In September 1912 he took part in the international congress of historians in Rome.

August 3, 1912 became the Knight of the Order of the Legion of Honor .

He was on friendly terms with the artist Sergei Sudeikin , with the poet Mikhail Kuzmin .

April 30, 1913 opened the exhibition "The Legacy of the Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna" in the premises of the Imperial Hermitage.

From the beginning of World War I he worked in the Red Cross .

He died on June 15, 1915 from acute inflammation of the kidneys . N.N. Wrangel was buried on June 19, 1915 at the Nikolsky cemetery of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra .

In an obituary, Baron Wrangel A.N. Benois wrote:

... Wrangel stood out in Petrograd society (although in all of this there were few equal to him), his ardent passion, some kind of fanaticism, which gave it a shade of a sort of asceticism. And one could also say this: he was a hero and a knight of art, not without even many of the sacred features of quixoticism, thanks to which, in his short life, he experienced a lot of hard things, many things from which others flee and hide, which they fear more than illness and death . And the last act of Wrangel - his complete surrender to the activities of the Red Cross, was an expression of his heroism, chivalry, his vitality ...

- Benoit A. N. In memory of Wrangel // "The Modern Word". - July 1915. - No. 2680.

In 2009, the “St. Petersburg Society for the Study and Preservation of the Wrangel Heritage” was created ^[5] and the “Wrangel Wreath” campaign, held annually on June 28 at the Nikolsky Cemetery of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra, on the day of memory of Baron N. N. Wrangel, reborn grave (restored in 2004).

• Weiner P.P. Baron N.N. Wrangel. Biographical sketch // Wrangel N. N. Old estates. - SPb., 2000
• Wrangel, Nikolai Nikolaevich // New Encyclopedic Dictionary : In 48 volumes (29 volumes were published). - SPb. , Pg. , 1911-1916.
• Zolotinkina I. “Monokle glazed eye ...” Nikolai Wrangel, Baron and art critic // “ Our Heritage ”. - 2004. - No. 69 .
• Stikhina M. I. Nikolai Wrangel, a researcher of the work of F. S. Rokotov // Actual problems of the theory and history of art : collection of articles. scientific articles. Vol. 3. - St. Petersburg: NP-Print, 2013 .-- S. 269—273. - ISSN 2312-2129

• Andrey Trofimov (Alexander Trubnikov) From the Imperial Museum to the Flea Market. Per. from french. - M., Our Heritage Publishing House, 1999.
• Baron and Muse. Nikolai Wrangel. Pallas Bogdanova-Belskaya / Comp. A. A. Murashev, A. Yu. Skakov. - St. Petersburg: Kolo, 2001.
• “Documents from the archives of N. N. Wrangel” // “Monuments of culture. New discoveries". Yearbook. - 1990
• In memory of Nikolai Nikolaevich Wrangel // Prince Sergei Volkonsky. My memories. T. 1. - M., 1992. - P.74-82.
• Nikolai Wrangel Letters to Alexandre Benois // Our Heritage. - No. 37. - 1996. (Publication, introductory article and comments by A. P. Bannikov)

• Slepinin O. Baron Nikolai Wrangel. High minutes
• Annuaire officiel de la Légion d'Honneur de tous les membres au 1er janvier 1932. List of members of the Order of the Legion of Honor on January 1, 1932.