Schukin, Sergey Ivanovich

Sergei Ivanovich Schukin hails from a merchant Old Believer family. The son of a famous manufacturer in Moscow - Old Believer Ivan Vasilievich Schukin . Brother of Dmitry , Ivan and Peter Schukin.

In childhood, did not study in educational institutions due to stuttering; only after treatment with Dr. Dengart he studied and graduated from the Higher Commercial Academy in Hera , Thuringia (1876). In the trading house "I. V. Schukin with his sons ”he became the successor of his father.

In 1884 he married Lydia Grigoryevna Koreneva (1863-1907), the daughter of the landowner of Yekaterinoslav; the family had three sons - Ivan, Sergey and Grigory - and daughter Catherine. Chamber music evenings were arranged at the Schukin's house in Bolshoi Znamensky Lane (No. 8).

In 1905, the youngest son Sergei disappeared from the house. According to rumors, he drowned ^[1] . Two years later, his wife died, who could not stand the grief ^[2] .

In 1906 he equipped a caravan and went on an expedition to Egypt ^[2] .

In 1910, he made a major donation to the University of Moscow : he financed the device of the Psychological Institute named after L. G. Shchukina . His contribution amounted to 100 thousand rubles for the construction of the building and 20 thousand rubles for the equipment of the institute ^[3] .

In 1915, S.I. Shchukin married a second time - to Nadezhda Afanasyevna Konyus (nee Mirotortseva; 1871-1954).

In May 1918, Shchukin’s gallery was nationalized, and Shchukin himself served as a keeper and guide in the gallery ^[4] . In August 1918 he emigrated to Germany. Leaving Moscow, Schukin requested that the husband and daughter of Catherine, Mikhail Pavlovich Keller, be kept as the keeper and librarian of his art gallery. Then he moved to France and settled in Nice .

He died in Paris in 1936. He was buried in the cemetery of Montmartre ^[5] , Avenue des Polonais 1-e Division.

Beginning of gathering

After the purchase of the mansion of the Princes Trubetskoys in Bolshoy Znamensky Lane in 1882, S.I.Schukin sold the princely collections of weapons and paintings of the Wanderers, acquiring in exchange several Norwegian landscapes by F. Taulov , which laid the foundation for his future collection.

Of his five brothers-collectors, Sergei Ivanovich Schukin was the last collector; until 1887, when he began to purposefully acquire paintings, he was engaged in commercial activities. Unlike most other Russian collectors of the turn of the 19th — 20th centuries, S. I. Schukin bought paintings to his taste, preferring the impressionists and then post-impressionists . In a short time he became one of the most beloved clients of Parisian gallery owners. Schukin maintained contact with the most famous of them, Paul Duran-Ruel ^[6] , and from Ambroise Vollard, Schukin acquired most of his paintings by Cezanne (he had 8 of them in all).

Schukin managed to collect the best examples of contemporary French art. He confessed to his daughter:

The collection was formed in two stages: in 1897-1906, Sergei Schukin acquired paintings by the impressionists, in 1906-1914 his interests moved to post-impressionism. Sergei Schukin often visited Paris and transferred a large amount to a separate bank account in Berlin to quickly pay for purchases. Sergey Schukin could later use this money when he was forced to emigrate.

In 1908, an article by P. P. Muratov, “Shchukin Gallery — An Essay on the History of Contemporary Art,” appeared in the magazine “Russian Thought”, in which the composition of the collection was first indicated and the will of the owner to transmit the collection to the Tretyakov Gallery as a gift was published. Since 1909, S.I.Schukin opened his mansion to all who wish to get acquainted with the collection, which caused some concern among the teachers of the Moscow School of Painting for their students.

After the February Revolution, Shchukin, in contrast to I. A. Morozov ^[7] , agreed to show his paintings to French socialist deputies Marius Mute and Marcel Cachen . According to the memoirs of P. A. Buryshkin , who was then a comrade of the mayor, Mute said:

You see, our bourgeoisie has missed all these treasures, and they don’t touch it, but yours has gathered them, and they will persecute you ^[8] .

Later, when Schukin was already living in Paris, one of the major art dealers suggested that he transfer free paintings of some artists so that they could claim that the famous collector was collecting their works. Schukin refused. According to P. A. Buryshkin, Sergei Ivanovich said that if he still collected, he would have collected paintings by Raoul Dufy . At the end of the 1920s, when some of the Russian emigrants began lawsuits about ownership of art objects remaining in Russia, it was rumored that Schukin would also sue his collection in court. According to Buryshkin, Schukin, in a conversation with him, refuted this statement, saying: “... I collected not only and not so much for myself, but for my country and my people. Whatever our land may be, my collections should remain there ” ^[9] .

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  Pierrot and Harlequin , Paul Cezanne , Pushkin Museum

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  “ Ah, are you jealous? ",
  Paul Gauguin , Pushkin Museum

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  Blue Dancers , Edgar Degas , Pushkin Museum

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  “ Girls in Black ”, Auguste Renoir , Pushkin Museum

Monet's paintings

It is believed that the first canvas of Monet , bought by him in November 1898 - "Rocks in Belle Ile" (Pushkin Museum). This was Monet's first painting to appear in Russia.

By the mid-1900s, he had acquired eleven paintings by the master (among them - “Lilac in the Sun” and “Rocks in Belle Ile”).

Subsequently, his collection was enriched with canvases by J. Whistler , Puvi de Chavannes , P. Signac , Henri Russo .

Matisse Pictures

Particularly close cooperation developed between Schukin and Henri Matisse , to whom Schukin ordered the panels “Music” and “Dance” , as well as “Harmony in Red (Red Room)”, specially ordered by Schukin in 1908 for the dining room. ^{[DocFilms 1] [DocFilms 2]}

Matisse’s paintings in the mansion, including “Ball Players”, were placed under the supervision of the artist himself during his arrival in Moscow. ^{[DocFilms 2]}

Gauguin's paintings

In the dining room of Shchukin’s mansion hung 16 paintings of Gauguin in a heavy hanging - they were shifted one to another so closely that at first the viewer did not even notice where one ends and the other begins. The impression of a fresco, an iconostasis, as noted by the Apollo magazine. 11 of them came from the collection of Gustav Faye, Schukin bought them in bulk at the Druet Gallery. True, Schukin could appreciate this artist only after some effort: having bought the first canvas, he hung it in his office and for a long time got used to it, considering it alone. But, having tried it, he bought up almost the entire Tahitian cycle. ^{[DocFilms 1]}

Picasso Paintings

Since Picasso refused to exhibit, Schukin got acquainted with his works, visiting private houses, in particular, the “salon” of Gertrude Stein and the meetings of her brothers Leo and Michael. Shchukin’s purchases included: “Absinthe lover”, “ Old Jew with a boy ”, “ Portrait of the poet Sabartes ”, other works of pink and blue periods, as well as cubist “Woman with a fan”, “Factory in the village of Horta de Ebro”. Schukin’s collection replenished the “Picasso” from the Stein collection, sold out in 1913. ^{[DocFilms 1]}

The fate of the collection

• 1918 , autumn - Lenin ’s decree was published on the nationalization of the gallery of Sergei Ivanovich Schukin, who had already emigrated by that time ^[10] . The guardian is assigned the daughter of Schukin - Ekaterina Sergeevna Keller.
• 1919 , spring - the collection is open to the public under the name "The First Museum of New Western Painting".
• 1929 - the collection is connected to the Morozov collection (“The Second Museum of New Western Painting”) and moved to the former mansion of Ivan Morozov, which is called the State Museum of Contemporary Art ( State Museum of New Western Art ).
• 1948 - GMNZI disbanded in the wake of the campaign against cosmopolitanism . Many paintings are in danger of destruction. But still they are divided between the Hermitage and the Pushkin Museum.

Cost Estimates

According to estimates of the Sotheby's auction house, the cost of the collection of Sergei Ivanovich Schukin for 2012 amounted to 8.5 billion US dollars ^{[11] [12] [13]} .

• Grandson - Andre-Marc Deloc-Fourco (b. 1942), French and Russian art collector. June 13, 2019 received Russian citizenship .

• Demskaya A.A., Semenova N. Yu. U Shchukin on Znamenka ... - M .: Arena, 1993. - ISBN 5-87474-009-0 .
• Gorbushina N.V. Schukin and his brothers // Local Lore of Moscow (Historians and connoisseurs of Moscow). - M .: "The Book Garden", 1997. - S. 111-113. - 464 p.
• Buryshkin P.A. Moscow merchant. - M .: Capital, 1990. ISBN 5-7055-1136-1 . - S. 140-143.
• Natalia Semenova . "The life and collection of Sergei Ivanovich Schukin." - M .: Trefoil, 2002. - ISBN 5-89480-046-3 . ( Abstract in the journal "Russian Art")
• Natalia Semenova . "Moscow collectors." - M .: Young Guard, 2010. - ISBN 978-5-235-03319-1
• Oleg Neverov . "Private collections of the Russian Empire." - M., 2004. - ISBN 5-85050-833-3
• E. Yu. Gorbunova. Philanthropists and philanthropists in the history of Moscow University / Editor: V. I. Tropin. - M .: Publishing house of Moscow University, 2010. - 320 p. - ISBN 978-5-211-05745-6 .
• Polyakova O. B. Schukin brothers - entrepreneurs and collectors // Russia and the modern world. - 2005. - No. 2 (47). - S. 208-217.

• On the fiftieth anniversary of the Moscow collector // website of the Pushkin Museum.
• Lukov Vl. A. Schukin Sergey Ivanovich (neopr.) (Unavailable link) . Electronic Encyclopedia "Modern French Literature" (2011). Date of treatment November 13, 2011. Archived March 5, 2016.
• Scandalous grandson of a brilliant grandfather // "Rossiyskaya Gazeta". - Federal issue number 3584.
• Shchukin in History
• Eye of God (1 episode) // Leonid Parfyonov .