4/17/2016 Radishchev Art Museum

 Dasha, Alyona and I went to the Radishchev Art Musem, another glimpse into Russian culture and history. The building is well kept and the variety of art well displayed.  We'll copy part of the history:

The Radishchev Museum in Saratov opened to the public on June 29, 1885. It is supposed to have been Russia's first major public art museum outside Mocow or St. Petersburg. Moscow or St. Petersburg. It was founded by Alexey Bogolyubov and named after his grandfather, the 18th-century revolutionary writer Alexander Radishchev. The naming of the museum after the "first Russian revolutionary", Alexander Radishchev, was a direct challenge to the authorities: Bogolyubov had to endure a legal battle to get permission. It was the first art museum in Russia open to everybody. It was opened to the general public seven years earlier than the Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow and fifteen years earlier than the Russian Museum in Saint Petersburg.

This tapestry covers one wall - the detail is so much more impressive than we can show here.

The artist even painted himself into the picture - the one in red facing front.

 The building is filled with art of every kind.

 This 18th Century chandelier originally had candles instead of lights, a picture doesn't do it justice.

A sample of some of the paintings

 Piano - kind of funny shaped so different sound.

 They have also more modern painters - not "modern" meaning our day, but modern meaning substantially later than the others. Although we probably wouldn't hang them in our home, some are kind of fun: