THE PUSHKIN MUSEUM, Moscow
How to get there:
Underground to Kropoktinskaia
Opening hours:
Tuesday/Sunday 10-20
Closed on Monday

The museum was officially set up in 1912, at a time when there was a growing awareness of the value of art as a means of social education. In reality the idea had been put forward much earlier. Its origins lie in the Cabinet of Fine Arts, which in the middle of the nineteenth century consisted of a collection of sculptures and a library of books on the history of ancient art with an essentially educational purpose. The Russian intelligentsia had donated considerable sums for the construction of the new museum, and the nationalization of private collections after the Revolution made it possible to enrich it substantially. Between 1923 and 1924 the collections of Western works of art in the Tretyakov Gallery and the Rounyantsev Museum were transferred to the Pushkin. A number of paintings were also brought to Moscow from the Hermitage and a policy of systematic completion of the collections was followed, with the purchase of works by Monet, Matisse, Cézanne, Sisley, Picasso, and many other artists.