In June 1899 the Moscow City Duma approved Regulations for the Management of the Tretyakov Gallery.
It was decided to organize the Board of Trustees - a corporate body in
charge of the Gallery's work. Besides the City Mayor Prince V.M.
Golitsyn (Head of the Board), it included V.A. Serov, the representative of Russian artists, I.S. Ostroukhov and I.E. Tsvetkov,
representatives of Moscow collectors. The Tretyakov familyΓÇÖs delegate
to the Board was Alexandra, the second daughter of P. Tretyakov.
What should be done with TretyakovΓÇÖs
family house was high on the BoardΓÇÖs agenda. In March 1899, Vera
Tretyakova died. Tretyakov's daughters
were married and lived separately in their own houses. The empty house
was a threat to the collection because of the possibility of a fire. It
was therefore decided to reconstruct the living quarters of the house, making it part and parcel of the Gallery.
There were the following premises on the
ground floor of the reconstructed house: Pavel TretyakovΓÇÖs library, a
trade outlet where visitors could buy catalogues and photos of the
Gallery's paintings, a cloak-room, offices and other services. In May
1900 at the meeting of the Board in the presence of the artists V.M. Vasnetsov, V.D. Polenov and several Moscow architects, it was suggested that the new facade of the Gallery be shaped in Russian style. The construction of the new facade was launched in 1902 under the supervision of V.M. Vasnetsov and was completed in 1904. It became the symbol of the Tretyakov Gallery.
Inconveniences arising from the construction did not stop visitors from
coming in growing numbers - 130.548 people visited the Gallery in 1903
alone.
Members of the Board were especially keen
to acquire paintings by contemporary artists. They were fascinated with
the work of young Petersburg artists, who in 1898 established the World of Art Association, as well as with the work of Moscow artists from the Union of Russian Artists, and exhibitors of the Blue Rose exhibition. 67 artworks were acquired in the first three years of the BoardΓÇÖs existence. Among them the following paintings: "Alyonushka" (1881) by V.M. Vasnetsov, works of L.S. Bakst, A.M. Vasnetsov, A.N. Benois, K.A. Korovin, I.I. Levitan, F.A. Malyavin and sculptures created by P.P. Trubetskoy. Somov's canvas "The Lady in Blue" (1897-1900) enriched the collection round about the same time as well as masterpieces of old masters, such as portraits by D.G. Levitsky and V.L. Borovikovsky.
In 1899 the Board received 62 icons from
Pavel TretyakovΓÇÖs heirs. They had been bequeathed by the museum's
founder. The icons were scrutinized by the famous Byzantine researcher
and expert on Old Russian art N.P. Likhachov. After they were attributed by the expert they were displayed to the public in 1904. Professor N.P. Kondakov, artist V.M. Vasnetsov, Board members I.E. Tsvetkov and I.S. Ostroukhov
had helped to organize the exhibit. Later, in 1913-1915, when the
Gallery's exposition was fundamentally altered under the supervision of
I.E. Grabar, the icons placing remained unchanged.
Pavel TretyakovΓÇÖs successors published
annual catalogues, an undertaking initiated by Tretyakov himself back
in 1893. Several editions were published in French, English and German.
They were quite cheap and served as guides to the Gallery's halls.
In 1905-1912 the Board aimed to acquire
new canvases as a matter of top priority. Thus the following remarkable
paintings were acquired: "Whirlwind" (1906) by F.A. Malyavin, "Elisium" (1906) by L.S. Bakst. In 1907 the Gallery acquired the marvellous painting "Emerald Necklace" (1903-1904) by V.E. Borisov-Musatov and "Versailles Fantasy" (1906) by A.N. Benois. In 1910 the collection was enriched by the paintings "At the Dressing-Table. Self-Portrait" (1909) by Z.E. Serebryakova, who was not yet famous then, and "From the Window of the Old House. Vvedenskoye" (1897) by M.V. Yakunchikova-Veber, a talented woman artist who died at a young age.
That period also saw the formation of an interesting collection of Serov's paintings, including the famous "The Rape of Europa" (1910). During I.S. Ostroukhov trusteeship the Gallery acquired a series of canvases by old masters. Portraits by F.S. Rokotov, D.G. Levitsky, V.L. Borovikovsky, paintings by N.N. Ghe and I.E. Repin adorned the collection.
After prominent museum figures, invited as
experts, examined the state of the Tretyakov Gallery in 1911 they came
to the conclusion that the Gallery badly needed fundamental
reconstruction. "The museum of arts - their conclusion read - is a
complex integral organism, and primarily it is an esthetic phenomenon
in itself".
On the 2nd of April 1913 the Moscow City Duma elected Igor E. Grabar, a remarkable artist, architect and historian, Trustee of the Tretyakov Gallery. R.I. Klein
and A.P. Langovoy joined the GalleryΓÇÖs Board. Vera P. Ziloti, the elder
daughter of Pavel Tretyakov, became the family representative on the
Board. From the previous staff of the Board only the prince S.A.
Shcherbatov, artist and collector, remained on the new Board.
The 1910s were marked by concerted
research in the arts and also saw the emergence of a new science
concerned with the study of museum life. Even before Grabar's
appointment to the post of the Gallery's trustee, he noted museums'
popularity, emphasizing their importance. He realized that the
reorganization of the Tretyakov Gallery should involve many aspects -
artistic, scientific, educational-enlightening and social.
Much-needed reforms were carried out during the "reign" of Grabar,
which turned the Gallery into a museum of a European type, something
that Grabar himself thought was the most important achievement.
The reorganized museum was opened to the
public in early December 1913 to mark 15 years since Pavel TretyakovΓÇÖs
death. It was generally considered that the new arrangement of exhibits
had been completed, but actually only the first and most laborious
phase had been finished. Work on the exposition continued well into the
late December of 1915. In January 1916 Duma functionaries surveyed the new exposition. By twelve votes against two the commission approved of the great work to rearrange the exposition.
Structurally, the exposition was divided
into large parts, each occupying a whole floor of the museum. The
exposition route started from Old Russian Art to trace important phases
of the development of Russian painting all the way to the 1900s.
The ground floor halls displayed drawings,
water-colours, pastels, works of foreign masters, and paintings of
artists, who had not been represented in the Gallery when Pavel
Tretyakov was alive. In the halls of foreign artists the highlight of the exposition was the collection of Mikhail A. Morozov. It was bequeathed to the Gallery according to his will in 1910. The brilliant collection featured masterpieces by C. Monet, E. Manet, P.-A. Renoir, V. van Gogh, P. Gauguin and other celebrated artists. Today all these paintings take price of place at the Hermitage collection and the collection of the State Museum of Fine Arts.
During the reorganization of the Gallery a
good deal of work was done to attribute and calendar each single
artwork, restore works that wanted restoration and photograph them. Grabar was concerned not only with the proper storing of artworks, but also with their publication. All negatives, which were kept in Knebel's Publishing House were destroyed in 1915 during a pogrom connected with events of the
First World War. In 1916, Grabar resumed his work to
photograph artworks of the Tretyakov Gallery.
In 1913-1917 acquiring new paintings for
the Gallery's collection still occupied a central place in the
GalleryΓÇÖs work. The arts market had undergone considerable change by
that time. On the eve of the First World War and especially during it
prices of artworks, especially "antique", increased tremendously. A lot
of nouveau riches rushed to buy up paintings. The growing interest in
icons and paintings dating from the 18th and early 19th centuries
hindered the acquisition of new artworks. The museum's budget could not
stand this competition. Nevertheless, the Gallery managed to acquire
works of M. Shibanov, studies of K.P. Bryullov, "Portrait of A.M. Izmailova" (1759) by A.P. Antropov, portraits by D.G. Levitsky, "Portrait of A.S. Pushkin" (1827) by O.A. Kiprensky, which Pavel Tretyakov had wanted to have in his museum for a long time.
The portrait of M.M. Antokolsky (1884) by V.M. Vasnetsov entered the collection, as well as theater sketches by B.M. Kustodiev and paintings by artists of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, such as A.P. Ryabushkin, K.A. Korovin, V.E. Borisov-Musatov, A.N. Benois. Graphic works by V.A. Serov, landscapes by I.I. Levitan, sculptures by S.M. Volnukhin and A.S. Golubkina
enlarged the collection of the museum. Not only acknowledged artists
were represented in the Gallery, but also their young successors: P.V. Kuznetsov, M.S. Sariyan, N.S. Goncharova, I.I. Mashkov, P.P. Konchalovsky and K.S. Petrov-Vodkin had their paintings displayed in the museum.
The main results of the museum's reconstruction and reorganization were reflected in the Gallery's catalogue,
released in 1917. It was different from the previous editions to a
great extent, considering that it was a scientific catalogue covering
the Gallery's collection up to 1917. It also served as a guide to the
new exposition. For the first time the catalogue featured essays on Pavel and Sergei Tretyakov
and the history of the collection. It also included the new layout of
the exposition and a clear-cut description of the history of the
Russian art.
Revolutionary events in February 1917 prompted I. Grabar to establish in Moscow the Union of Artistic Curators, which was later renamed the Moscow Union of Museum and Private Depository Experts. I. Grabar was elected its first chariman. Some of the Gallery's Board members also entered the Union. They were R.I. Klein, A.M. Skvortsov and N.G. Mashkovtsev. In a letter to A.N. Benois on the 2nd of June 1917, Grabar emphasized the fact that the Union included "not only museum experts, but also private collectors who own high profile collections of national importance".
At that time the Gallery began accepting artworks from different private collections for temporary storage. Among them were paintings from the collection of M.S. and C.S. Baryshnikov, which apart from artworks by foreign masters featured the "Lace Maker" (1823) by V.A. Tropinin.
From April to December 1917, paintings and drawings from the collections of E.V. Borisova-Musatova and M.P. Ryabushinsky were delivered to the Gallery for temporary storage. The brilliant collection of V.O. Ghirshman was also stored in the Gallery. It featured such masterpieces as "Seated Demon" (1890) by M.A. Vrubel, "Portrait of H.L. Ghirshman" (1907) by V.A. Serov, canvases by Z.E. Serebryakova, K.A. Somov, V.I. Surikov, P.A. Fedotov and I.I. Shishkin.
The famous "Portrait of A.A. Chelishchev" (1808-1809) by O.A. Kiprensky, prominent canvases by F.S. Rokotov, D.G. Levitsky, V.A. Tropinin and A.G. Venetsianov, which adorn the collection of the Tretyakov Gallery now, originate from the collection of E.P. Nosova.
A series of paintings by contemporary artists, among which there was the masterpiece of V.A. Serov "Mika Morozov" (1901), were also handed over to the Gallery for temporary storage in 1917. They supplemented the collection of M.A. Morozov bequeathed to the Gallery in 1910, which included brilliant works by V.M. Vasnetsov, M.A. Vrubel, K.A. Korovin, I.I. Levitan and other artists.
Since most works deposited for temporary storage remained in the museum for good, by 1918 the Tretyakov Gallery had acquired the status of the most prominent collection of national art.