Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow (must see)

The Tretyakov Gallery is one of the principal museums of Russian art. Its founding is traditionally dated to 1856, when merchant and collector Pavel Tretyakov acquired his first painting by a Russian artist, Vasily Khudyakov’s Skirmish with Finnish Smugglers.

Tretyakov developed the collection with the aim of creating a broad survey of Russian art and in 1892 donated his collection, together with that of his late brother Sergei and the gallery property, to the city. The historic façade was rebuilt in 1902–1904 according to a design based on drawings by artist Viktor Vasnetsov, using forms inspired by traditional Russian architecture. The historic gallery presents Russian art from the eleventh to the early twentieth century, including medieval icons, eighteenth- and nineteenth-century painting, sculpture, and graphic art. Its holdings include works by major artists such as Ilya Repin, Ivan Shishkin, Ivan Kramskoi, Vasily Surikov, Isaac Levitan, Viktor Vasnetsov, and Alexander Ivanov, along with important examples of Old Russian icon painting. Andrei Rublev’s Trinity was one of the gallery’s most famous works for nearly a century, but it is no longer displayed there: in 2024 the icon was transferred to the Trinity Cathedral of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, where it remains as of 2026. The institution now operates across several buildings and branches. The historic complex concentrates on Old Russian art and Russian painting, sculpture, and graphics through the early twentieth century, while the New Tretyakov Gallery presents twentieth- and twenty-first-century art, including the avant-garde, Socialist Realism, nonconformist art, and later movements.

This division allows visitors to follow Russian art from medieval religious traditions through Realism and Symbolism to the major artistic movements of the modern era.