Pavel Mikhailovich Tretyakov – Russian philanthropist
In the last decades before Christmas and the beginning of a new era in ancient Rome, lived a man who belonged to the rich and noble estate of the Roman horsemen. He did not hold any official government posts, but was an ardent supporter of Emperor Augustus, who was supported in the struggle for autocracy. From time to time he carried out the responsible assignments of the emperor, patronized and provided material support to young talents – talented poets Horace, Virgil and Propecia. True, for this reason he tried to influence them and use their creativity to glorify Emperor Augustus and the political system he created. This man’s name was Guy Tsilnyi Maecenas. He himself tried to do art, but the artistic level of his works was not very high. But the support and every possible contribution to the development of talents made the name of Maecenas a household name. Since then, they have come to be called wealthy patrons of arts and sciences.
In Russia, one of such people
P. Tretyakov came from the ancient Russian merchant family Tretyakov, which has been mentioned since the time of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich. The Tretyakov traded linen cloth and yarn, owned textile enterprises. For a long time Russian merchants collected various collections. For them it was an advantageous placement of capital. Merchants-Old Believers, for example, preferred old icons in precious salaries and early printed books. Other merchants preferred overseas wonders-various jewelry and ornaments.
However, the collection activities of P. Tretyakov had nothing to do with entrepreneurship and savings. P. Tretyakov pursued a higher and nobler goal.
According to his religious faith, merchant P. Tretyakov belonged to the Old Believers outside the church, who did not recognize the state church of the Moscow Patriarchate. The Old Believers completely rejected any painting and art. Contrary to these prejudices,
Another feature of the collection of P. Tretyakov was perfect disinterestedness. A textile monopolist, director of the board of the Association of the Novaya Kostroma Manufactory and a member of the board of the Moscow merchant bank, he possessed, so to speak, “absolute vision” – a special flair for artistic talent. And although with the artists he often calculated rather sparingly, but always honestly and openly. After all, P. Tretyakov himself, raised in the midst of the Old Believers, avoided in his everyday life luxury and excess.
Tretyakov bequeathed his collection as a gift to the ancient Russian capital. In the will it was said that this was done “on the arrangement in Moscow of an art museum, or public art gallery… from pictures of Russian artists” with the proviso that “the whole Russian people can use the collection, it is self-evident!”. P. Tretyakov wrote: “Somehow I involuntarily believe in my hope: our Russian school will not be later…”.
In the paintings that P. Tretyakov purchased for his collection, he was not looking for “no rich nature, no great composition, no spectacular lighting, no miracles.” He asked artists to portray a simple Russian nature, even the most unattractive, but “in order to be true, poetry, and poetry in everything can be, it’s the artist’s business.” Therefore, the gallery got pictures of A. Savrasov, landscapes of F. Vasiliev, I. Levitan, V. Serov, I. Ostrouhov and M. Nesterov. These artists managed to convey the modest poetry and charm of Russia.
P. Tretyakov enthusiastically welcomed the news that the battle artist B. Vereshchagin went to the Russian-Turkish war. He said: “Only in the distant future can the victim be brought by the Russian people…”.
But V. Vereshchagin had a different opinion: “… we disagree… in assessing my work… In front of me, as before the artist, a war, and I beat her, how much I have strength.”
P. Tretyakov replied: “Both you and I are not for the war, but against it… War is violence and the most brutal, who is for violence? But this war is exceptional, not with an aggressive goal, but with a liberation…” .
The basis of the moral convictions of P. Tretyakov was Orthodox patriotism. Despite this, he ordered the portraits of Russian writers and poets of different convictions – Pisemsky, Gogol, Ostrovsky, Shevchenko, Griboyedov, Fonvizin, Koltsov, Dostoyevsky, Maykov, Dahl, Saltykov-Shchedrin, Nekrasov, Aksakov, Tyutchev, Pirogov, Tolstoy. He even acquired from the artist N. Ge the portrait of the revolutionary rebel Herzen, who did not pay tribute to Orthodoxy.
With no less diligence and zeal, P. Tretyakov collected ancient Russian orthodox art. But as an Old Believer he always avoided secular and spiritual authorities. For example, on the day of visiting the gallery by St John of Kronstadt, Tretyakov left for his factory early in the morning: “Tell me that I was urgently summoned for several days by the firm’s affairs.” And in 1893 he refused from the nobility granted by the tsar: “I was born a merchant, a merchant and I will die.” With pride, he took only one title – Honorary Citizen of Moscow.
It would be a great injustice to the bright memory of a truly great philanthropist, if they did not mention that patronage of Tretyakov was not limited to the cares of the picture gallery. After all, he was also a member of the Board of Trustees for the Poor in Moscow and the Moscow Art Society, supported Arnold School for deaf and dumb children at his own expense and provided constant material assistance to individual talented artists and the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture.
In memory and respect of descendants, the younger brother of Tretyakov, Sergey Mikhailovich, deserves. Passionate collector of Western European painting, he also bequeathed his rich collection to Moscow.
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