Д. А. Шмидт об исследовательских отделах картинных галерей

Abstract

One of the most topical issues in the museum history is the question of the relationship between international and national principles in museum practice and museological thought. In this article, using the example of a report read by the curator of the Hermitage Picture Gallery, James Alfredovich Schmidt (1876–1933) at the Institute of Art History in 1926, the author shows the connection between international trends and early Soviet museological thought. Schmidt’s report is based on the idea of the need to divide the collection of an art museum (picture gallery) into two parts. One part should include the most significant works and be intended for the public. The second – the research department – should be oriented to the work of experts. We find the same ideas in the most significant international research projects in museology of the era – volumes of articles «Museums: An International Study on the Reform of Public Galleries» (1931) and «Museography: Architecture and Organization of Art Museums» (1935). The author establishes a connection between these ideas and the concept of the canon, which was forming in this period, in relation to the history of art.