The Kozma Soldatenkov Art Collection at the Rumyantsev Museum: History and Characteristics of Museumization

Abstract

The article analyzes the role of the art collection of the Moscow Old Believer merchant, publisher and textile manufacturer Kozma Terentyevich Soldatenkov (1818-1901) in the formation of the Moscow Public and Rumyantsev Museums. One of the earliest Moscow collections was assembled by Soldatenkov for nearly 50 years, and was exhibited in his mansion on Myasnitskaya Street. It included works of Russian and Western European art of the mid- and second half of the 19th century. After the collector died in 1901, in accordance with his will, the collection was transferred to the Moscow Public and Rumyantsev Museums. However, the collector’s desire to exhibit his collection in the same room was not achieved due to a lack of space in the museum: the collection was divided into two parts. This continued despite the construction of a separate building for the Museum’s art gallery on Starovagankovsky Pereulok. Although the Soldatenkov Collection was a significant part of Moscow’s art culture during the period in question, its owner was well known in the second half of the 19th century thanks to his publishing activity and patronage of art, and took part in the foundation of the Rumyantsev Museum. Archive materials, including the collection’s catalogues, and documents from the manuscript department of the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, allow us to conclude that the staff of the Rumyantsev Museum was interested in the scientific grouping and classification of works according to aesthetic and chronological categories. Thus, the museumization of the collection was a new stage in its history and contributed to the formation of the attitude towards Soldatenkov’s collection in subsequent years as a significant phenomenon in Moscow’s art culture, including the scientific community.