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ArcheoBiblioBase: Archives in Russia: H-236

Last update of repository: 18 March 2020

Gosudarstvennyi Russkii muzei (GRM)


Otdel rukopisei—Vedomstvennyi arkhiv
[Division of Manuscripts—Agency Archive]


Holdings

Total: 211 fonds; 20,995 units; 1721–1987

The Division of Manuscripts contains the archives of various art institutions and the personal papers of many painters and art specialists, relating to the history of Russian art from the eighteenth through the twentieth century.
        The Agency Archive, which is a structural part of the Division of Manuscripts, holds the administrative records of the Russian Museum itself, along with those of its various predecessor components. Some museum records, however, such as those of the Division of Early Russian Painting and the Division of Early Russian Applied Arts, are kept within the individual divisions (see below).
        Among other institutional records is documentation of the New Society of Painters (Novoe obshchestvo khudozhnikov), the Youth League (Soiuz molodezhi), and the Circle of Lovers of Fine Editions (Kruzhok liubitelei iziashchnykh izdanii), including files relating to their organizational activities and exhibitions. These include draft foundation charters, protocols of meetings, exhibition catalogues, letters written by painters whose work has been shown at exhibitions, and financial documents. There is also some documentation regarding the Academy of Arts (although most of the prerevolutionary Academy records are in RGIA, and those from the Soviet period remain in RAKh). Among the earliest materials are some graduation testimonials and diplomas of V.L. Borovikovskii, M.I. Tankov, and F.I. Shubin, from the Academy of Arts; some documents relating to the architect Domenico Trezzini (1721–1722); and an early eighteenth-century manuscript medical compendium illustrated with drawings and engravings.
        Among the many fonds of personal papers are those of such nineteenth- and twentieth-century painters as K.P. and A.P. Briullov, M.V. Dobuzhinskii, P.N. Filonov, I.N. Kramskoi, I.E. Repin, A.I. and K.A. Somov, K.S. Petrov-Vodkin, and M.A. Vrubel'. The papers of the artist A.N. Benois also reflect his work as art critic and historian. There are personal papers of the sculptors L.V. Shervud (Sherwood) and S.D. Er'zia and the art historians and collectors, N.N. Vrangel', V.T. Georgievskii, and A.V. Prakhov. There are the manuscripts of monographs, articles, reports, and lectures as well as drawings and sketches. The division also contains documents on organizational activity and public participation in such art movements as the Peredvizhniki, or Association of Itinerant Art Exhibitions (Tovarishchestvo peredvizhnykh khudozhestvennykh vystavok), and the “World of Art” (Mir iskusstva). Personal documentation includes diaries, notebooks, memoirs, diplomas, correspondence, and photographs. The division also holds the personal papers of V.F. Eval'd (Ewald), who taught history to Grand Duke Alexander (Aleksandr) Aleksandrovich, later to become Emperor Alexander III.
        The P.Ia. Dashkov Collection contains the original works of painters and architects, personal albums devoted to the life and work of a number of artists, and the manuscripts of articles, together with documents, letters, photographs and drawings by such artists as M.M. Antokol'skii, I.N. Kramskoi, Auguste Ricard de Montferrand, A.M. Opekushin, Bartolomeo Carlo Rastrelli, I.E. Repin, Domenico Trezzini, V.M. Vasnetsov, and V.V. Vereshchagin.


Reference facilities:
There are inventory opisi for most fonds, and a card catalogue of personalia.


ABB ArcheoBiblioBase Archeo Biblio Base Patricia Kennedy Grimsted