From Tropinin to Serov: Art centre in Volkhonka now protected by state
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The three-storey revenue house, built in the late 18th – early 19th century, has been recognised as an identified cultural heritage site.
The house was built in the 1780s as a wing of an estate owned by privy counsellor, senator and diplomat Alexei Naryshkin (1742–1800.) The two-storey wing was designed by architect Yelizvoy Nazarov, a master of Classicism who also designed Strannopriimny House for Count Nikolai Sheremetev (1747–1822).
In the 19th century, the building became a revenue house, and the apartments inside were offered for rent. In 1879, it was rebuilt according to a design by architect Mikhail Nikiforov. An extra floor was added, facades were renovated and the layout was changed. On the ground floor, there was a grocery shop with an adjoining flat and on the first and second floors, there were two large flats, each with four rooms and an anteroom. They also had WCs, which was rare at that time.
The revenue house has survived until today in good condition. It is an example of a type of city architecture that changed during the 19th century. The façade retains the 1879 eclectic architectural style that uses such elements as rustication (stone covering), dripstones and keystones on the ground floor facades.
“In addition to its architectural importance, the building is also valuable as a memorial to famous 19th century Russian painters. Between 1831 and 1855, a flat on the first floor was rented to a famous artist and portrait painter, Vasily Tropinin (1776–1857). The windows of his flat looked out on the Kremlin. One of the rooms was used as a studio and another was a large hall. Tropinin moved into the flat from a neighbouring house (11 Volkhonka Street) in 1832. This is where, in the 1830s, Tropinin became a central figure in Moscow’s artistic life. According to the memoirs of his contemporaries, the artist often received guests and his front door was covered with the names of people who didn’t find him at home. Painter Karl Bryullov and sculptor Vitali visited him and wrote their names on the door,” said Head of the Department of Cultural Heritage Alexei Yemelyanov.
The window in the artist’s studio features in many of his paintings, with the most famous being a self-portrait with brushes and the Kremlin behind Tropinin’s back (1844). Tropinin tended to paint the window larger than it really was, emphasising its importance. He also changed the background behind the sitter in the picture.
In a portrait of his wife Anna Tropinina (1855), there is a realistic representation of what the studio really looked like. The small room has white walls, a wooden floor, simple furniture and a deep niche near a little window. Anna Tropnina died the same year, and the artist, suffering from grief, left the flat.
In the 1880s, after the revenue house was renovated, Peredvizhniki’s artist Vladimir Makovsky rented a flat on the second floor; and after October 1886, the studio was rented to other artists, such as Nikolai Tretyakov (1857–1896), Valentin Serov (1865–1911) and Mikhail Nesterov (1862–1942), as well as Ilya Ostroukhov (1858–1929), artist, museum specialist and a manager of the Tretyakov Gallery. It was Ostroukhov who came up with the idea of creating a joint studio. In 1888, he bought all the rooms on the second floor.
Between 1907 and 1918, artist and renovator Mark Yukhnevich (1865–1929) lived in a flat on the second floor. After 1900, he renovated an art gallery and headed the department of fine arts at the Rumyantsev Museum. He also restored pictures from the Tretyakov Gallery and the Museum of Fine Arts.
Protecting architectural landmarks
The status of a site identified as cultural heritage site provides the house on Volkhonka Street with state protection. Demolition and alteration of its historical appearance are prohibited.. Any repairs or renovation need to be approved byMoscow’s Department of Cultural Heritage and carried out under its direction.
The work to preserve and restore architectural landmarks in Moscow is carried out continuously. New landmarks are constantly added to the list of cultural heritage sites. Over the last seven years, about 700 landmarks received this status, including 370 identified cultural heritage sites and about 330 federal and regional cultural heritage sites.
Recently, the status was given to the building located at 9/4 Bolshaya Ordynka Street, bldg. 2. It was built in 1915 and designed by architect Kapitoly Dulin (1836–1933) as a revenue house with comfortable flats.
Another revenue house, the Schnaubert’s city estate on Khokhlovsky Pereulok built in the 18–19 century, was also recognised as a cultural heritage site, with three buildings named architectural landmarks: the main five-storey building and two nearby one-storey buildings, which were used as the service building and the caretaker’s house.
This June, the Krasheninnikov’s house, built in the early 19th century on Kozhevnicheskaya Street, was also declared an architectural landmark. The stone three-storey building with a basement is a regional cultural heritage site. Recently, an 18th–19th century city property on Starokirochny Pereulok was also named a regional cultural heritage site (the main building, caretaker’s house and the stone wall with gates are recognised as architectural landmarks).