Abramtsevo () is a former country estate and now museum-reserve located north of Moscow, in the proximity of Khotkovo, that became a centre for the Slavophile movement and an artists' colony in the 19th century. The estate is located in the village of Abramtsevo, in Sergiyevo-Posadsky District of Moscow Oblast. The Abramtsevo Museum-reserve site is an object of cultural heritage in Russia.

History

thumb|200px|Wooden studio with [[Mikhail Vrubel's collection of the folk art]]

Originally owned by the author Sergei Aksakov, other writers and artists — such as Nikolai Gogol — at first came there as his guests. Under Aksakov, visitors to the estate discussed ways of ridding Russian art of Western influences to revive a purely national style. In 1870, eleven years after Aksakov's death, it was purchased by Savva Mamontov, a wealthy industrialist and patron of the arts.

Under Mamontov, Russian themes and folk art flourished there. During the 1870s and 1880s, Abramtsevo hosted a colony of artists who sought to recapture the quality and spirit of medieval Russian art in a manner parallel to the Arts and Crafts movement in Great Britain. Several workshops were set up there to produce handmade furniture, ceramic tiles, and silks imbued with traditional Russian imagery and themes.

Working together in a cooperative spirit, the artists Vasily Polenov and Viktor Vasnetsov designed a plain but picturesque church, with murals painted by Polenov, Vasnetsov and his brother, a gilded iconostasis by Ilya Repin and Mikhail Nesterov, and folklore-inspired sculptures by Viktor Hartmann and Mark Antokolsky. Towards the turn of the 20th century, drama and opera on Russian folklore themes (e.g., Rimsky-Korsakov's The Snow Maiden) were produced in Abramtsevo by the likes of Konstantin Stanislavsky, with sets contributed by Vasnetsov, Mikhail Vrubel, and other distinguished artists.

On August 12, 1977, by the decree of the Council of Ministers of Soviet Russia, the Abramtsevo Museum-Estate was transformed into the State Historical, Artistic and Literary Museum-Reserve Abramtsevo. In 1995, it was classified as cultural heritage monument of federal significance.

Museum

Abramtsevo is now open to the public and tourists can wander along the many paths through the surrounding forest and cross the wooden bridges that served as an inspiration for the artists at the Abramtsevo Colony. They can also visit many of the buildings to see works produced by the artists at the colony, e.g., a wooden bathhouse in the shape of a traditional dwelling of Ancient Rus, designed by Ivan Ropet, and the House on Chicken Legs, a fairy-tale abode of an evil witch, Baba Yaga, designed by Vasnetsov. One building, the main "manor," is said to have been the model for the estate in which Anton Chekhov set The Cherry Orchard.

<gallery widths="140px" heights="130px" perrow="6">

Abramtsevo ManorHouse 3038.JPG | Manor House

Малиновая гостиная абрамцевского дома.jpg | The crimson living room

Баня-теремок в Абрамцево. Постройка в «русском стиле» сооружена в 1877–1878 гг. Московская обл.jpg | The bathhouse-teremok

Печь в бане-теремке в Абрамцево. Московская обл.jpg | Stove with tiles in the bathhouse

Мост в Абрамцево.jpg|Vorya river

Véra Répine se promenant au parc d'Abramtsevo - Ilia Répine - musée des Beaux-Arts Pouchkine МЛК ЖР 83.jpg | Ilya Repin, "Summer landscape", 1879

Abramtsevo UpperPond 3156.JPG | The upper pond in the park

Поленов Река Воря.jpg | Vasily Polenov, "Vorya river", 1881

Church of Holy Mandylion in Abramtsevo.jpg | Church of the Savior of the Holy Image

Каменная резьба фасада Абрамцевской церкви.jpg | Church facade, stone carving

Усадьба Абрамцево - Бывший лечебный корпус.jpg | Former medical building

Кухня в усадьбе Абрамцево. Московская обл.jpg | Superintendent's house

Abramtsevo VrubelsBench 3147.JPG | Vrubel's bench

Усадьба Абрамцево - Каменная Женщина.jpg | Stone woman

AVasnetsov Abramtsevo horizons.jpg | Viktor Vasnetsov, «Abramtsevo panoramas», 1880–1886

2019 The Abramtsevo Oak RU.jpg | Old oak

S.F.Mamontova by I.Repin (1879).jpg | Ilya Repin, "Portrait", 1879

RUSMARKA-1975.jpg | Postage stamp with tiles

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See also

thumb|200px|[[Ilya Repin: Autumn day in Abramtsevo, 1880 painting]]

  • Aksakov Museum

Further reading

  • William Craft Brumfield. The Origins of Modernism in Russian Architecture (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991)

References

  • The Moscow Times on Abramtsevo
  • Abramtsevo Museum-Reserve, history and facts - [English]