January 23, 2020 on the third floor of the main building of the Voronezh Regional Art Museum. I.N. Kramskoy exhibition will begin work “Morshansk antiquity.”

The exhibition presents a collection of folk everyday portrait from the collection of the Morshansky Museum of History and Art. It is dedicated to the celebration of the 240th anniversary of the merchant city of Morshansk, one of the original corners of Central Russia.

Being a rare and poorly studied layer of Russian national art, the national household portrait became a real discovery for modern culture. Performed by amateur icon-painters, artisans and signage-makers, the images of the motley people of a provincial city for a long time remained in the shadow of academic art. The theme of folk portraiture has become especially relevant at present. This is not only a unique form of primitive art. It shows the origins of the enthusiasm for portraiture in the general population, which today has acquired the highest degree of popularity in digital photo format.

The exhibition shows about 40 portraits of the inhabitants of Morshansk at the end of the 18th – beginning of the 20th centuries from the peasant and merchant-petty-bourgeois environment, made in the technique of oil painting on canvas and tin, as well as ink on cardboard.

The presented exhibits provide an opportunity to trace the canons and the main stages of the existence of the genre from the origin to the extinction, the onset of the era of photography. The most striking disclosure of portrait images is facilitated by historical photographs of Morshansk, various monuments of the merchants, bourgeois and old-believer life: costume, trading utensils, dishes, books, copper-cast icons.

The collection of portraits was formed by the founder of the museum, artist and archaeologist P.P. Ivanov in the 1920s and early 1930s as a local history material, which, according to Pyotr Petrovich, should eventually become an invaluable treasure for researchers. A feature of the demonstration of portraits is the original legends presented to them, recorded by the founder of the museum, P.P. Ivanov.

Folk household portrait is not only a work of art, but also an interesting historical source. Visitors to the exhibition will be able to immerse themselves in the atmosphere of old Morshansk during its heyday, when the country’s largest transit trade bread caravan was formed on the marinas of the city.

The cost of visiting the exhibition is 100 rubles for all categories of visitors
Members of the Union of Artists (upon presentation of a certificate) – free of charge.
Photography: mobile devices, the camera (no flash) – for free.
Amateur video recording (1 hour) – 300 rubles.

The exhibition runs until March 1, 2020.