Gorky's house on Malaya Nikitskaya Shekhtel. The mansion of S.P. Ryabushinsky on Malaya Nikitskaya. Unforgettable experiences for little money

The first documentary mention of the name “Kuskovo” dates back to the 16th century, when Alexander Andreevich Pushkin exchanged the village for the Bezhet estate of the Sheremetevs, then still a boyar family. Kuskovo became an estate only two centuries later, probably after Boris Petrovich Sheremetev received the title of count for suppressing the Astrakhan uprising (1706). However, Kuskovo gained its fame as a summer residence under his son, Pyotr Borisovich, and there are several reasons for this.

The first reason is trivial. The Sheremetevs owned only a “piece” of territory, surrounded by the lands of Prince Alexei Mikhailovich Cherkassky. His daughter, Varvara Alekseevna Cherkasskaya, was considered the richest bride of that time. After the wedding, as a dowry, Count Sheremetev received 70 thousand souls of peasants and the nearby territory - the village of Veshnyakovo, thus receiving both the means and the territory to carry out his plans.

The second reason can be considered the very character and inclinations of Pyotr Borisovich. Having received a musical education in Paris, he loved theater and knew a lot about art. Is it any wonder that his estate was built in the European style, and the Kuskovo fortress theater was considered one of the most outstanding in Russia?

Kuskovo Estate

The construction of the estate was carried out in several stages. The first and most difficult was draining the swamps, but Count Sheremetev’s multimillion-dollar fortune allowed him not to skimp on expenses.

The main ensemble was formed already in the 50-70s of the 18th century. The center of the complex is the Grand Palace, adjacent to it is the House Church with a bell tower (the very first stone building) and a kitchen wing. Together these buildings form the ensemble of the Court of Honor. Adjacent to the Palace on the inside is a garden and park complex, now the only French regular park preserved in Moscow. Among the alleys are the Dutch House (the first park building), the Grotto, the Grotto, the Hermitage, the Italian House, the American Greenhouse and the Swiss House.

Kuskovo has its own system of ponds and canals, which close to Big pond, on the banks of which the ensemble of the Honorable Court is located. The pond played not so much an aesthetic as a practical (entertainment) role - guests rode boats, fished, and on holidays there were even fights involving sailing yachts.

Court of Honor

House Church of the All-Merciful Savior- the first stone building of the Kuskovo ensemble. Built in 1737 in Baroque style. Unfortunately, the statues with which it was decorated have not survived, but four figures of the apostles can still be seen on the octagonal drum. The aluminum cross on the dome is held by an angel with open wings. All this gives the church the splendor that is necessary for a building located next to the central entrance of the Grand Palace. In 1792, serf architects Grigory Dikushin and Alexei Mironov built a wooden bell tower with eight bells nearby.

Great Sheremetev Palace built in the style of early Russian classicism in 1769-75. on the shore of the Big Pond. The building was built under the supervision of the Moscow architect Karl Blanc, but it is believed that the project itself is French. This completely wooden building, with the exception of the stone base, has two floors: the first was intended for receiving guests in the summer, the second floor, on a high base, was for utility rooms. The facade is decorated with three columned porticoes: a six-column one precedes the entrance to the palace, and two two-column ones decorate the side projections of the facade. The central portico is decorated with magnificent carvings and a count's crown; a wide white stone staircase leads to it, and two ramps decorated with figures of sphinxes adjoin the sides.

The premises of the palace form a suite: entrance hall, Trellis room, Raspberry living room, State bedroom, office, sofa room, library, painting room and dance hall. Expensive materials were used for decoration: bronze, silk tapestries, carpets. The floor is made of stacked parquet. However, it is worth noting that a cheaper and faster method was also used for decoration: glued paper, which was applied to the walls, and then painted and gilded.

Most of the paintings and furniture were made by serf craftsmen (father and son Argunovs, etc.). The painting room featured works by European artists. The largest room of the palace is the dance hall, which opens onto the park. The entire ceiling of the room is decorated with a huge painting-plafond, there are picturesque panels above the doors, the white and gilded walls are hung with a large number of mirrors, which allows you to visually expand the free space even more. The hall was illuminated by two crystal chandeliers, wall candelabra - girandoles and marble statues with lamps.

Completes the ensemble Kitchen outbuilding, built in 1755 by serf architect Fyodor Argunov.

Regular French park

The doors of the dance hall opened onto the lawn-parterre, which closes the Great Greenhouse. The park itself occupied an area of ​​approximately 30 hectares and consisted of two parts: regular (parterre) and landscape. The landscape part is located to the north of the greenhouse, its essence is to preserve the original state of nature of that area. The regular part - an ensemble of alleys, ponds and canals - is built according to a geometric principle. The alleys running along both sides of the lawn parterre then converged and formed “stars”, diverging into many paths, each of which ended in a pavilion or sculpture. In the center of the ground floor there is a marble column with a statue of Minerva. Scattered throughout the park were swings, carousels, aviaries with songbirds, and places for games such as bowling. It should be noted that 200-year-old larches are still preserved in the park.

Dutch house It is considered the oldest park building. It was built in 1749-51. designed by an unknown architect. The building is located directly at the central entrance to the complex on the shore of a small pond. It is believed that it paid tribute to Peter I and his passion for Holland. The Dutch house is unmistakable due to its characteristic stepped roof and brick-colored walls. The interior is lined with Dutch tiles.

Italian house is located in the eastern part of the park, on the shore of the Italian pond, strictly symmetrically to the Dutch one. Built in 1754-55. serf architects Fedor Argunov and Yuri Kologrivov. Next to the building there is a small Italian-style garden with statues and small fountains. In the 18th century, the Italian House served as a room for home receptions.

Grotto is located on the western shore of the Italian Pond. The work was started by Fyodor Argunov and completed in 55-61. after his death. The interior of the pavilion is designed in a style that imitates an underwater cave: the walls in the main hall imitate marble, and in the side halls they are covered with patterns of shells and stones. Small corridors are decorated with panels made of sea shells, mother of pearl and stones of various sizes. The ribs of the dome imitate a fountain, the waters of which unite and smoothly flow into a single high stream - the spire of the building. This is the only building of this kind in Russia with a completely preserved interior.

Opposite the Grand Palace, closing the parterre lawn, there is a building Large stone greenhouse– a pavilion in which exotic plants were grown. This unique structure was built in 1761-54 by the same Fyodor Argunov. In the center there is an octagonal dance hall, on the second floor of which the musicians were located; It is flanked on both sides by glazed greenhouses. Today the building houses Museum of Ceramics, whose collection is considered one of the best in Russia.

A little further east was American greenhouse. Unfortunately, the original building has not been preserved and a modern reconstruction is located in its place. Today, the main collection of the Museum of Ceramics is located here.

Opposite the Great Stone Greenhouse was Air theater, an open-air building that hosted European operas and ballet entertainment. Sheremetev’s troupe consisted of more than 200 people (actors, dancers, singers, decorators, musicians), including the debut of Praskovya Zhemchugova (Kovaleva) in the role of a maid in the comic opera “The Test of Friendship.” There were also two more theaters operating on the territory of the estate, Small And Big, however, all of them have not survived. This is partly due to the fact that Count Nikolai Petrovich Sheremetev, tired of ridicule regarding his wedding to a former serf, moved to Ostankino in 1995, where he built a new theater. His son, Dmitry Nikolaevich Sheremetev, was not interested in the theater, which led the buildings in Kuskovo to even greater desolation. Finally, during the Patriotic War of 1812, the estate was devastated by the French and later restored only partially, thus depriving us of the opportunity to see all three buildings.

Hermitage Pavilion was built by Karl Blank in the style of early Russian classicism in 1765-67. The centric structure encloses eight park alleys. Just like another building of this architect - the Grand Palace, the Hermitage was intended for receiving guests, but personal, intimate conversations were held here, without noise, pomp and servants. In order not to violate privacy, a special lifting table was even built, which was covered below and, using a mechanism, raised to the second, main floor.

Swiss house- the latest building of the Kuskovo ensemble. The building dates back to 1860-70, author – Nikolai Benois. The first floor with windows is built of small bricks, and the second is wooden, with rich carvings, which is characteristic of the Swiss style.

History of the museum

After the October Revolution, all properties that belonged to the Sheremetev counts, including Kuskovo, were nationalized. By decision of the Council of People's Commissars in 1919, the State Museum-Estate "Kuskovo" was opened. In 1932, by order of the People's Commissariat of Education, the museum's fund was replenished with the collection of the State Museum of Ceramics, based on the collection of philanthropist Alexei Vikulovich Morozov. Since 1938, both museums were united and received a common name State Museum of Ceramics and “Kuskovo Estate of the 18th Century”.

Here I would like to separately note that without this “voluntary” nationalization, all the territories of the Sheremetev counts: Kuskovo, Ostankino, Ostafyevo, the Hospice House (now the Sklifosovsky Research Institute), Voronovo and the Fountain Palace (St. Petersburg) - still remained would be private estates, to which only a very, very limited contingent would have access. Under the USSR, the museum was actively replenished with new exhibits, and thanks to this, today Kuskovo is one of the largest ceramics museums in Russia. So for the opportunity to walk through the vast park and see with our own eyes the buildings of the 18th century, we must thank the RSDLP.

Dzhandzhugazova E.A.

Fashionable architectural trends in the appearance of old Moscow

In the summer of 1900, in the center of Moscow on Malaya Nikitskaya Street, construction began on the city estate of Stepan Pavlovich Ryabushinsky, a famous entrepreneur, collector and philanthropist throughout Russia. The construction of the mansion was undertaken by Fyodor Osipovich Shekhtel.

Malaya Nikitskaya Street is an ancient street in Moscow, located in the western part of Zemlyanoy Town. It got its name from its “elder sister” Bolshaya Nikitskaya Street and it is no coincidence, since it kind of duplicates it on the section from Nikitsky Gate to the Garden Ring. Malaya Nikitskaya was born in the 16th century, but it did not look quite usual for Moscow streets of that time, since it was very straight and quite short (800m). The quiet street has long been chosen by representatives of noble boyar and noble families. In the old days it was made of wood and often burned. In those ancient times, Malaya Nikitskaya ended with Vspolye and only at the beginning of the twentieth century it was built up right up to the Garden Ring.

At the beginning of the last century, when construction of the mansion began, Malaya Nikitskaya looked provincial and quite simple. Low stone and wooden houses with mezzanines, cobblestone streets overgrown with grass along which chickens walked freely. Behind the mansions there were small front gardens, and behind them towards Garnet Lane stretched a large wasteland, overgrown with nettles, weeds and dandelions, where the children of the yard usually played. Occasionally a carriage or a loaded dray would pass along the street, a thick smell of lilac came from the gardens in the spring, and a light vapor of samovar smoke wafted out in the summer, where the townspeople drank tea under the old linden trees. To the ringing of the bells of the Church of the Great Ascension, in which A.S. was once married. Pushkin with the beautiful Natalie, the quiet and sparsely populated street came to life, all the surrounding people: officials, merchants, nobles, everyone, young and old, were heading to the temple. This is how Muscovites lived slowly and simply, but this simple “Russian World” began to change rapidly in the early 1900s. The changes did not spare Malaya Nikitskaya either - an exquisite mansion in the Art Nouveau style appeared on it, built by one of the most fashionable Moscow architects.

The site on which the mansion was built was small; in addition, it was not corner as it is now, but was inscribed in a single line of the street. The future owner of the mansion, Stepan Ryabushinsky, wished that the mansion would not be closely adjacent to the street, and then Shekhtel moved the front porch to the red line, and moved the mansion itself deeper, surrounding it with a small garden. Thus, an air space arose between the street line and the house, which later became a kind of natural frame for the entire architectural ensemble.

For such work, considerable experience of the architect was needed in order to place an entire estate with a main house, a large courtyard and services in a limited area of ​​​​space. This difficult task was entirely within the power of Fyodor Osipovich Shekhtel, a remarkable Russian architect, painter, graphic artist and set designer, one of the most prominent representatives of the Art Nouveau style in Russian and European architecture.
Fyodor Shekhtel built hundreds of buildings in different parts of Russia. He built temples, chapels, theaters, hotels, banks, train stations, mansions and even public baths, created unique interiors and theatrical decorations, he even illustrated books. Each new project of his revealed more and more new facets of his talent, which was so impeccably honed that it could not have occurred to anyone that Shekhtel was almost self-taught, with no special education!
Yes, Fyodor Shekhtel did not receive a systematic education, did not show any special abilities for science, and during his years of study he was not interested in anything other than drawing and drawing, but he mastered this skill from the old teacher Andrei Godin, who taught Vrubel himself. Subsequently, Shekhtel was lucky enough to study at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture, but not for long; he was expelled from the third year for poor attendance. So the brilliant Shekhtel was left without a diploma and without the right to independent architectural and construction activities. It should be said here that it was not laziness, but need that prevented me from studying to my full potential. “Not a bird of God - it needs to feed,” Shekhtel explained his position. He had to take care of his loved ones and support himself in order to somehow make ends meet, he did odd jobs - he illustrated books, magazines, theater posters, restaurant menus, earning a reputation as a “pencil virtuoso,” and drew vignettes, including for books. His efficiency was amazing, he could do a lot, and perhaps because he did not receive a strict academic education, he boldly worked in different styles, easily moving from one to another, as was required by the fashion of that time. Quite naturally, Shekhtel worked to order, doing everything so impeccably elegant and beautiful that even the most eminent and capricious customers were satisfied with his work.

Shekhtel had wonderful taste and an innate artistic flair, which was highly valued by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov, with whom he had many years of friendship. Chekhov constantly patronized Shekhtel among writers, presenting him as an excellent vignette painter, calling Shekhtel “the most talented of all the architects in the world.”
Based on Fyodor Osipovich’s sketches, A.P. Chekhov’s collection “Motley Stories” was designed, the cover of which was especially liked by the writer. Fyodor Osipovich Shekhtel made a huge contribution to the design of the building of the Moscow Art Theater on Kamergersky Lane and even developed a sketch of the legendary seagull, which became its symbol.
There are buildings by Shekhtel in different cities of Russia, but the main city in Shekhtel’s work has always been Moscow, where he built more than 50 wonderful buildings, most of which have been perfectly preserved and still adorn the capital. The reason for the extraordinary creative success of Fyodor Shekhtel is the amazing beauty of his creations, built in the very fashionable style of that time - “modern”.

A word about “Russian modern”

« Modern"(from the French modeme - modern, newest) is a style in European art of the late 19th - early 20th centuries. It took shape under conditions of rapid development of industrial society and the growth of national self-awareness of European peoples. “Modern” asserted the unity of all style-forming principles from the architecture of the home to the details of the costume. At the same time, the leading role in the development of Art Nouveau as a style was given to architecture - the quintessence of all arts. “Modern” architecture became a new step in the artistic understanding of the environmental space; in contrast to eclecticism, which brings together forms belonging to different styles, Art Nouveau did not separate the constructive and decorative principles, making everything unusually beautiful, making one forget about the utilitarian purpose of the most ordinary objects, giving them attractive and sometimes festive forms.

The French art critic Charles Blanc spoke about “modern” architecture as follows: this is architecture in its highest sense - it is not a structure that is decorated, but a decoration that is built.

The artistic power of Art Nouveau lay in the fact that it organically combined many styles, and did not borrow their individual details; through the ornamentation of curvilinear outlines of gratings and fences, moving weaves of plant patterns scattered on the walls, ceiling and floor, the emotional and symbolic meaning of the new architectural style was formed in a new way combining “function” and “form”.

Modernity was a complex philosophy that revealed the laws of existence. In the modern era, artistic symbols became an expression of philosophical meaning. His special technique was the synthesis of many arts, which symbolized the unchanging unity of the world and eternal harmony. But the main idea of ​​modernity was beauty! Beauty in all its manifestations, as image, meaning, language, purpose and tool, without beginning and end. It is that beauty that saves the world and will never disappear!

Shekhtel and “modern”

Fyodor Osipovich Shekhtel is rightly considered a classic of “Russian Art Nouveau”, honing his skills on a variety of buildings, he developed his own original approach, easily distinguishable among buildings erected in the “Art Nouveau” style by other architects. The design feature of “Shekhtel Art Nouveau” is the organic combination of relief ornament and the form of an architectural structure, where decoration and form are absolutely inseparable from each other. Thus, in all of Shekhtel’s architectural masterpieces, the lattices and sashes of window frames, frame pillars, supports and other structures are interpreted in an ornamental manner, that is, they simultaneously carry both a functional and a decorative element. In the compositional system of modernity itself there is no principle of hierarchy at all, hence Shekhtel, the architect, has no division into the main and the secondary, into artistic and expressive accents and a neutral background. There is a complex and intense connection between all the elements of his compositions, both decorative and functional, be it relief, mosaic panels, window frames or ornaments. There are simply no elements that are indifferent to the neighboring details of the composition or artistically insignificant. Thanks to this, the space itself ceases to be empty; it seems to be penetrated by powerful pulsating forces created by the harmonious combination of design and decor. Everything is in organic unity, even the voids in the volumetric forms of stairs and gratings are perceived as antibodies or antiforms; they are also elastic and plastic, like real elements made in stone or metal. This is the real artistic meaning of the author’s interpretation of modernity, which lies in the combination and interpenetration of real forms and voids, that is, the visible and tangible with the invisible, but easily imaginable.

All of Shekhtel's buildings seem unusually solid and plastic, as if made from one piece of stone, like fine and magnificently crafted caskets carved from malachite or jasper. This feeling arises because all the elements: line, shape, plane and color scheme go through an independent path, both in decorative and utilitarian elements. An observer from the outside has the opportunity to feel “how it’s really done,” which is why the entire opening form of the architectural composition seems alive, smooth and flexible.

Ryabushinsky's mansion

Ryabushinsky's mansion on Malaya Nikitskaya is already the work of a mature master; it can be considered a philosophically meaningful declaration of modernity, which reveals to us the “new” Shekhtel, who presented an architectural composition created on the basis of the natural world. Natural motifs as symbols of life and eternal movement in the decoration of the house are everywhere - in the pattern of parquet flooring in the dining room and hall, in the molded wave-like ornament, in multi-color glass stained glass windows and bronze door handles covered with a noble patina. The entire structure of the house is subordinated to the symbols of the world order and symbolizes the hierarchy of values ​​along the entire path of a person’s life, from birth to death, after which eternity opens.

The ideological and compositional center of the mansion is the front staircase “Wave” - a symbol of the constant movement of man, it reminds that life came out of the water onto the earth, in order to then raise man to heaven to God. The majestic staircase made of greenish-gray marble unfolds in the form of a spiral with foam lace - a symbol of infinity of development. Its carved parapet conveys the elastic energy of sea waves gradually sinking into the blue-blue abyss of the staircase stained glass window, symbolizing the beginning of the air element.

The staircase, as a symbol of ascent, leads to the second floor to the house church - the Old Believer chapel. It can be accessed from the second floor via another hidden small staircase, symbolizing the secret path to the truth. On this path, a large marble column with lily flowers and salamander figures on the capitals opens up to the eye. This combination symbolizes the eternal struggle between good and evil. The lily is a symbol of purity, and lizards are a prototype of the biblical serpent. The Old Believer chapel located at the top is the main goal of the ascent - it is a symbol of eternity and the meaning of human life.

In this house, everything is organic and interconnected; it is impossible to separate the structure from the decor, everything is a single whole. This is the railing of the main staircase, reminiscent of a frozen wave or the body of a giant sea animal, and the stucco ceiling in the living room of the mansion, striking in its organic nature; it even seems that large inflorescences of white lilac in a free semicircle, lying on the surface of the ceiling, beckon with their delicate aroma of butterflies and snails. In the interiors of the mansion, the interconnection of individual rooms is vividly felt. They are all different in some way, but
somewhat identical, like different strokes made with the same brush.

Ryabushinsky’s mansion is full of contrasting solutions and an abundance of opposites expressed by huge windows repeating the outline of outlandish flowers and trees, porch arches similar to snail horns, graceful floral motifs and waves in the parquet patterns of the hall and dining room - all this is the signature style of Shekhtel himself. The main features of this style, which became a symbol of Moscow Art Nouveau, were finally formed during the work on the Ryabushinsky mansion, which became a kind of calling card of the architect Fyodor Shekhtel.

By creating a magnificent example of Moscow Art Nouveau, Shekhtel not only solved a creative problem, but also pleased the customer. The future owner of the mansion, Stepan Ryabushinsky, seeing it, looked at every detail for a long time, and then said enthusiastically and somewhat perplexedly: But it turned out curious... I believe that nothing like this has ever been seen in Europe...

Fyodor Shekhtel: vicissitudes of fate
The creative and human destiny of Fyodor Shekhtel was complex, he worked hard and created an amazing architectural collection of uniquely beautiful structures for various purposes; his best works are buildings built at the beginning of the twentieth century:
Ryabushinsky's mansion on Malaya Nikitskaya
Derozhinskaya's mansion in Shtatny Lane
Moscow Art Theater
Levenson's printing house in Trekhprudny Lane
A complex of pavilions of the Russian department at the International Exhibition in Glasgow (1901), for which Shekhtel was awarded the title of academician
Yaroslavsky railway station
Own dacha in Kuntsevo
Levenson's dacha
Project of the People's House, etc.

Shekhtel built luxurious houses all his life, but by an evil irony of fate, at the end of his life he found himself virtually homeless. His magnificent creativity had no place in the harsh revolutionary era, which required a new architecture of red constructivism. Shekhtel, with its elegant buildings and meticulously designed interiors, did not correspond to this new reality. He was evicted from his own home and he, an Honorary Member of the Society of British Architects, architectural societies of Rome, Vienna, Glasgow, Paris, lived out his life in poverty. In one of his letters, he writes with bitterness that he built for all the Morozovs, Ryabushinskys, von Derviz, and he himself remained poor...

Shekhtel died in Moscow on July 7, 1926 and, despite the wide popularity of his architectural heritage in Moscow, where he built so much, there is no memorial museum for him, nor, indeed, a museum dedicated to Moscow Art Nouveau. This idea was nurtured for a very long time, but to no avail, by the architect’s grandson, pop artist Vadim Tonkov, who created the comedic image of the old lady Veronika Mavrikievna.

However, unlike their creator, many of the buildings built by Shekhtel were lucky; they were preserved in excellent condition, as they were transferred to diplomatic departments and embassies. And Shekhtel’s masterpiece, Ryabushinsky’s mansion, has become the museum of Alexei Maksimovich Gorky and you can enter it completely freely.
The beauty of Shekhtel’s creations is their “safe-conduct”.

"Hidden Treasure"

Today, the Ryabushinsky mansion has become one of the most interesting and attractive display objects in the center of Moscow. And, it seems, the strength of the impression made was always surprisingly high.

...At one time they even said that one merchant killed his wife, being very jealous of her for Ryabushinsky! At the trial, Stepan Pavlovich Ryabushinsky explained that the lady came to his house solely to satisfy an informational interest: to see the house itself, the paintings, stained glass windows and the porcelain collection. The judge was not satisfied with this explanation, and he personally checked whether the young lady could have come to visit the young man solely to inspect the house?!
The conclusion was clear: she could!

Thanks to its unusualness, the house has truly become an adornment on many excursion routes, and its amazing shapes and originality of the interior decoration fully justify their most exquisite names: “Waltzes with the City by the architect Fyodor Shekhtel”; “Hidden treasure: Ryabushinsky’s mansion - the stone story of Fyodor Shekhtel”; “Ryabushinsky’s mansion is a pearl of Moscow Art Nouveau”, etc.
It seems that it has some kind of almost mystical power - a huge jellyfish lamp, mosaic flower bouquets, intricately shaped stucco on the ceilings, handles in the shape of exotic sea creatures. Anyone entering the mansion wants to know: What did the architect want to say with all this? What was his plan?

During the excursion, the deep meaning of the architect’s concept is revealed; in the decor of the interior of the building, the idea of ​​​​the evolution of humanity is quite clearly visible: on the first floor there are the depths of the ocean, and on the second there are plants, birds and animals. The whole building seems to be imbued with novelty and almost completely breaks the connection with the traditional architecture of the street on which it stands. Everything about it surprises: the unusual volumes of the facade, the interesting outline of the arches. A picturesque majolica frieze interrupted by windows of different shapes and sizes. Everything is new, unusual and even mysterious. The house fascinates and beckons like a precious stone from which you cannot take your eyes off. It is self-sufficient and valuable, and clear proof of this is the fact that although it officially houses the A.M. Gorky, the overwhelming majority of people come not to get acquainted with the work of the proletarian writer, but to admire Shekhtel’s exquisite creation.

By the way, Maxim Gorky did not like the mansion. Stalin himself chose this house for Gorky, and despite the fact that it had everything necessary for the writer’s life: comfort, silence, a center, a garden for walks, nothing reflected the tastes of its new owner, who put it this way: “The house is ridiculous, but work Can". And the housekeeper, they say, immediately refused the place, being frightened by the “monsters” - salamanders depicted in the capital on the column.

At the same time, we love the mansion and all the guides who come with groups to the museum or simply walk along Malaya Nikitskaya with great pleasure talk about the unusual house - a real treasure, hidden as if in a secret pocket in the quiet center of the capital. The cast-iron curls of the fence, bordered by a pink border, reveal to us a very stylish façade of the building, half-opened by tall and spreading trees. The house is always very hospitable and open, it is interesting and good, you even want to take something with you as a souvenir.

On my last visit, as usual, I bought a small booklet dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the Ryabushinsky mansion and once again looked around its facade to take with me a light and warm impression of the refined, but not arrogant luxury of the amazing architecture of Moscow Art Nouveau...

And almost at the exit from the yard, the caretaker caught up with me and handed me several round chestnut fruits that had slightly lost their shape, from which thin sprouts were emerging. Take this as a souvenir,” she said, “this is from our garden, we’re giving it to “good hands”!

Having thanked them, I thought that I would be happy to plant them at the dacha so that I could always remember this amazing house. I also thought that how good it would be if all our cultural and historical values ​​finally fell into “good hands”, and the Ryabushinsky mansion became a museum of “Russian Art Nouveau” and at the same time a memorial museum of Fyodor Osipovich Shekhtel. This is exactly the wish I made when I planted chestnuts with weak and thin sprouts in the spring soil that had just begun to warm up.
Who knows, maybe this dream will come true someday...

Literature
1. Kirichenko E.I. Russian architecture of the 1830-1910s. Moscow “Art”, 1978. P.399.
2. Lebedeva E. Transforming the world with beauty. 150th anniversary of the birth of the architect Fyodor Osipovich Shekhtel. http://www.pravoslavie.ru/jurnal/31977.htm.
3. Penezhko N.L., Demkina S.M. Malaya Nikitskaya, 6. To the 100th anniversary of the mansion of S.P. Ryabushinsky. Institute of World Literature named after. A.M.Gorky RAS, 2003.

At the intersection of the quietest Malaya Nikitskaya and Spiridonovka, in a luxurious Art Nouveau house built by F.O. Shekhtel, located. And before the revolution, the owner of the house was Stepan Ryabushinsky. That’s why some call the mansion Ryabushinsky’s house, and others call it the Gorky Museum. Museum employees talk about the life of the writer, his family, and his work. And if you don’t like long excursions, you can simply relax on a bench in a cozy, shady courtyard, and then independently see the unearthly beauty of the House’s interiors.

The facades of the building are faced with glazed bricks, with a ribbon of mosaic frieze with the image of irises entwined on top ( in the photo above), and the smooth walls are cut through by squares of large windows. This is what the former main door looks like. Today, the entrance to the museum is through the “back door”.

In the summer of 1900, construction began on a luxurious mansion on Malaya Nikitskaya for Stepan Pavlovich Ryabushinsky, one of the representatives of the third generation of the dynasty. Stepan Pavlovich Ryabushinsky - Russian entrepreneur, banker, collector, philanthropist, together with his brother Sergei, founded the first automobile plant in Russia, AMO, now the Likhachev Plant. Malaya Nikitskaya Street in those years looked very provincial: low wooden or stone houses, chickens walking along the cobblestone street, the aroma of samovar smoke. To place here an urban estate with an exquisite house, courtyard and services - laundry, janitor, storage room, garage and stables - required an experienced architect who could think outside the box. The order for construction was received by Fyodor Osipovich Shekhtel (1859–1926), whose work Stepan Pavlovich especially liked. When construction of the house on Malaya Nikitskaya began, Ryabushinsky was 26 years old. The architecture of his residence intertwined motifs of English Gothic and Moorish architecture; interior decoration, the creation of which was attended by M.A. Vrubel, amazes with its magnificence. After the October Revolution, Stepan Ryabushinsky hastily emigrated to Italy with his wife and two children (Elena and Boris); descendants on the side of their daughter Elena (1902-2000) live in Milan and bear the surname Rijoff (Ryzhov). Since 1919, the building housed the state publishing house (Gosizdat), from 1925 to 1931 - the All-Union Society for Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries, and then the mansion was placed at the disposal of M. Gorky, who had just returned to the USSR. In 1965, a museum of the writer was opened here.

Gorky himself did not participate in the choice of his home and did not express any wishes. Back in 1928, he received a letter from a certain Soviet worker with a request not to go to Italy again and to give up his villa there, to which he replied in the newspaper “Working Moscow”: “ By the way, I don’t have my own villa there. I have never had and never will have my own houses, my own “real estate”. The writer M. Slonimsky recalled how one day a certain flattering guest raised a toast “To the owner of the house!” Gorky’s face turned purple, and he interrupted the speaker with a question: “ For which owner? I am not the owner of this house. The owner is the Moscow City Council!“- after which he stood up and left the room.

The main highlight of the house was the main staircase of the hall, made in the shape of a wave (“melting staircase”). A cascade of marble waves throwing a jellyfish chandelier high up, greenish walls imitating the sea element, dim lighting, and door handles in the shape of a seahorse create a picture of the underwater world. Shekhtel continued this game in the design of the remaining rooms - plant motifs, marine themes, fancy snails and butterflies disguised in interior details - this house is full of special life. The fate of F.O. was tragic. Shekhtel. The architect and his family remained in Russia, trying to find their place in the new country of socialism. Shekhtel's family was evicted from their mansion on Bolshaya Sadovaya, and the great architect, who stood at the origins of Russian Art Nouveau, building for the Morozovs, Ryabushinskys, Smirnovs, until the end of his days wandered around rented apartments and houses and died sick and poor. Today, the history of architecture is studied based on his projects, and there is a small planet in the sky named in his honor.

The mansion also has its own secrets - a secret Old Believer chapel located in the attic of the northwestern part of the house; You can't see it from the street. The walls and dome of the chapel are covered with a unique abstract temple painting - the small room is maximally stylized as an ancient church. To get into the secret room, you had to go up to the second floor, walk along a narrow gallery and up the back staircase. Outsiders had no idea that there was such a room in the house.

Gorky lived in the house on Nikitskaya for the rest of his life, until 1936. He settled on the first floor - it was difficult for the sick writer to climb the twelve-meter stairs. And his family settled upstairs - son Maxim Alekseevich with his wife Nadezhda Alekseevna (at home her name was Timosha) and granddaughters Marfa and Daria.

In order not to freeze on the marble bench, a stream of warm air from such an intricate lattice is directed at it. The system has not survived to this day. After 1917, the Ryabushinsky mansion became the property of the city and belonged alternately to the People's Commissariat for Foreign Affairs, the State Publishing House, the Psychoanalytic Institute, and the kindergarten. Over the years, the Ryabushinskys’ furniture and lighting fixtures, made according to Shekhtel’s sketches, were lost, the ventilation system was destroyed and a unique fireplace made of Carrara marble, located in the dining room, was dismantled; according to rumors, it is now somewhere in Arkhangelskoye, at the former dacha of the Ministry of Defense authorities.

Unique stained glass windows, parquet flooring made of valuable wood, picturesque ceilings, luxurious chandeliers, stucco molding - the house on Malaya Nikitskaya did not really suit the tastes of the writer from the people. Gorky spoke about him more than once : “Majestic, grandiose, nothing to smile about”. And this is a cozy library with a huge window, spacious cabinets, a sofa and leather armchairs. Note the magnificent library ceiling ( in the photo below).

The largest room ( in the photo below) served as a dining room and living room. Gorky's permanent place at the table is marked with a tea set. Breakfast usually took place in a small circle; lunch and evening tea became more lively. Gorky met here with numerous guests, primarily writers and people of art; There were numerous discussions about the then literary method, called “socialist realism.” Almost all the famous writers of the 1930s visited Gorky - his house served as a writers' club for them. There were literary lunches, dinners, and people simply came there for any question. In the memoirs of K.I. Chukovsky (first volume), for example, you can read about it.

Cabinet. In this room, the writer spent the morning hours from 9 to 2 pm, devoting the most productive time to working on his works: Gorky’s creative activity in these years was enormous. This room reflects the tastes of Alexei Maksimovich more than others. The office was similar to the writer’s workrooms where he lived - in Sorrento in Italy, Teselli in Crimea, at a dacha in Gorki near Moscow. “It seemed that he was taking his work room with him,” recalled S.Ya. Marshak. In the afternoon, Gorky worked here on the manuscripts of aspiring writers, answered letters from numerous correspondents, and was engaged in editorial work for the publications he supervised.

The work table (by the window), large, higher than usual and without drawers, was made at Gorky’s request - he was used to working at such a table. Books, notebooks with notes, sharpened colored pencils with which the writer corrected texts, his own and those of others, all lie neatly on the table, waiting for the owner. Along the walls are cabinets housing an impressive collection - Gorky collected bone carvings by masters of the 18th–20th centuries (netski).

Bedroom ( in the photo below). Here is only what is necessary. The antique bedroom set is a random purchase when furnishing a home and does not reflect the writer’s inclinations. In the closet and chest of drawers are Alexei Maksimovich’s personal belongings and clothes. At his request, a corner bookshelf was hung on which books were placed for daily evening reading. The latest selection included: “Russian Folk Tales” collected by A. Afanasyev, “Songs” by Beranger, works by R. Rolland and poems by N. Yazykov, books by K.S. Stanislavsky and V.G. Korolenko and others. Sometimes Gorky jokingly called himself a “professional reader.”

On the nightstand next to the bed is a photograph of Alexei Maksimovich’s eldest granddaughter, Marfa. This is one of the most recent photographs of his son, Maxim Alekseevich. He died on May 11, 1934 from lobar pneumonia. Gorky actually could not bear this loss and outlived his son only by two years.

The history of this building in the center of Moscow is associated with the names of three famous people of Russia, although the memorial plaque on the building mentions only one. The Art Nouveau mansion was built by the architect Shekhtel for the millionaire Ryabushinsky, and the writer Gorky lived there for the longest time. This mansion has forever linked the lives of these outstanding people in history, and when talking about the house, it is impossible not to talk about each one. They lived at the same time, but their destinies turned out differently...
In general, in Moscow there are not many mansions of the early 20th century open to the public. Especially ones like the Ryabushinsky mansion - a masterpiece of Moscow Art Nouveau, a classic of the genre. I have long wanted to go inside and see the famous interiors. After all, it is quite difficult to get into other Moscow mansions located in the center, because they house either embassies of different countries, or other important government institutions, and besides, the interior space has long been remodeled in accordance with modern requirements for convenience. And in this mansion you can see what was planned by the Master.

1. The mansion for S.P. Ryabushinsky was built by Fyodor Osipovich Shekhtel (1859-1926) - the greatest Russian architect at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, holder of the Orders of St. Anne and St. Stanislav, creator of Russian and Moscow Art Nouveau. The future architect came from a family of colonists from Bavaria who arrived in the Schukk colony near Saratov in June 1766. His father was a process engineer, and his mother Daria Karlovna, nee Rosalia-Dorothea Getlich, later worked as a housekeeper for Tretyakov. Many of the architectural monuments built by Shekhtel in Moscow were included in the Golden Fund of Russian Architecture and are under state protection. More than 50 buildings were created according to his designs in the capital, and many of them have survived to this day. His main buildings in Moscow: the mansion of Z.G. Morozova on Spiridonovka (1893), Art Theater (1902), Yaroslavl Station (1902). An excellent example of the neoclassical style, in which Shekhtel also worked, is the Khudozhestvenny cinema on Arbat Square.

Fedor Osipovich Shekhtel

After the revolution in 1918, Shekhtel managed to sell the mansion on Bolshaya Sadovaya, built by the architect for his family. He settled on Bolshaya Dmitrovka with his daughter Vera. Tenants were moved into the apartment, and in recent years the great architect lived in a communal apartment. He was buried at the Vagankovskoye cemetery. And his masterpiece - the mansion on Malaya Nikitskaya still serves as an adornment of the capital.

2. The mansion was built in 1900-1902 by order of 26-year-old entrepreneur S.P. Ryabushinsky. The architect thought through everything in it, from the layout to the interior decoration of the premises. The house combined the achievements of the Art Nouveau style (rejection of straight lines and angles in favor of more natural lines, interest in new technologies) with the Russian architectural tradition.
The small mansion consists of several volumes, each of which is unique. The facades are lined with glazed bricks in light colors; on top of the house is decorated with a mosaic frieze depicting orchids. The building is two-story, but multi-level windows of various shapes create a multi-story effect.

3. Attention is immediately drawn to the amazing mosaic frieze with orchids, made according to Shekhtel’s sketches. In Art Nouveau aesthetics, a special role was played by symbol and riddle, for example, a bud was perceived as symbol of emerging life. The decoration on the facade of the mansion indicates the presence of some kind of secret in the house.

4. Stepan Pavlovich Ryabushinsky (1874-1942) - famous Russian entrepreneur, banker, collector, representative of the Ryabushinsky dynasty. Known as a collector of icons. Ryabushinsky's collection of icons was considered one of the best in Russia. Largely thanks to Stepan Pavlovich, a systematic scientific study of icons began, and many masterpieces of icon painting were discovered. Stepan Ryabushinsky organized exhibitions of icon painting, including the famous exhibition dedicated to the 300th anniversary of the House of Romanov in 1913.

The Ryabushinsky family - Stepan Pavlovich, Anna Alexandrovna and Boris

After the Russian Revolution of 1917, Stepan Ryabushinsky emigrated to Milan. The collection of icons of Ryabushinsky entered the State Museum Fund, most of them (54 icons) are in the department of ancient Russian art of the State Tretyakov Gallery, the rest were sold or transferred to other museums.

5. After the emigration of the Ryabushinskys, the building survived many owners. It housed various government agencies. Some pieces of furniture and lighting fixtures of that time, made according to Shekhtel’s sketches, were lost, the ventilation system was destroyed and the unique fireplace made of Carrara marble was dismantled. In 1931, M. A. Gorky moved into the mansion, and now this building is Gorky’s memorial house-museum. It can be considered that Maxim Gorky indirectly saved the mansion from complete destruction, distortion beyond recognition and transfer to the jurisdiction of some institution.

6. The front entrance overlooked Malaya Nikitskaya, along another porch you could go down to the garden. Now the main entrance is closed.

7. Compared to the beginning of the 20th century, the interiors have partially changed, even the entrance to the building is now located from Spiridonovka, but the main thing has been preserved. In addition, the museum has albums with photographs and sketches of unpreserved interiors.

8. Previously, this entrance was considered black and was intended for servants.

9. The mansion has a fairly large area surrounded by a low decorative fence in the Art Nouveau style.

10. An outbuilding was built on the territory of the mansion, where there were a stable, a laundry room, a janitor's room, and the Ryabushinsky servants lived. From 1941 to 1945, the writer A.N. lived in one of the rooms of the outbuilding. Tolstoy, now his museum-apartment is here.

In the fall of 1913, in the mansion of Stepan Pavlovich Ryabushinsky on Malaya Nikitskaya, one of the last meetings (without strangers) of the large family of millionaires Ryabushinsky took place. At that time, the Ryabushinskys were known throughout Russia: from Riga to Baku, from Arkhangelsk to Tiflis. They came from free peasant Old Believers of the Borovsko-Pafnutievsky Monastery. By the beginning of the 19th century, Borovsk had turned from the first spiritual centers of Russia into an ordinary provincial town halfway between Kaluga and Moscow. The grandfather of the famous Ryabushinsky brothers, Mikhail Yakovlevich, grew up there. At the age of twelve he was sent to Moscow to study in the trade sector. The trade was successful, and at the age of 16, Mikhail Ryabushinsky enrolled in the third merchant guild, presenting, at that time, a substantial capital of a thousand rubles. This is where millions of Ryabushinskys began.
His son Pavel Mikhailovich Ryabushinsky was already very different from his father, the founder of the dynasty. He represented the second generation of domestic entrepreneurs who were interested in politics, arts and sciences. P.M. Ryabushinsky was elected from his class as a member of the Moscow Duma, the commercial court, and the Moscow Exchange Society. He handed over to his sons a well-established and vigorously developing business, as well as 20 million in banknotes - a huge fortune.
The third generation of Russian entrepreneurs, the Ryabushinsky brothers, received an excellent education. They graduated from the Moscow Practical Academy of Commercial Sciences and knew two or three European languages. For the most part, they were smart, active, ready for large-scale activities and widespread charity.

From left to right - Pavel, Mikhail, Vladimir, Stepan, Nikolay, Sergey, Fedor, Dmitry Ryabushinsky

Pavel Pavlovich Ryabushinsky, chairman of the Partnership, owner of the Moscow Bank, editor-in-chief of the Morning of Russia newspaper, one of the leaders of the Progressive Party - the most prominent representative of Russian big capital. He combined the peculiar business ethics of the Old Believer environment, the broad nature of a Russian merchant and philanthropist with the iron tenacity of an educated entrepreneur of the twentieth century. By the beginning of the tenth years, Pavel Pavlovich already headed the largest financial monopoly. Wherever possible, his “Central Russian Joint Stock Company” opposed foreigners: geological exploration in the North, in the Ukhta region, logging, expanding interests in the oil industry, the first steps of domestic mechanical engineering, the automobile and aviation industries and other areas.
His closest associates in business - the brothers Stepan, Sergey and Vladimir, stood at the origins of the domestic automobile industry, founded the first automobile plant in Russia AMO (ZIL), and are also archaeologists, collectors and specialists in ancient Russian icon painting. Mikhail was also a collector. His collection of Russian and Western European artists became the pearl of the collections of several leading Soviet museums. Nikolai, a famous writer, founder of the magazine "Golden Fleece", who published poetry and prose under the pseudonym N. Shinsky in "Musaget" and other fashionable publishing houses of the beginning of the century. Dmitry, one of the world's leading experts in the field of aeronautics theory, established the world's only private Aerodynamic Institute back in 1904 on the Kuchino family estate. He subsequently emigrated to France, where he continued his research and became a French academic.
These were the Russian millionaires! The most prominent representatives of the Russian business community at the beginning of the last century, the Ryabushinskys, always focused only on the Russian market. After the Ryabushinskys, in the new Russia, which they no longer knew, beautiful buildings, factories, factories, and scientific institutions remained.

11. The front hallway was made in the Art Nouveau style.

12. Ryabushinsky’s house was decorated with nine unique stained glass windows made according to Shekhtel’s sketches. They also performed architectural tasks. For example, an image with pine trees and fields stretching into the distance created the illusion of a window, thereby visually increasing the space.

13. All rooms of the house are grouped around the main staircase 12 m high in the form of a gray-green wave of marble, at the very beginning of which a jellyfish-lamp floats out. There is a column at the top of the stairs.

14. The staircase is made of Estonian Vasalemma marble. The beautiful stone was processed in the Moscow workshop of M.D. Kutyrina. At the beginning of the stairs there is a very interesting marble bench: in order not to freeze while sitting on it, a stream of warm air from a special grille was directed onto it; now this heating system no longer works.

15. Lamp in the form of a jellyfish.

16. Between the flights of stairs there is a place for rest.

17. When viewed from above, Medusa turns into a turtle (personification active life and contemplative life). The ladder becomes not just a device for physical ascent, but a symbol spiritual ascent of man.

18. Stepan Ryabushinsky was one of the first to engage in the restoration of old icons. Therefore, space was provided in his house for a restoration workshop. Already in 1914, the magazine "Russian Icon" reported that Ryabushinsky was going to open an icon museum in his house on Nikitsky.

19. Doors, handles, lampshades of the house are algae, shells, seahorses, turtles.

20. Shekhtel also provided for a chapel in the house, which, according to tradition, had a round dome. The room itself is located in the attic, in the north-western side of the house. During the construction of the building, this room was made secret. To get into it, the owners walked along the second floor. (We didn’t have time to take a photo of the chapel - the museum was closing.)

21. The column with a massive capital is decorated with beautiful lilies, symbol of purity, and disgusting salamanders - symbol of evil. The narrow gallery was also of particular importance. It meant that the path to goodness is narrow and thorny. Then the believers walked up the back stairs.

22. A decorative balcony inside the house decorated the rise (view from the second floor landing). All the closets were made according to Gorky's order.

23. Office of Secretary A.M. Gorky.

24. In five memorial rooms (library, office, bedroom, dining room and secretarial room) the original furnishings and personal belongings of A.M. have been preserved. Gorky, who lived here from 1931 to 1936. The writer's personal library is used in scientific research.

28. The windows on the first floor are simply amazing with their shape and size.

29. Fine wooden carvings decorate the doors. Floral motifs and waves - symbol of perpetual motion in the parquet drawing of the hall and dining room.

30. The library has a beautiful view from the window; the window frame has an unusually intricate shape.

31. Library ceiling stucco - fantasy aquatic plants, snails.

32. A.M.’s office Gorky.

33. Along the walls are cabinets containing an impressive collection of bone carvings by masters of the 18th-20th centuries (netske).

34. View from the window of Gorky’s office.

35. There are objects on the desk that apparently belong to the writer.

36. Gorky's bedroom on the first floor. The writer occupied rooms on the first floor, and on the second floor there was the writer’s family - his son with his wife and children.

37. The view from the bedroom window is also pleasing to the eye.

38. On the second floor there is now an exhibition dedicated to the writer A.M. Gorky - paintings, gifts. The writer spent the last years of his life in this house, working on the epic novel “The Life of Klim Samgin.”

39. In the halls of the second floor hang originals by famous artists who were friends with Gorky and gave him their works.

B. Grigoriev. Portrait of A.M. Gorky, 1926

Italian landscapes V. Khodasevich

V. Khodasevich. ON THE. Peshkova, 1920s

42. Two paintings by M. Nesterov: left Evening on the Volga (Loneliness), 1932; on right Sick girl, 1928.

43. The lives of outstanding people of their time were intertwined in this amazing mansion. This house has a difficult fate too...