The Tretyakov Gallery

The Tretyakov Gallery possesses the finest collection of traditional Russian painting in the world. The core of the museum's collection was assembled in the middle of the nineteenth century by Pavel Tretyakov, a wealthy Moscow merchant whose passion for collecting included violins, birds, and milk cows as well as Russian art. Tretyakov donated his extensive collection to the city in 1892, and subsequent enlargement has long since provided the Gallery with far more works than it can possibly exhibit in its limited space. Although this means that innumerable fine works rarely see the light of day, it also means that those works that are displayed are without exception masterpieces of their period and genre. While everything in the Tretyakov deserves and rewards patient attention, its collection of icons stands as the definitive presentation of this most Russian of art forms.