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The Collector: The Story of Sergei Shchukin and His Lost Masterpieces
A fascinating life of Sergei Shchukin, the great collector who changed the face of Russia’s art world
Sergei Shchukin was a highly successful textiles merchant in the latter half of the nineteenth century, but he also had a great eye for beauty. He was one of the first to appreciate the qualities of the Impressionists and Post-Impressionists and to acquire works by Cézanne, Matisse, and Picasso. A trailblazer in the Russian art world, Shchukin and his collection shocked, provoked, and inspired awe, ridicule, and derision among his contemporaries.
This is the first English-language biography of Sergei Shchukin, written by art historian Natalya Semenova and adapted by Shchukin's grandson André Delocque. Featuring personal diary entries, correspondence, interviews, and archival research, it brings to light the life of a man who has hitherto remained in the shadows, and shows how despite his controversial reputation, he opened his collection to the public, inspiring a future generation of artists and changing the face of the Russian art world.
Sergei Shchukin was a highly successful textiles merchant in the latter half of the nineteenth century, but he also had a great eye for beauty. He was one of the first to appreciate the qualities of the Impressionists and Post-Impressionists and to acquire works by Cézanne, Matisse, and Picasso. A trailblazer in the Russian art world, Shchukin and his collection shocked, provoked, and inspired awe, ridicule, and derision among his contemporaries.
This is the first English-language biography of Sergei Shchukin, written by art historian Natalya Semenova and adapted by Shchukin's grandson André Delocque. Featuring personal diary entries, correspondence, interviews, and archival research, it brings to light the life of a man who has hitherto remained in the shadows, and shows how despite his controversial reputation, he opened his collection to the public, inspiring a future generation of artists and changing the face of the Russian art world.
304 pages, Kindle Edition
Published September 11, 2018
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205 people want to read
About the author
Natalya Semenova
7 books1 followerNatalya Semenova is a Russian art historian. She is coauthor of Matisse Et La Russie and coeditor of Selling Russia's Treasures: The Soviet Trade In Nationalized Art, 1917–1938.
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
October 7, 2019
The author and her translator are to be congratulated for their very readable and enjoyable book about the Russian collector Sergei Shchukin. A textile magnate, Shchukin developed a collection of the greatest impressionists while his nation scoffed at his purchased. I knew nothing about this man but was delighted to read such a well written and researched book.
March 2, 2020
Books on collectors and their collections seem to have come into vogue in the past few years, and amongst similar titles I've enjoyed are The China Collectors: America's Century-Long Hunt for Asian Art Treasures and Alexander Nicholas Shaw's biography of Malcolm J. MacDonald, The Pleasures and Pains of Collecting (Durham University, 2018, ISBN 9781527231986). So although I had never heard of Sergei Shchukin and his collection, the idea of this unknown collector was too tempting to forego.
The tale, however, is much larger than just Sergei, whose collection of turn-of-the-century 'modern' art both shocked and dazzled his Russian contemporaries. His walls were crammed with works from such artists as Matisse, Picasso, Renoir, Degas, Denis, Rousseau, Monet, Manet, and Cézanne. His brothers were also collectors of Russian antiquities, icons, orientalia, masters, as well as modern art, but none as great and as futuristic as Sergei's collection.
This translation from the Russian tells the story of the entire family, beginning with Ivan Vasilevich Shchukin, the industrialist who cornered the textile wholesale/retail (not manufacturing) market in Russia, becoming one of Russia's richest entrepreneurs in the 1800s. He fathered ten children (six sons and four daughters) and the family was "not just well off--they lived in serious opulence" (p. 14). Each son's life, career, and interests are introduced, with the story finally focusing on Sergei, who in his youth was described as an "ailing little stutterer, skinny and with a disproportionately large head" (p. 17), who was destined to become one of the world's most prescient collectors. Over the years, his collection overwhelmed his home, the Trubetskoy Palace, which evolved over the years from a family home to a museum. Regular buying trips to Paris kept the walls overflowing so the paintings were pressed together, their sides touching, often two or even three rows high. As I read of the acquisition of each painting, I kept turning back to the photographs of the various rooms in which they hung, to try and identify where they had been placed as Sergei was meticulous in the curating of his collection. As for Russian art, Sergei "did not buy paintings by Russian artists on principle" (p. 221) although his collection deeply affected many of the young Russian artists who visited his home and saw Sergei's western masterpieces (and produced many copycat paintings).
But Sergei's story is also the story of Russia's transformation. When the Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria was assassinated in Sarajevo on 28 June 1914, Sergei and his (second) wife Nadezhda, were in Venice, enroute to Paris to a final meeting with Matisse, from whom he had commissioned the last Matisse painting he would acquire, Portrait de Madame Matisse. The couple returned to Russia, where they remained stranded for the duration. When Matisse cabled Sergei for an advance on the paintings he had commissioned on his last visit, he received a telegram reading "Impossible send Moscow exchange closed stop bank and post office refuse transfer money France stop hope send when relations restored stop regards Sergei Shchukin" (p. 219)
It was "the euphoria of liberation" that inspired the idea of turning Moscow's Kremlin into an 'Acropolis of the Arts'. Shchukin was delighted with the idea, but as the activists began to destroy the Kremlin "with bullets and shellfire", together with the city's other collectors, he began to fear for his collection. Plans to store his collection (at its zenith, 278 artworks) in Moscow's nearby Fine Arts Museum or into the Kremlin both failed, and "anarchists were occupying the old private houses of the city, where they were sleeping on the carpets and using paintings and decorative objects for shooting practice" (p. 226). I will leave readers hanging at this point; read this fascinating story to learn its ending.
The tale, however, is much larger than just Sergei, whose collection of turn-of-the-century 'modern' art both shocked and dazzled his Russian contemporaries. His walls were crammed with works from such artists as Matisse, Picasso, Renoir, Degas, Denis, Rousseau, Monet, Manet, and Cézanne. His brothers were also collectors of Russian antiquities, icons, orientalia, masters, as well as modern art, but none as great and as futuristic as Sergei's collection.
This translation from the Russian tells the story of the entire family, beginning with Ivan Vasilevich Shchukin, the industrialist who cornered the textile wholesale/retail (not manufacturing) market in Russia, becoming one of Russia's richest entrepreneurs in the 1800s. He fathered ten children (six sons and four daughters) and the family was "not just well off--they lived in serious opulence" (p. 14). Each son's life, career, and interests are introduced, with the story finally focusing on Sergei, who in his youth was described as an "ailing little stutterer, skinny and with a disproportionately large head" (p. 17), who was destined to become one of the world's most prescient collectors. Over the years, his collection overwhelmed his home, the Trubetskoy Palace, which evolved over the years from a family home to a museum. Regular buying trips to Paris kept the walls overflowing so the paintings were pressed together, their sides touching, often two or even three rows high. As I read of the acquisition of each painting, I kept turning back to the photographs of the various rooms in which they hung, to try and identify where they had been placed as Sergei was meticulous in the curating of his collection. As for Russian art, Sergei "did not buy paintings by Russian artists on principle" (p. 221) although his collection deeply affected many of the young Russian artists who visited his home and saw Sergei's western masterpieces (and produced many copycat paintings).
But Sergei's story is also the story of Russia's transformation. When the Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria was assassinated in Sarajevo on 28 June 1914, Sergei and his (second) wife Nadezhda, were in Venice, enroute to Paris to a final meeting with Matisse, from whom he had commissioned the last Matisse painting he would acquire, Portrait de Madame Matisse. The couple returned to Russia, where they remained stranded for the duration. When Matisse cabled Sergei for an advance on the paintings he had commissioned on his last visit, he received a telegram reading "Impossible send Moscow exchange closed stop bank and post office refuse transfer money France stop hope send when relations restored stop regards Sergei Shchukin" (p. 219)
It was "the euphoria of liberation" that inspired the idea of turning Moscow's Kremlin into an 'Acropolis of the Arts'. Shchukin was delighted with the idea, but as the activists began to destroy the Kremlin "with bullets and shellfire", together with the city's other collectors, he began to fear for his collection. Plans to store his collection (at its zenith, 278 artworks) in Moscow's nearby Fine Arts Museum or into the Kremlin both failed, and "anarchists were occupying the old private houses of the city, where they were sleeping on the carpets and using paintings and decorative objects for shooting practice" (p. 226). I will leave readers hanging at this point; read this fascinating story to learn its ending.
October 1, 2024
(revised and corrected but the views are unaltered in October 2024).
Sergei Shchukin, along with Ivan Morozov, was the greatest pre WWI collector of Impressionist and post impressionist art not simply in Russia but anywhere. He was decades, if not generations, ahead of others in his appreciation of artists like Matisse and Picasso. Schukin, along with Morozov, deserves to be better known for his pioneering patronage of artists who were, at the time, very much of the avant garde but the not fashionable avant garde. Although no longer the non-person he was for so many years in Russia, his legacy is not appreciated because his collection was, on Stalin's dispersed, often to provincal galleries and then hidden away in storage for many years (I can remember reading art histories in the 1970s which had illustrations of Matisse great masterpiece 'The Dance' but had no idea if the picture still existed - it does).
This is a worthy and fascinating life of a man who deserves to be as well known as J.P. Morgan or Paul Mellon but will probably never be because the story of his life outside collecting is so shadowy. The vast textile and industrial businesses he created vanished, like his collection in the Russian revolution. He and his world, the Russia that was creating an alternative to the byzantine absurdities and extravagances of the Romanov court, and lost and forgotten so completely that for decades the idea that there was another Russia that was neither Imperial nor Soviet was not believed.
It is a good book, not a great one. I came away wishing I could have enjoyed it more. But I don't fault of subject or author.
Sergei Shchukin, along with Ivan Morozov, was the greatest pre WWI collector of Impressionist and post impressionist art not simply in Russia but anywhere. He was decades, if not generations, ahead of others in his appreciation of artists like Matisse and Picasso. Schukin, along with Morozov, deserves to be better known for his pioneering patronage of artists who were, at the time, very much of the avant garde but the not fashionable avant garde. Although no longer the non-person he was for so many years in Russia, his legacy is not appreciated because his collection was, on Stalin's dispersed, often to provincal galleries and then hidden away in storage for many years (I can remember reading art histories in the 1970s which had illustrations of Matisse great masterpiece 'The Dance' but had no idea if the picture still existed - it does).
This is a worthy and fascinating life of a man who deserves to be as well known as J.P. Morgan or Paul Mellon but will probably never be because the story of his life outside collecting is so shadowy. The vast textile and industrial businesses he created vanished, like his collection in the Russian revolution. He and his world, the Russia that was creating an alternative to the byzantine absurdities and extravagances of the Romanov court, and lost and forgotten so completely that for decades the idea that there was another Russia that was neither Imperial nor Soviet was not believed.
It is a good book, not a great one. I came away wishing I could have enjoyed it more. But I don't fault of subject or author.
November 9, 2020
I found this to be a poorly written book about a very interesting man. The edition I read was published by Yale University Press. I don't know if that means that the author is an academic and I'm not about to reread the preface to fine out, but that would explain the dry, uninteresting style of writing. She made one statement after another without expanding on it and with nothing to back it up (which is not particularly academic). Often the second sentence in the paragraph just went on to something else. Several times she stated that there was an unbreachable divide in the family after some tragic events, but she never explained exactly why the divide, how it came about, or how it manifested. You can't read about the art of the early 20th century, and especially about Matisse, without coming upon Sergei Shchukin. He was quite a man and quite a collector and he deserves a better book.
June 23, 2021
Ok so here's my review lol:
Unless you are deeply interested or fascinated by Russia and true art history, don't read this book because you will be bored and wonder why you picked it up.
I recently watched a documentary on Netflix titled "This is a Robbery," which I'm sure many of you have heard of. That, combined with my love of Imperial Russia caused my to grab this book when I saw it at my local book store.
The first 75 pages are hard to get through, the run slow. But then once you pass the initial background information, this book turns into a highly educational, informative read on a figure in history so many of us don't even know of.
Unless you are deeply interested or fascinated by Russia and true art history, don't read this book because you will be bored and wonder why you picked it up.
I recently watched a documentary on Netflix titled "This is a Robbery," which I'm sure many of you have heard of. That, combined with my love of Imperial Russia caused my to grab this book when I saw it at my local book store.
The first 75 pages are hard to get through, the run slow. But then once you pass the initial background information, this book turns into a highly educational, informative read on a figure in history so many of us don't even know of.
April 9, 2025
Семёнова - легенда. Для меня это вторая книга из цикла про московских коллекционеров, буду читать еще и покупать всё, что она написала.
Делала большой перерыв в прочтении, потому что боялась дочитывать последние главы про эмиграцию и национализацию коллекции (на страницах про раздел коллекции расплакалась 💔).
Делала большой перерыв в прочтении, потому что боялась дочитывать последние главы про эмиграцию и национализацию коллекции (на страницах про раздел коллекции расплакалась 💔).
February 4, 2019
Good chapters on Matisse and Picasso, drags a bit.
October 12, 2022
Brilliant history lessons, art lessons and storytelling. Fascination reading about Russia from last century given our world today.
July 22, 2024
Summer reading begins!!
March 24, 2025
Always fascinating to read stories about leaders of early 20th century Russia.
July 8, 2019
Эта книга - почти документальное погружение в удивительную эпоху расцвета московского купечества начала XX века, когда собирать и поддерживать искусство стало обычной практикой. И все же невероятная фигура Сергея Щукина, гениального предпринимателя с запредельным художественным чутьем, стоит особняком. Человек незаурядной и во многом трагической судьбы, именно он во многом определил развитие авангарда в стране и спровоцировал коллекционный бум на "французов" во всем мире. Афористичный и предприимчивый, он сделал для искусства не меньше Дягилева, и то, что его имя становится наконец известным и нашему поколению, справедливо и полностью оправданно.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews