Previously, and it was thought that always, in this intricate house in the pseudo-Russian style there was a Museum of Handicrafts. And it so happened that this museum was the only one nearby that I had not been to. In those days, this street was called Stanislavsky Street. 20 years ago, in 1994, the street was returned to its previous name - Leontyevsky Lane. And only now I decided to look at the exhibition of this museum. I was in for a huge disappointment - only one sign remained from the museum. I couldn’t believe it and wandered around this building for a long time, looking for some secret entrance. Finally, a guard came out of the carved wooden doors and explained that the museum had not been here for a long time. The famous collection of the famous philanthropist Morozov was transferred to the All-Russian Museum of Decorative and Applied Arts, dispersed and mostly lost. This is such a sad story, but I read that in 1994, 50 years after Morozov’s death, a number of decisions were made by government agencies to recreate Morozov’s legacy in the form of the Museum of Folk Art and preserve it in a historical building in Leontyevsky Lane.

1. The history of the creation of this museum is as follows. In the 17th-18th centuries, the place between the current Tverskaya and Bolshaya Nikitskaya streets was an aristocratic area. The two-story chambers, built of stone in Sheremetyevsky Lane (now Leontyevsky Lane, 7), were owned by Peter the Great's steward A. Golovin. In 1871, the building became the property of Anatoly Mamontov, who was the brother of the entrepreneur and philanthropist Savva Mamontov.

2. Under the new owner, a publishing house was opened on the property, as well as a printing house, for which a special room was built according to the design of the architect V.A. Hartman (today Leontyevsky Lane, building 5). Mamontov's publishing house produced children's books, the pages of which were illustrated by such artists as Viktor Vasnetsov, Valentin Serov and Sergei Malyutin.

3. At the beginning of the 20th century, the property was divided into two parts, and the right plot with the current house No. 7 became the property of the industrialist and collector S.T. Morozov. Sergei Timofeevich was a great connoisseur of folk crafts and decided to create a museum of folk crafts in this house. He commissioned a house reconstruction project from the famous architect S.U. Solovyov. The ancient chambers were given the appearance of an ancient Russian tower.

4. This appearance has survived to this day.

5. Morozov’s next step was to donate the building to the Handicraft Museum, which was previously located on Bolshaya Nikitskaya Street and dates back to 1885. The collection was based on exhibits from the handicraft department of the 1882 Trade and Industrial Exhibition in Moscow, and objects of artistic crafts from the late 19th - early 20th centuries. The new museum began to be replenished with masterpieces of folk art. In 1911, the building was expanded with an additional structure, where a store with various Russian folk crafts was opened.

4. The extension was erected on the initiative of S.T. himself. Morozov, and the project was prepared by architects Adolf Erichson and Vasily Bashkirov. The entrance was designed in the form of a porch with barrel columns.

6. A weather vane depicting the “Bogorodsk blacksmiths” was installed on the roof of the building. According to stories, in the lobby there is a ceramic fireplace made according to Vrubel’s sketch. It turned out to be impossible to get inside the room.

7. After the October Revolution, the handicraft museum was renamed the Museum of Folk Art. Under different names, the museum continued to work on the development of folk crafts. Sergei Timofeevich himself was left at the Museum as a consultant on handicrafts, but in 1925 he emigrated to France. S.T. Morozov died in 1944 and was buried in the Parisian cemetery of Saint-Genevieve-des-Bois.

8. The handicraft museum has made a huge contribution to the preservation and development of Russian artistic crafts. Since the 1910s, its employees not only participated in various exhibitions and fairs, but also were their organizers. This memorial plaque hangs at the entrance.

9. But the museum at Leontyevsky Lane, building No. 7 has not been there for 15 years.

10. The sign once again reminds that the object is protected by the state.

16. Passage to the estate courtyard.

<

18. The backyard has this view. There are no words! Nearby, close to the historical building, there is some kind of construction going on.

19. Gallery connecting two buildings of house No. 7 - the former Museum of Handicrafts.

20. Some strange, obviously later, structures on the roof.

22. And now, for some reason, the “Beryozka” ensemble is located in the historical building of the Museum of Handicrafts. This is such a strange and very sad story.

23. In the two-volume book “Architectural Monuments of Moscow”, publishing house “Iskusstvo”, 1989, two photographs of this house are given. The first shows the facade of building XVIII. From the book - “At the beginning of the 19th century, the first floor contained canopies, storerooms and cellars, and only the second floor contained living quarters.”

24. "In 1900, the estate was purchased by S.T. Morozov with the aim of establishing a Handicraft Museum in the main house, rebuilt for this purpose in 1902-1903 by S.U. Solovyov. Part of the house from the courtyard side was built on, and the facade street was dismantled and built along a new line with decoration in neo-Russian style."

25. “In 1911, V.N. Bashkirov added a retail space to the museum building, which housed a store for selling handicrafts.” This can be seen on the ground floor plan. It looks like some kind of construction work is underway right at the site of the extension behind the green shelter!

An interesting building, reminiscent of an ancient Russian tower, was built at the very beginning of the twentieth century by the architect S. U. Solovyov, commissioned by Sergei Timofeevich Morozov, brother of Savva Timofeevich. At the heart of the house are ancient chambers of the 17th century that belonged to an associate of Peter I, steward Autonomous Golovin. After construction was completed I moved here Handicraft Museum, founded by Sergei Morozov back in 1885.

In the 17th-18th centuries, the area between Bolshaya Nikitskaya and Tverskaya streets was a district of the aristocracy, and here, in Leontyevsky (and then Sheremetyevsky) Lane, there were two-story stone chambers of an associate of Emperor Peter I, steward Autonomous Golovin.

In 1871, the ancient building was purchased by Anatoly Ivanovich Mamontov, brother of the famous entrepreneur and philanthropist Savva Mamontov. Under him, a publishing house and printing house were opened here, where, in particular, children's books with illustrations by famous artists - V. Vasnetsov, V. Serov, S. Malyutin - were printed. The printing house building - modern house No. 5 on Leontyevsky Lane - was built according to the design of the architect V. A. Hartman.

At the very beginning of the twentieth century, one large property was divided into two, and its right part (house number 7) passed to the famous industrialist, collector, Sergei Timofeevich Morozov. Morozov was a great connoisseur of folk crafts, which predetermined the history of this house for centuries. It is thanks to this that the building acquired the appearance that we know today. According to the design of the architect S. U. Solovyov, the ancient chambers were rebuilt in the manner of ancient Russian towers, and donated by Morozov to the Handicraft Museum, which was founded in 1885 and was located at that time on Bolshaya Nikitskaya Street. Many works of art came here, including carved spinning wheels, rocker arms, sculptures of birds and animals. Thus began a long history of collecting carvings. By the way, it was in the Handicraft Museum in 1898 that the first Russian beauty matryoshka was born, on which the artist Sergei Malyutin worked.

In 1911, on the initiative of Sergei Timofeevich, architects A.E. Erichson and V.N. Bashkirov added an additional volume to the building with an “Old Russian” porch, where a store selling handicrafts was opened.

The architectural features of the building are interesting: the entrance is an unusual porch with barrel columns, and the roof of the building is crowned with a weather vane with a toy image. The hallmark of the museum is the lobby, decorated with a ceramic fireplace, made according to sketches by M. A. Vrubel.

By the early 1910s, the Handicraft Museum took the lead in preserving and developing artistic crafts throughout Russia and participated in organizing exhibitions and fairs.

Today the building houses the Museum of Folk Crafts. Its collection includes about fifty thousand exhibits, including peasant carvings, painting on metal, wood, stone and bone. Everyone can get acquainted with folk clothing embroidered with lace, products of urban and industrial art, a collection of modern domestic artistic crafts and much more.

One of them, an associate of Peter the Great, Avtonom Golovin, who served with the rank of steward, owned two-story chambers built of stone in Sheremetyevsky Lane (now Leontyevsky Lane, 7).

In 1871, the building became the property of Anatoly Mamontov, who was the brother of Savva Mamontov, an entrepreneur and philanthropist. Under the new owner, a publishing house and a printing house were opened on the property. For the latter, they even built a special room designed by architect V.A. Hartman (today - Leontyevsky Lane, building 5).

Mamontov's publishing house produced children's books, the pages of which were illustrated by such artists as Viktor Vasnetsov, Valentin Serov and Sergei Malyutin.

At the beginning of the 20th century, the property was divided into two parts, and the right plot with the current house No. 7 on Leontyevsky Lane became the property of the industrialist and collector S.T. Morozov.

Sergei Timofeevich was a passionate connoisseur of handicrafts. It was this passion that predetermined the history and fate of the ancient building.

First of all, Morozov ordered a house reconstruction project from the famous architect S.U. Solovyov. The ancient chambers were given the appearance of an ancient Russian tower. This appearance has survived unchanged to this day.

The next step of Sergei Timofeevich was the donation of the renovated building to the Handicraft Museum, which at that time was located on Bolshaya Nikitskaya Street and traced its history back to 1885. It is interesting to know that it was here, in 1898, that the beautiful matryoshka doll, painted by the artist Sergei Milyutin, was first presented to the general public.

New halls began to be filled with new masterpieces of folk art. Visitors could see carved spinning wheels and rockers, as well as sculptures of various birds and animals.

In 1911, the building at Leontyevsky Lane, building 7, was expanded with additional space, where a store was opened, offering visitors to the Handicraft Museum various products and crafts of Russian folk crafts.

A few words about the architecture of the extension.

It was erected on the initiative of S.T. himself. Morozov, and the project was executed by architects Adolf Erichson and Vasily Bashkirov. The entrance is designed in the form of a porch in the “Old Russian” style with its characteristic barrel columns. The roof of the building is crowned with a weather vane, decorated with a toy image. In the lobby, the ceramic fireplace, designed by the artist Mikhail Vrubel, is striking in its beauty.

The handicraft museum has made a huge contribution to the preservation and development of Russian artistic crafts. Since the 1910s, its employees not only participated in various exhibitions and fairs, but also were their organizers.

Nowadays, the building at 7 Leontyevsky Lane houses the Matryoshka Museum and the Museum of Folk Art. The latter’s collection includes about 50,000 exhibits, including wood carvings, paintings on metal, stone, wood and bone, lace folk clothing, and other products of folk craftsmen.

Museum of Folk Art named after S.T. Morozova (MNI) is one of the oldest museums in Moscow. It was founded in 1885. Initially it was called the Trade and Industrial Museum of Handicrafts of the Moscow Provincial Zemstvo, then it became the Museum of Folk Art at the Scientific Research Institute of the Art Industry (NIIHP), which was created on the basis of the museum itself. The museum moved to its current building in September 1903. Over more than a century of history, museum space has shrunk significantly. As a result, the Folk Art Museum, which in 1999 became a department of the All-Russian Museum of Decorative, Applied and Folk Arts (VMDPNI), occupies only part of the building, which previously belonged entirely to the museum. This is a two-story brick building with an attic and rectangular rooms on the first and second floors.

This building was added in 1911 to the main part of the museum. The building was purchased from A.I. Mamontov specifically for the Handicraft Museum and rebuilt in the pseudo-Russian style by industrialist and philanthropist Sergei Timofeevich Morozov. In 1911 S.T. Morozov built an extension on the site of the old garden for a museum and a handicrafts store. The design of this part of the building with facades in pseudo-Russian style was made by architects V.N. Bashkirov and A.E. Erichson.

On the first floor of the extension there was a store for handicrafts (folk arts) and on the second there was an exhibition. The pockets for the stands had to be purchased externally.

When the Folk Art Museum became a department of the VMDPNI, restoration architects conducted a thorough study of the building. The question arose about preserving the ceiling painting in the hall on the first floor. It was previously known that the painting was made in the late 1930s. There was information that the entire hall was covered with paintings, but the painting remained only on the ceiling.

The study showed that the overall composition stylistically consists of two types of painting: grisaille, imitating brass casting in the spirit of Roman grotesques, and polychrome, in color and design of floral patterns, gravitating towards folk paintings. Grotesque patterns are written on a glued light ocher background in brown and yellow-ocher tones.

Here 6-7 tones are used in accordance with the rules of painting using the grisaille technique, in this case imitating reliefs. On the light background of the frieze, stylized palmettes, stems and acanthus leaves are filled with grisaille. The frieze itself is decorated along the edges with a chain of small beads imitating classic plaster stucco. On the sides of the grisaille there are rectilinear narrow garlands of short green branches, leaves, as well as large light, carmine and scarlet buds, reminiscent of rose flowers.

In the places where the chandeliers are attached, the picturesque frieze is interrupted by round rosettes with a blue inner field bordered by polychrome flower garlands. The four corner rosettes are larger than those on the sides of the rectangle.

The central rosette of the lampshade is composed of pictorial elements similar in style to the frieze painting, but with a slightly different design. The center is a five-pointed large star of bright blue color, bordered along the contour by a chain of picturesque beads and having concave sides. Around the place where the chandelier is attached there is a grisaille rosette imitating white stucco. Between the ellipsoid petals of the rosette there are picturesque stylized plant motifs of branches and leaves. Each of the five segments-petals, made of grisaille, ends at the edges with a bouquet of roses in a multi-color design. The frieze and central rosette are painted with tempera and glue paints.

The ornaments were painted with tempera, and the background fragments of the painting were painted with glue paint. All images in tempera are executed with dense painting - corpus technique.

The ceiling lamp with bright paintings along the perimeter of the frieze looks inconsistent with the surface of the walls, painted in dark gray tones with oil paint. The painting of the ceiling clearly contrasts with the gloomy painting of the walls.

An article by L.N. was published in one of the periodically published collections of works of the NIIHP. Goncharova, dedicated to the participation of craftsmen in the painting of public buildings in the 1930s. In the appendix to it, the author provides an unpublished, manuscript-preserved list of works performed by masters of folk arts and crafts, which was compiled by a museum employee - the famous artist E.G. Telyakovsky.

According to the cited materials from the article by E.G. Telyakovsky, painted in 1939, the ceiling was painted in the same year by artists V.D. Puzanov Molev, K.V. Kosterin, A.I. Novoselov, Beztemyannikov - famous miniaturists from Kholui.

The paintings date back to the time when masters of folk art crafts tried to reorient themselves from intimate miniature painting, and in some cases from icon painting, to the creation of monumental pictorial decorations of a secular nature.

When studying the literature, it became clear that the walls, the upper partitions between the large arched windows in the hall on the first floor, were also covered with paintings, which were later painted over with dull gray oil paint, and perhaps were knocked down together with the plaster.

The hall has a rectangular layout. Total area - 291 sq. m, the ceiling height is more than five meters. On three walls - northern, western and southern - there are large windows with arched openings opening onto Leontyevsky Lane, into the courtyard and into the passage separating the neighboring landholding. Obviously, the supposed painting in the narrow walls alternated with large window openings and each wall had a complete composition. And together they were united by a common color, similar plant motifs, size and rhythm.

It was decided to carry out a test excavation in the thickness of the painting layers to search for surviving painting fragments. It was discovered that under a thick layer of paint on all the walls there was some kind of preserved painting. It became clear that its restoration and reconstruction is quite possible. The general design of the hall was determined: the brightness of the lampshade and the multi-colored richness of the picturesque decor created, together with the exhibition of works of folk crafts, the general mood of the holiday.

Museum of Folk Arts

Opened in 1885 as the Trade and Industrial Museum of Handicrafts of the Moscow Provincial Zemstvo.
The museum has been operating in a building on Leontyevsky Lane (an architectural monument of the 20th century) since 1903. This house was purchased by S.T. Morozov at A.I. Mamontov and rebuilt for museum purposes according to the design of architect S.U. Solovyova. B 1911-1913 to the main building designed by architect V.N. Bashkirov, a two-story extension was made to accommodate the trade department.

Collection

Works of traditional peasant carving and painting on wood, stone, bone; artistic metal products; ceramics; papier-mâché painting; folk clothes; embroidery, lace, printed material; a collection of works of modern Russian artistic crafts. There is no permanent exhibition in the museum. Temporary thematic exhibitions are held in the exhibition hall. The nesting doll museum is also located here.

Address:

Leontyevsky lane, 7. Tel.: 291-87-18. Opening hours: daily from 1 to 17:30, Tuesday and Thursday from 12 to 19:30. Closed on Monday.
Directions: M. "Pushkinskaya", "Tverskaya", "Chekhovskaya".