Marking the 350th anniversary of Peter the Great: The exhibition “Peter and Pushkin” from the collections of the Pushkin Museum-Reserve presented in Pskov Region

The exhibition project of the Pushkin Museum-Reserve Peter and Pushkin is timed to coincide with the 350th anniversary since the birth of Peter I. It aims to show by visual means the interpretation of the image of Peter I and his era in the context of Pushkin’s works. The exposition is presented in the Gannibal House-Museum in the Petrovskoye Museum-Estate (Pskov Region).

The topic of Peter in A. S. Pushkin’s works is a remarkable phenomenon. This is a “meeting” of two significant points of Russian culture: Peter and Pushkin, who became a vivid manifestation of a new type of personality – the result of processes of Russian life, the beginning of which is associated with Peter I’s reforms.

Pushkin has spent a decade and a half researching the Peter’s era. His work on other historical times – the Time of Troubles, Russian history of the XVIII century, history of Pugachev, ideas of creating the history of his time – were associated with the Peter I’s era one way or another. Based on this material, Pushkin has explored the most relevant political issues on the origins of power and autocracy in particular, looked for explanations of the social statuses in Russia, related to the type of statehood that Peter I created, discovered the development trends of his historical reforms “a hundred years” later.

The exposition display is presented in six sections, located in the exhibition halls of the Gannibal House-Museums.

The thematic exhibition is based on the items from the collections of the Pushkin Museum-Reserve, as well as painter’s and private collections.

Peter’s image is featured in many various forms: from the so-called “ceremonial” portrait, traditional in the XVIII century, and the composed turn of the XIX-XX and XXI centuries.  The works of artists, who created their own individual style of depiction, reflect the images of historical figures, thanks to the ability to see characters of Pushkin’s works as real people with all of their portrait persuasiveness and psychological complexity.

The exhibition will run until December 30, 2022.