History and Culture: The exhibition, dedicated to the estates of the XIX century, presented in the Pushkin House-Museum in Moscow

The exhibition “Flowers, love, fields, and idleness…” V. L. Pushkin and the Estate Culture of His Time, dedicated to the estates of the XIX century, has opened in the Pushkin House-Museum on Staraya Basmannaya Street (Branch of the Pushkin State Museum, Moscow). Estates near Moscow were a meeting place for writers, historians, philosophers. There, home performances were given and fireworks were launched into the night sky. Vasily Lvovich Pushkin, uncle of Alexander Sergeyevich was a frequenter of such events. He didn’t have his own estate near Moscow, but a lot of his friends did.

In manor libraries of the XIX century, one could find popular then publications, like Gardens, or the Art of Decorating Country Views, and Flora of St. Petersburg and Moscow, or the Description of Plants in Both Capitals’ Suburbs. In their everyday work of household and agricultural management, landowners used such books as New and Complete Household Distiller, Brewer, Mead Maker, Vodka Master, Kvass and Vinegar Maker, Cellar Keeper, and The Golden Book, or the Collection of new, proven, easy, rare and curios household experiments and artificial actions towards the benefit and pleasure for everyone. These books are showcased at the exhibition.

Women of the era spent a lot of their time in manors on handiwork. Various wallets were embroidered as memorable gifts. Women pictured flowers, estate views, genre scenes.

One of the nobility’s hobbies was theatre. It became an integral part of the life and culture of the Russian noble society. Not only professional actors performed on the home stage, but amateur actors – owners and guests of the house did as well. In addition, they often were authors of the plays. An essential participant of home performances was Vasily Lvovich Pushkin, who possessed great acting skills, similarly to his brother, Sergey Lvovich. Vasily Lvovich acted not only as a performer, but also a director and an author.

The exhibition showcases such estates like Arkhangelskoye (estate of the Yusupov family), Ostafyevo (Vyzemsky family), Lyublino (Pisarev family), Marfino (Saltykov family), Ilyinskoye (Ostermann-Tolstoy family), Pokrovskoye-Valuyevo (Musin-Pushkin family), Olgovo (Apraksin family). Looks and interiors of other estates expand views on the architectural and garden ensembles as well. They also create an atmosphere of the manor house. Estate views were an extremely popular genre in the XVIII – first half of the XIX century. Graphic views of parks and interiors of an estate were complementing every visual collection.

The exhibition will run until January 31, 2023.