THE MOROZOV COLLECTION

Opening September 22, 2021, the Fondation Louis Vuitton will present THE MOROZOV COLLECTION, one of the world’s foremost collections of Impressionist and Modern art.  On view through February 22th, 2022, this major international exhibition will bring together in Paris 200 masterpieces from the French and Russian modern art collection of the brothers Mikhaïl and Ivan Morozov. This will be the first time the collection has traveled outside of Russia since its creation at the turn of the 20th century.

Valentin Serov, Portrait of the Collector of Modern Russian and French Paintings, Ivan Abramovich Morozov, Moscow, 1910

Valentin Serov
Portrait of the Collector of Modern
Russian and French Paintings,
Ivan Abramovich Morozov, Moscow, 1910
Tempera on cardboard
63,5 × 77 cm
Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

 

The landmark exhibition is the second in the ICONS OF MODERN ART series, organized by the Fondation Louis Vuitton in partnership with the State Hermitage Museum (Saint-Petersburg), the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts (Moscow) and the State Tretyakov Gallery (Moscow).  It follows the Fondation Louis Vuitton’s influential SHCHUKIN COLLECTION exhibition (2016), which attracted 1.3 million visitors, and continues the Fondation’s series dedicated to prominent collectors and pioneering patrons of modern art, which has also included The Courtauld Collection, A Vision for Impressionism (2019).

 

Installed across all of the galleries in the Fondation Louis Vuitton’s iconic Frank Gehry building, THE MOROZOV COLLECTION will bring together a selection of works by renowned French artists including Manet, Rodin, Monet, Pissarro, Toulouse-Lautrec, Renoir, Sisley, Cézanne, Gaugin, Van Gogh, Bonnard, Denis, Maillol, Matisse, Marquet, Vlaminck, Derain and alongside Russian masters including Repin, Vrubel, Korovin, Golovin, Serov, Larionov, Goncharova, Malevich, Mashkov, Konchalovsky, Outkine, Saryan and Konenkov. Conceived by Anne Baldassari, the exhibition’s chief curator, The Morozov Collection will include astonishing discoveries and memorable moments, with a unique design that evokes historical references and highlights the timeless nature of works that exemplify the emerging artistic modernity of the late 19th- and early 20th centuries.

 

For the first and only time, the Music Room in Ivan Morozov’s Moscow mansion will be presented outside the State Hermitage Museum as part of a special exhibition design and installation that marks the ending of the presentation of the Morozov works. Consisting of a monumental decorative installation of seven panels commissioned by Ivan Morozov in 1907 from Maurice Denis on the subject of The Story of Psyche (1908-1909), and of four sculptures by Aristide Maillol, the Music Room will provide a rare window into the life of the prominent collector.

 

A 520-page scholarly catalogue, THE MOROZOV COLLECTION – ICONS OF MODERN ART, will be co-published by the Fondation Louis Vuitton and Les Éditions Gallimard. Based on Mikhaïl and Ivan Morozov’s extensive unpublished archives, which are preserved at the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts and the Tretyakov Gallery, the publication will feature unpublished texts and documents that illustrate the Morozov family’s unique history.

 

THE MOROZOV BROTHERS

The brothers Mikhaïl Abramovich Morozov (1870-1903) and Ivan Abramovich Morozov (1871-1921) were arts patrons who dominated Moscow’s cultural life at the turn of the 20th century, in much the same way as the Tretyakovs, Mamontovs, Riabouchinskys and Shchukins did.  They stood out for their unconditional patronage of contemporary European and Russian art, which greatly contributed to enhancing the international reputation of modern French painters. 

 

On the advice of Paris’s leading art dealers – Paul Durand-Ruel, Ambroise Vollard, Georges Bernheim, Eugène Druet, Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler -- the Morozovs acquired more than 250 iconic paintings and sculptures by Cézanne, Gauguin, Van Gogh, Renoir, Monet, Matisse, Marquet, Derain and Picasso, as well as monumental decorative works by Bonnard and Denis, and bronzes by Rodin, Claudel and Maillol.  They also committed to collecting contemporary Russian art by bringing together nearly 400 modern Russian paintings by artists of the Realist (Wanderers), Symbolist, Impressionist, and Post-Impressionist movements such as Vrubel, Korovin, Golovin, Serov, Outkine, as well as by Larionov, Mashkov, Konchalovsky, Saryan and Konenkov.    

 

Their collections, nationalized in 1918, allowed the creation of the world’s first museum of modern art: the State Museum of Modern Western Art / GMNZI, which opened in Ivan Morozov’s Moscow mansion in 1928.  From the 1930s to 1948, their collections were gradually spread out among Russian public institutions: the State Hermitage Museum, the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts and the Tretyakov Gallery.

 

INSTITUTIONAL PARTNERSHIP

The Fondation Louis Vuitton’s organization of the exceptional ICONS OF MODERN ART exhibitions, dedicated to the Shchukin and Morozov collections, illustrates the lasting bonds of friendship and collaboration between French and Russian institutions.

 

The Morozov Collection exhibition marks a new milestone in the institutional partnership established by the Fondation Louis Vuitton with the State Hermitage Museum, the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts and the State Tretyakov Gallery.  It also features major loans from the State Russian Museum in Saint Petersburg, the National Art Museum of the Republic of Belarus (Minsk, Belarus), the Dnipropetrovsk Art Museum (Ukraine), the MAGMA Moscow, and the private collections in Moscow of Petr O. Aven and Vladimir and Ekaterina Semenikhine.

 

In parallel, the Fondation Louis Vuitton is supporting an extensive program of research, preservation and restoration of modern French works (Picasso, Matisse, Gaugin and Van Gogh) and Russian ones (Vrubel in particular) from the collections of the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts and the Tretyakov Gallery.  The Fondation Louis Vuitton is also engaged in modernizing and equipping the Pushkin Museum’s Restoration Workshop.

 

By extending its patronage to the State Hermitage Museum, LVMH was actively involved in the organisation of the Morozov exhibition that took place in June 2019 in Saint-Petersburg. LVMH has also given its full support to a legacy project led by the State Hermitage Museum, aimed at recreating within its permanent collections, the Music Room in Ivan Morozov’s mansion.

Henri Matisse, Fruit and Bronze, Issy-les-Moulineaux, 1910

Henri Matisse
Fruit and Bronze,
Issy-les-Moulineaux, 1910
Oil on canvas
91 × 118.3 cm
Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow
© Succession Ivan Morozov

Auguste Renoir, Portrait of the Actress Jeanne Samary, Paris, 1877

Auguste Renoir
Portrait of the Actress Jeanne Samary, Paris, 1877
Oil on canvas
56 × 47 cm
Pushkin Museum, Moscow

Vincent van Gogh, Seascape at Saintes-Maries, Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer, 1888

Vincent van Gogh
Seascape at Saintes-Maries, Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer, 1888
Oil on canvas
44,5 × 54,5 cm
Pushkin Museum, Moscow

Paul Gauguin, Eu haere ia oe (Woman Holding a Fruit); Where Are You Going?, Tahiti, 1893

Paul Gauguin
Eu haere ia oe (Woman Holding a Fruit); Where Are You Going?, Tahiti, 1893
Oil on canvas
92,5 × 73,5 cm
Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg

Paul Gauguin, Café at Arles, Arles, 1888

Paul Gauguin
Café at Arles, Arles, 1888
Oil on canvas
72 x 92 cm
Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow

Paul Gauguin, The Great Buddha, Tahiti, 1899

Paul Gauguin
The Great Buddha, Tahiti, 1899
Oil on canvas
134 × 95 cm
Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow

Paul Gauguin, TE TIARE FARANI (Flowers of France), Tahiti, 1891

Paul Gauguin
TE TIARE FARANI (Flowers of France),
Tahiti, 1891
Oil on canvas
72 x 92 cm
Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow

Vincent van Gogh, The Prison Courtyard, Saint-Rémy, 1890

Vincent van Gogh
The Prison Courtyard,
Saint-Rémy, 1890
Oil on canvas
80 × 64 cm
Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow

Henri Matisse, Moroccan Triptych. View from the Window, Tangier, 1912-1913

Henri Matisse
Moroccan Triptych. View from the Window,
Tangier, 1912-1913
Oil on canvas
115 x 80 cm
Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow
© Succession H. Matisse

Henri Matisse, Moroccan Triptych. Zorah on the Terrace, Tangier, 1912-1913

Henri Matisse
Moroccan Triptych. Zorah on the Terrace,
Tangier, 1912-1913
Oil on canvas
115 × 100 cm
Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow
© Succession H. Matisse

Henri Matisse, Moroccan Triptych. Entrance to the Kasbah, Tangier, 1912-1913

Henri Matisse
Moroccan Triptych. Entrance to the Kasbah,
Tangier, 1912-1913
Oil on canvas
116 × 80 cm
Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow
© Succession H. Matisse

André Derain, Drying the Sails, Collioure, 1905

André Derain
Drying the Sails,
Collioure, 1905
Oil on canvas
82 × 101 cm
Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow
© Adagp, Paris, 2021

Pierre-Auguste Renoir, In the Garden. Under the Trees of Moulin de la Galette, Montmartre, 1875

Pierre-Auguste Renoir
In the Garden. Under the Trees of Moulin de la Galette, Montmartre, 1875
Oil on canvas
81 x 65 cm
Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow

Paul Cézanne, Bathers, Aix-en-Provence, [1892-1894]

Paul Cézanne
Bathers,
Aix-en-Provence, [1892-1894]
Oil on canvas
26.0 x 40 cm
Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow

Edvard Munch, White Night. Aasgardstrand (Girls on the Bridge), 1903

Edvard Munch
White Night. Aasgardstrand
(Girls on the Bridge), 1903
Oil on canvas
86 × 75.8 cm
Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow

Édouard Manet, The Cork or Country Inn (La Guinguette), Paris, 1878

Édouard Manet
The Cork or Country Inn (La Guinguette),
Paris, 1878
Oil on canvas
72.4 × 92 cm
Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow

Natalia Gontcharova, Orchard in Autumn, Kalouga region, 1909

Natalia Gontcharova
Orchard in Autumn
Kalouga region, 1909
Oil on canvas
82 x 101 cm
State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow
© Adagp, Paris, 2021

Valentin Serov, Portrait of Mika Morozov, Moscow, 1901

Valentin Serov
Portrait of Mika Morozov, Moscow, 1901
Oil on canvas
62.8 × 71 cm
State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

Valentin Serov, Portrait of Mikhaïl Abramovitch Morozov, 1902

Valentin Serov
Portrait of Mikhaïl Abramovitch Morozov, 1902
Oil on canvas
216 × 81.5 cm
State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

Martiros Saryan, La Rue. Constantinople, 1910

Martiros Saryan
La Rue. Constantinople,
1910
Oil on canvas
60.2 × 63.8 cm
State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow
© Succession Martiros Saryan

Ilia Machkov, Still Life. Fruit in a Dish, Moscow, 1910

Ilia Machkov
Still Life. Fruit in a Dish,
Moscow, 1910
Oil on canvas
80.7 x 116.2 cm
State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

Mikhail Vrubel Lilacs, Russia, 1901

Mikhail Vrubel
Lilacs,
Russia, Chernigov province,
Ivanovo village, 1901
Oil on canvas
214 × 342 cm
State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

Konstantin Makovsky, Portrait of Varvara Alexeevna Morozova, born Khludova, Moscow, 1884

Konstantin Makovsky
Portrait of Varvara Alexeevna Morozova, born Khludova, Moscow, 1884
Oil on canvas
212 × 137 cm
State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

Sergueï Konenkov, Winged Figure, Moscow, 1913

Sergueï Konenkov
Winged Figure, Moscow, 1913
Tinted wood
119 x 57 x 72 cm
State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow
© Adagp, Paris, 2021

Valentin Serov, Portrait of Evdokiya Sergeevna Morozova, Moscow, 1908

Valentin Serov
Portrait of Evdokiya Sergeevna Morozova,
Moscow, 1908
Oil on canvas
116.2 x 77.5 cm
State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

Pyotr Konchalovsky, Self-Portrait in Gray, Abramtsevo, Moscow region, 1911

Pyotr Konchalovsky
Self-Portrait in Gray,
Abramtsevo, Moscow region, 1911
Oil on canvas
143 × 113.5 cm
State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow
© Succession Piotr Kontchalovski

Ilya Machkov, Self-Portrait, Moscow, 1911

Ilya Machkov
Self-Portrait, Moscow, 1911
Oil on canvas
137 × 107 cm
State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

Konstantin Korovin, In a Boat, Moscow region, 1888

Konstantin Korovin
In a Boat, Moscow region, 1888
Oil on canvas
53.5 × 42.5 cm
State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

Paul Cézanne, Still Life with a Curtain, [1892-1894]

Paul Cézanne
Still Life with a Curtain,
[1892-1894]
Oil on canvas
55.0 x 74.5 cm
State Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg

Paul Cézanne, Smoker, Aix-en-Provence, [1891-1892]

Paul Cézanne
Smoker, Aix-en-Provence, [1891-1892]
Oil on canvas
92.5 x 73.5 cm
State Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg

Claude Monet, Pond at Montgeron, Montgeron, 1876

Claude Monet
Pond at Montgeron,
Montgeron, 1876
Oil on canvas
175 x 194 cm
State Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg

Paul Cézanne, Great Pine near Aix, Aix-en-Provence, [1895-1897]

Paul Cézanne
Great Pine near Aix,
Aix-en-Provence, [1895-1897]
Oil on canvas
72 x 91 cm
State Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg

Henri Matisse, Still life with The Dance, 1909

Henri Matisse
Still life with The Dance, 1909
Oil on canvas
89.5 × 117.5 cm
State Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg
© Succession Ivan Morozov

Paul Cézanne, Mont Sainte-Victoire, Aix-en-Provence, [1896-1898]

Paul Cézanne
Mont Sainte-Victoire,
Aix-en-Provence, [1896-1898]
Oil on canvas
80 x 100 cm
State Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg

Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Portrait of the Actress Jeanne Samary, Paris, 1878

Pierre-Auguste Renoir
Portrait of the Actress Jeanne Samary,
Paris, 1878
Oil on canvas
174 x 101.5 cm
State Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg

Claude Monet, Corner of the Garden at Montgeron, Montgeron, 1876

Claude Monet
Corner of the Garden at Montgeron,
Montgeron, 1876
Oil on canvas
175 x 194 cm
State Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg

Pierre Bonnard The Mediterranean. Triptych, Saint-Tropez, 1911 Oil on canvas 407 × 152 cm each panel Coll. Ivan Morozov, 1911, State Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg

Pierre Bonnard
The Mediterranean. Triptych,
Saint-Tropez, 1911
Oil on canvas
407 × 152 cm each panel
Coll. Ivan Morozov, 1911,
State Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg

Pierre Bonnard, The Mediterranean. Triptych, Saint-Tropez, 1911

Pierre Bonnard
The Mediterranean. Triptych,
Saint-Tropez, 1911
Oil on canvas
407 × 152 cm each panel
Coll. Ivan Morozov, 1911,
State Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg

Pierre Bonnard The Mediterranean. Triptych, Saint-Tropez, 1911 Oil on canvas 407 × 152 cm each panel Coll. Ivan Morozov, 1911, State Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg

Pierre Bonnard
The Mediterranean. Triptych,
Saint-Tropez, 1911
Oil on canvas
407 × 152 cm each panel
Coll. Ivan Morozov, 1911,
State Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg

Maurice Denis, The Story of Psyche. Psyche Discovers That Her Mysterious Lover Is Eros, Paris, 1908

Maurice Denis
The Story of Psyche. Psyche Discovers That Her Mysterious Lover Is Eros, Paris, 1908
Oil on canvas
395 × 274.5 cm
State Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg

Maurice Denis, The Story of Psyche. Panel Five. In the Presence of the Gods Jupiter Bestows Immortality on Psyche and Celebrates Her Marriage to Eros, Paris, 1908

Maurice Denis
The Story of Psyche. Panel Five. In the Presence of the Gods Jupiter Bestows Immortality on Psyche and Celebrates
Her Marriage to Eros, Paris, 1908
Oil on canvas
396.5 × 272 cm
State Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg

Edgar Degas, After the Bath, Paris, [1895]

Edgar Degas
After the Bath, Paris, [1895]
Pastel, tempera, gouache and charcoal
on brown paper mounted on cardboard
81.5 × 71.8 cm
State Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg

Henri Matisse, Seated Woman, 1908

Henri Matisse
Seated Woman, 1908
Huile sur toile
81 x 52.5 cm
State Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg
© Succession H. Matisse