Travel to Russia - Reisebuero WELT - Russia Travel Tours - Russian Visa - Moscow hotel - St. Petersburg hotel

Works by one of the most famous Russian photographer of the 19th century, Andrei Karelin, are on display in the Historical Museum

The State Historical Museum presents a photo exhibition of the works of one of the first Russianphotographers, Andrei Karelin. A professional artist, Karelin became famous in Russia and Europe in the second part of the 19th century owing to his photography portraits and landscapes.

Although Karelin came from a poor family, he had early shown his artistic talent that gave him an opportunity to study. He first studied icon painting in Tambov, where he was noticed by a local patron of art, who helped him to continue his education at the Saint Petersburg Academy of Art. No wonder the critics stress the artistic basis of his photography. Most of his life Karelin spent in Nizhny Novgorod, where he had his own studio. The studio looked more like a museum: the Karelin collected antiques and folk art items. Some of the exhibits were used to create images of the models for his photo works and even to reproduce famous paintings of Russian artists. The exhibition features a photo reproduction of Wedding Feast of Boyars by Kramskoi. Some of Karelin's works look theatrically staged and are abundantly decorated. Pictures of young women wearing Russian folk dresses forestall today's cover girls from fashion magazines.

A major part of the exhibition includes Karelin's photographs of Nizhny Novgorod landscapes dated 1860-1890. The alternative viewpoint of the large panoramas and beauty of small mansions was highly estimated by his contemporaries, and the photographs were published in a special album. His first exhibition took place in Nizhny Novgorod and was dedicated to the publication of the photo album praising the beauty of the city on the Volga river. Some pictures from that publication are displayed at the exhibition. Some of the exhibits were brought from the Russian Museum of Photography in Nizhny Novgorod, some from the store-rooms of historical museums.

Karelin made photographic portraits of many of his prominent contemporaries: chemist Dmitry Mendeleev, artists Konstantin Makovsky, Dmitry Vereshchagin, Ivan Shishkin, collector of Russian art Pyotr Shchukin. Karelin worked with famous Moscow Art Theater. In particular, when the troupe was preparing to stage On the Bottom by Maxim Gorky, he took pictures of vagrants in the Moscow slums.

The artist was honoured as a prominent master in Russia. In 1882, at the fifth All-Russia Industrial and Artistic Exhibition in Moscow, Karelin received a Gold Medal for "discovering new ways and techniques in photography." Afterwards, he received a few international awards, including the Diploma of First International Exhibition of Moscow Photography and Artistic Society (1902), and a Silver Medal at International Photography Exhibition (1903).

Visitors of this historical exhibition can enjoy advantages of modern technologies. Part of the display is occupied by a special old-fashioned photo-studio. Those who would like to receive a photograph in a vintage style printing quality can apply to the studio employees; the photograph will be ready in five minutes. Traditional Russian dresses are available for genre portraits.

hotel russian visas air tickets and train tickets transport services	conference facilities sightseeing tours special offers