Vereshchagin Museum in Cherepovets is one of the main attractions of this city. The building is notable, first of all, for the fact that the famous battle painter was born in it. Here his childhood and the first years of his life passed.
House museum
This house (now Vereshchagin Museum in Cherepovets) was erected around the 30s of the XIX century. It was built specifically for the family of the leader of the county nobility, which was the artist's father.
In this house in 1842, Vasily Vasilyevich Vereshchagin was born. This happened on October 26th. In total, the house belonged to the Vereshchagins family for about half a century. Moreover, he was the only one who preserved the memory of the artist, where he managed to restore a small piece of the world that surrounded Vasily in childhood. It is interesting that the atmosphere in most rooms was recreated as reliably as possible, based on Vereshchagin's autobiographical book and the artist's memoirs.
Opening of the first exposition
For the first time, the exhibition at the Vereshchagin Museum in Cherepovets was opened in 1984. At that time, the museum had already managed to acquire extensive funds, as well as restore two memorial rooms at once. In them in the previous century, the offices of the mother and father of the artist were located.
1992 was especially important, when Russia celebrated the 150th anniversary of the birth of Vasily Vereshchagin. On the basis of the house-museum of Vereshchagin in Cherepovets, the description of which is given in this article, a large-scale memorial complex was opened, which today has two exhibition halls. This is the House of Creativity and the Memorial House. The complex also owns a large number of adjacent territories.
Museum exhibits
The Vereshchagin House-Museum in Cherepovets has several permanent exhibits. One of them is dedicated to the life and work of the artist, as well as his large family.
The fate of brother Nikolai Vasilievich is noteworthy. He has become a vibrant and significant producer of butter and cheese in the country. He was the founder of all industrial dairy production in the country.
Today, the museum for most visitors who come to Cherepovets, a great trip to the provincial estate. In addition to the main manor house, it also includes a coachhouse, farm buildings, a gazebo, a bathhouse, a well and much more.
As soon as the warm season arrives, colorful flowers appear on flowerbeds located in the museum, and there is also a garden nearby with ornamental shrubs and fruit trees.
Building history
The official chronicle indicates that the house, decorated with snow-white pilasters, belonged to the Vereshchagins family for half a century.
In 1954, a memorial plaque was installed on the house, and since 1960 it has been protected as a historical monument of federal significance.
The Vereshchagin Museum in Cherepovets remains the only museum in the world dedicated entirely to this artist. Moreover, the history of its creation was complex and long. It was officially opened only in 1984 on Blagoveshchenskaya Street. Now it is called Socialist. It was in this house that Vereshchagin was born in 1842.
Color lithographs
The first arrival of exhibits in the house-museum of Vereshchagin in Cherepovets, the photo of which is in this article, took place in 1927. As a gift to the city museum, Vasily Nikolayevich Vereshchagin (son of brother Nikolai) donated 43 lithographs from the paintings of his eminent uncle. Among them were two color images with Nikolai Vasilyevich and Vasily Vasilyevich.
Lithographs were delivered to the museum in February, and in March 1927 the museum organized the first exhibition of copies of the artist’s paintings in its history. In the archive of the city of Cherepovets you can still find the reviews of the first visitors. They note that the exhibition was very interesting and important for almost any visitor. Many local residents were pleased with the fact that the city still found the work of their countryman, and also among the reviews, the wishes of the provincial information department to buy genuine works of the local resident Vasily Vereshchagin.
Installation of a plaque
Telling the story of the Vereshchagin house-museum in Cherepovets, it should be noted that the next important step was the installation of a memorial plaque on the building itself. In parallel, museum staff organized a collection of material, often turning to the City Council for help in resolving many issues.
In particular, the leadership of the Vereshchagin house-museum in Cherepovets turned to a number of central museums in order to obtain new valuable materials. Certain difficulties arose with the outbreak of World War II. Because of this, the transfer and restoration of the Vereshchagin Museum in Cherepovets failed.
This is despite the fact that in 1942 the 100th anniversary of the birth of the artist Vereshchagin was celebrated. A decision was made to open a branch, subject to the construction of a building removed from the village of Pertovka and the receipt of a large number of new works by the artist from central museums. Due to the outbreak of war, it was impossible to continue this work.
Interest in the personality of Vereshchagin
All these years, the townspeople have shown great interest in the personality of the artist himself, mean figures even speak of this. In 1939 alone, almost two thousand people came to the exhibition entitled "The Life and Work of the Artist Vereshchagin", which is a lot for a provincial city. For example, an exhibition held at the same time devoted to the life and work of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin was visited by less than five hundred people.
After the war, the attitude towards the works of Vereshchagin changed radically. After all, his paintings were just talking about the valor and strength of the Russian soldier, this topic has become more relevant than ever. It was then that the term “artist” began to be added to the term “artist”, which at the same time did not fully reflect the essence of Vereshchagin painting. But she stuck to it for almost the entire Soviet period.
It is noteworthy that it was originally intended to place the museum in the Perth house of Vereshchagin. To do this, it was supposed to transport the lord's house from the flooded zone in the Rybinsk reservoir. But since there was no free money for this, I had to create a museum on Socialist Street. Work on the acquisition of the fund was carried out by employees of the city museum of local lore.
How to get to the museum?
The Vereshchagin Museum in Cherepovets is located at 22, Sotsialisticheskaya Street. You can get to it by bus to the Sovetsky Prospekt stop. The museum is open daily from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. At the same time, cash desks close in half an hour. The day off is Monday, and in the summer, Sunday is added to this day.
Nearby is the Yagorba River. Having visited the museum, you can also go to the Milyutin house-museum, to the River Station, to Revolution Square, to Rubtsovsky Square, to the monument to the fighters for the victory of the October Revolution, to visit the Resurrection Cathedral, the cemetery of the rectors of the cathedral.