Kozma Soldatenkov (1818-1901) and his collection in the context of the artistic life of Moscow in the second half of the XIX century

Kuznetsova Marfa Vadimovna ORCID: 0000-0002-0360-3363 Postgraduate student, Department of the History of Russian Art, Lomonosov Moscow State University 119192, Russia, Moscow region, Moscow, Lomonosovsky Prospekt str., 27 mkuzn1998@mail.ru

             The history of Russian art culture of the XIX century is inextricably linked with private art collecting. The middle of the century is becoming a turning point for art collecting. While the old St. Petersburg collections are gradually losing their importance, Moscow collections belonging to representatives of the merchant class are beginning to form. Many merchant houses become centers of intellectual and artistic life, as a result of the social upsurge of the 1850s and 1860s, merchants are looking for ways to get closer to the scientific and artistic world. Collecting is becoming a fashionable and popular way of investing capital. At the same time, within this general trend, collections that are solid in terms of approach and artistic side are being formed.

            In the circle of Moscow collectors of this period, the name of Kozma Terentyevich Soldatenkov (1818-1901) stands out prominently. Soldatenkov, a Moscow merchant, entrepreneur, textile manufacturer, came from the Old Believer merchant dynasty of the Soldatenkovs, who owned a weaving paper mill in Moscow ^{[1, p. 7]}. In 1852, after the death of his father, he became the owner of a large fortune. Gradually, the sphere of Kozma Terentyevich's business interests is expanding. In addition to trading in the products of the family factory and cotton yarn, in 1857, together with the Khludov brothers, he became a co-founder of the Krenholm textile manufactory, as well as a shareholder in the Danilovskaya and Nikolskaya manufactories, the Trekhgorny Brewing Association. Together with other merchants, Soldatenkov is one of the founders of the Moscow Accounting Bank, is an authorized representative of the Moscow Merchant Society, as well as a member of other commercial and public organizations.

                From an early age, Soldatenkov begins to be interested in the cultural sphere, gets acquainted with the advanced Moscow intelligentsia. In 1856, he founded a publishing company, initially setting himself the goal of publishing books that could not count on a large circulation, but were necessary for the development of Russian science and culture ^{[2, p. 9]}. Subsequently, he published the works of V.O. Klyuchevsky, I.E. Zabelin, the works of I.S. Turgenev, A.A. Fet, N.A. Nekrasov, monuments of world classical literature. Soldatenkov actively participates in the life of the Old Believer community of the Rogozhsky cemetery, conducting its financial affairs, as well as repeatedly representing the interests of not only the Moscow community, but also the entire Old Believers before the authorities ^{[3, p. 30]}.

                 However, throughout his life, Soldatenkov was known not only as a major manufacturer and book publisher, philanthropist and philanthropist, religious figure, but also as a collector of Russian and Western European art. He was engaged in collecting for almost half a century, from the late 1840s to the 1890s, forming a significant collection, in which the main part was occupied by domestic art of the second half of the XIX century. In the late 1840s and early 1850s, Soldatenkov's collection was apparently located in his house in Sokolniki, and since 1857 it has been housed in his mansion on Myasnitskaya Street ^{[4, p. 31]}. In 1901, it was transferred to the Moscow Public and Rumyantsev Museum, and after its disbandment in 1924-1925, it was distributed among metropolitan and regional museums, ceasing to exist as a single collection ^{[5, p. 60]}.

             A systematic study of the Soldatenkov collection (the first works, one way or another affecting its problems and features, were published in the 1980s ^[6]) involves not only the reconstruction of the collection and further analysis of its specifics, the features of the collector's collecting policy and his position in the art market. An equally important topic is Soldatenkov's social sense of self during the formation of the collection and its existence. The long and consistent process of collecting K.T. Soldatenkov's works of art assumed one degree or another of his participation in the artistic life of Moscow in the middle and second half of the XIX century, the collection itself, which included canvases significant for Russian art of the period under consideration, could not but leave a certain mark in the Moscow cultural consciousness.

              Meanwhile, in studies related to the Soldatenkov collection in one way or another, the positioning of Soldatenkov and his collection in Moscow art life was considered tangentially. There is a certain tradition in historiography to mention several facts of Soldatenkov's patronage, including the Rumyantsev Museum, to give a description of his mansion on Myasnitskaya Street, where the collection was located, given by the critic P.P. Boborykin in the 1880s, as well as to talk about the limited availability of the collection to citizens due to its placement directly in residential buildings rooms. In this article, we will try to clarify the degree of involvement of the collector in the key cultural events of this period, as well as analyze in more detail the peculiarities of perception of his collection by contemporaries.

                 Soldatenkov's very first artistic endeavors reflect his philanthropic aspirations: one of the main ways to declare his involvement in the artistic community was his financial support.  In 1847, Soldatenkov, along with several other Moscow merchants, became a full member of the Moscow Art Society (hereinafter - the Moscow Art Society), whose main goals were to support the Moscow School of Painting and Sculpture and create favorable conditions in Moscow that simplify the acquisition of professional art education by talented youth. In a broader sense, the task of artistic education of Moscow society was set, which stemmed from a set of nationally oriented ideas about the future of Russian culture in the 1830s and 1840s: among them was the need to establish a public museum in Moscow and spread knowledge about the arts through strengthening the connection between artists and society.

             However, these intentions are not immediately realized. For example, according to S. Glagol, "Moscow artists huddle at this time ... around several patrons, live by their orders and almost do not go beyond the small circles surrounding these patrons" and only "the social movement of the late fifties and early sixties captures these circles and awakens them to a new life" ^{[7, p. 145]}. Indeed, the cultural life of the ancient capital receives a new round of development with the formation of the Moscow Society of Art Lovers (MOLH) in 1860, which sees as its goal "not the education of artists", but "the development of a taste for the elegant in the whole society through the establishment of a permanent exhibition and the establishment of a public art gallery." The Society establishes a permanent, periodically updated exhibition, which shows significant works of the Russian and Western schools ^{[8, p. 221]} and which, in turn, act as a kind of analogue of the art gallery that was absent at that time in Moscow.

             Although K.T. Soldatenkov officially joined the MOLH only ten years after its foundation and subsequently actively participated in its affairs (in 1873-1876 and from 1881 to 1891 Soldatenkov was a member of the committee that was in charge of all the affairs of the Society), already in 1861 he was an exhibitor of the first MOLH exhibitions along with other collectors: P.M. Tretyakov, M.A. Obolensky, S.N. Mosolov, G.I. Khludov, etc. This fact, without a doubt, confirms his willingness to participate in the formation of a public museum through the efforts of private individuals. The collector not only expands his ideas about the artistic situation in general, but also comes into contact with educational ideas that arise in this circle. Thus, Soldatenkov was most likely well aware of the name of K.K. Hertz, the secretary of the MOLH, the informal leader of its exhibition activities and the founder of the Department of Archaeology and Art History at Moscow University. They were brought closer by their acquaintance with T.N. Granovsky, a historian and professor at Moscow University. In 1858, Hertz published an article "On the foundation of the Art Museum in Moscow", where he considers the future museum as an intellectual center capable of bringing publicity and publicity that had previously been absent in artistic life. Raising the issue of aesthetic education of the whole society, Hertz thinks of the Moscow Museum as a comprehensive cultural institution consisting not only of an art gallery, but also departments with collections of drawings, prints, photographs, as well as an extensive library accessible to all. Moreover, according to Hertz, it was necessary to focus on the latest European museums, where not the government, but the society itself collected the necessary amounts.

              It is also important to mention here that in the early 1860s, simultaneously with the organization of the MOLH, another important cultural center was created - the Moscow Rumyantsev Museum, thanks primarily to the efforts of N.V. Isakov, the trustee of the Moscow Educational District and the de facto head of the Society. Since January 1861, Isakov, on behalf of MOLKH, has been in correspondence with the Academy of Arts regarding the exhibition of A.A. Ivanov's painting "The Appearance of Christ to the People", which at that time was in St. Petersburg ^{[9, p. 359]}. In the coming months, several important events are taking place for Moscow's artistic life: the delivery of the canvas and its display by the efforts of the Society, the Emperor's permission to transport the Rumyantsev Museum to Moscow and his gift of the "Phenomenon" to the future Moscow museum.

              Without dwelling in detail on the specifics of the museum's translation, we note that some time after the signing of the imperial permit, Moskovskie Vedomosti publishes an appeal from the city administration to the public, calling for both monetary donations for the establishment of a museum and a public library, and to donate future exhibits. Subsequently, the "Regulations on the Moscow Public Museum and the Rumyantsev Museum" dated June 19, 1862, states the possibility of placing private collections in the museum with the designation of the owner's name. Soldatenkov was the first to respond to this proposal and made one of the largest contributions to the foundation of the public library, as stated in a letter from P.A. Tuchkov to N.V. Isakov dated September 4, 1861 ^{[10, p. 44]}. Moreover, it was probably at this time that the collector was thinking about further transfer of his collection to the Rumyantsev Museum, as will be stated in his will of 1901: "I express the desire that all the objects I donate be placed in a separate hall of the museum, with the name of such a "Soldatenkovskaya" ^{[11, p. 235]}.

                It seems that Soldatenkov's active participation in the creation of artistic and scientific public space can be explained by several reasons. On the one hand, this is indicative of the awakening of public initiative for the period under review, which he shows, among other things, as a representative of the Moscow industrial elite. On the other hand, the collector could not help but be fascinated by the idea of perpetuating his collection, making it part of the national cultural heritage. Moreover, in 1862, Soldatenkov was the owner of the largest sketch among Moscow collectors for the painting "The Appearance of Christ to the People" (the collector purchased it from the author in Rome in 1858), which was to occupy one of the central places in the art gallery of the Rumyantsev Museum, and this fact definitely increased Soldatenkov's interest in him. In other words, the collector is one of the first exhibitors of the museum, who not only contributes funds to the foundation of the museum, but later becomes one of its main donors, increasing the museum's art gallery by more than one and a half times ^{[12, p. 293]}.

              Soldatenkov's close connection with him is also formed through the merchant's participation in the affairs of the Society of Ancient Russian Art, organized in 1864 not only to collect information about Russian icon painting and study it, but also to replenish the collection of the Rumyantsev Museum ^{[13, p. 195]}. Soldatenkov is a founding member of the Society along with historians, paleographers, literary critics and collectors. There is no doubt that the merchant supports the Society from the position of a prominent representative of the Old Believer community, who definitely had information about pre-Reform icon painting and treated it not only from a confessional, but also from an artistic point of view, collecting icons, communicating with collectors of ancient manuscripts and old printed books, the Old Believer brothers Khludov. An equally important role was played by friendly communication with the historian I.E. Zabelin, who was also a member of the Society that stimulated the development of archaeological science in pre-revolutionary Russia. However, Soldatenkov's enthusiasm, judging by the memoirs of his contemporaries, remained unclaimed; first of all, his financial viability was appreciated, which could provide Society with the necessary support: "the merchant Soldatenkov is more valiant than many and many, but he was elected only to use his rich generosity" ^{[14, p. 14]}. Meanwhile, Soldatenkov's role in AUDREY's activities has yet to be specified, including the identification of monuments of "church painting", which were transferred by him to the Department of Prehistoric Antiquities of the Rumyantsev Museum ^{[15, p. 41]}.

               A year later, Soldatenkov joined the Board of Trustees of the Art and Industrial Museum (today the Museum of Decorative, Applied and Industrial Art at the Stroganov Russian State Pedagogical University), founded as a replenished repository of works of Russian national art, which was supposed to "promote the development of original artistic abilities in industrial classes" ^{[16, p. 44]}. Soldatenkov's name appears among other donors of funds for the purchase of exhibits for the museum and the construction of a building for it, which opened in 1868 on Myasnitskaya Street, not far from the merchant's mansion.

               The collector's participation in the affairs of these two organizations can be considered as an indicator of his involvement, along with other Moscow benefactors, in the process of realizing the self-identity of national culture, aiming at solving theoretical and practical tasks of artistic activity. Russian Russian Art Another of the most striking examples of Soldatenkov's interest in the fate of Russian art is his participation in the organization of the First Congress of Russian Artists and Art Lovers, which was convened by the Moscow Art Museum and timed to coincide with the opening of the "City Art Gallery of the Pavel and Sergei Mikhailovich Tretyakov Brothers" in 1893. This congress became a kind of forum for representatives of the artistic, artistic, scientific and musical spheres of the country's life, at which national aesthetic tasks were to be discussed. Soldatenkov is a member of the Congress, he is elected to the so-called Preliminary Committee, but he refuses his duties "for personal reasons" ^{[17, p. 6]}. Despite this, the preface to the "Proceedings ..." of the Congress gratefully mentions the name of the collector as the person who sponsored his organization.

                 However, it would be incorrect to consider that K.T. Soldatenkov's contribution to Moscow art life was connected only with patronage in relation to museum and exhibition activities. The collector's position in the art community was also determined by his direct participation in key exhibition projects of the second half of the 19th century. The most striking of them is the All–Russian Art and Industrial Exhibition in Moscow in 1882, dedicated to the 25th anniversary of the reign of Alexander II (Soldatenkov also participates in World Exhibitions, but this story remains outside the scope of the topic of this article). Almost from the very beginning of its preparation, it was indicated that the art department has a special value. His task was to demonstrate the achievements of Russian art over the past 25 years, and therefore he had to represent a collection of recognized works, the authors of which, among other things, were awarded medals and academic titles, to show "a real treasure that is scattered over the Russian land, in the form of paintings, statues, monuments" ^{[18, p. 1]}. The formulation of the narrative about Russian national art is supported by new Moscow capitals: Soldatenkov participates in the exhibition along with D.P. and M.P. Botkin, S.I. Mamontov, S.M. Tretyakov and other collectors. Among other exhibitors, which also included the Academy of Arts, and Alexander III with his own collection of Russian art, the collector, despite rumors of possible arson on the Khodynka field, provides the largest number of works – 48 (for comparison, the Academy provided 49 works, the emperor– 24) ^{[19, p. 135]}.

                In a broader context, Soldatenkov's very activity as a Moscow collector has a direct impact on the artistic life of the ancient capital. Acquiring the works of domestic, including Moscow masters throughout his life, Soldatenkov, despite the incidents that naturally accompanied collecting, as well as the nuances of relationships with artists and art communities, acts as one of the main collectors of Moscow in the middle and second half of the XIX century. His name appears in the catalogues of the Moscow expositions of the TPHV, correspondence between masters, collectors; he himself closely communicates with the brothers P.M. and S.M. Tretyakov, V.A. Kokorev, D.P. Botkin and other collectors, has the most direct ideas about the artistic situation, thanks to an expanded network of contacts, a set of credentials in leading art organizations.

                     Meanwhile, in the early 1890s, the activity of not only Soldatenkov, but also other Moscow collectors, for the Moscow art market, if not questioned, is considered as not quite relevant to the current artistic realities. Thus, the above-mentioned S. Glagol, having made an attempt to evaluate the activities of the MALL for the entire time of its existence, defines it as a community of patrons who care about Moscow artists ("the word amateur of arts is understood only in the sense of patronage of artists" ^{[7, p. 145]}), owners of significant capital who monopolized the art market, putting masters thus, in some dependence on their desires and preferences. Now, the critic notes, a new type of amateur has become active on the market, who, having significantly less funds and not being able to create a large-scale art gallery, follows the masters themselves and buys works directly out of love for the works themselves, while the artists themselves receive a much higher status in the artistic environment.

                  Of course, the verb is not entirely fair, speaking about the limited creative freedom of artists in the conditions of activity in the market of large collectors, but in the framework of this study, something else is important. In the context of not only the absence of significant art institutions and permanent exhibitions, but also the need to seriously support the emerging modern Russian art, there is an urgent need for a large-scale private initiative. It is significant that several years before the appearance of the MOLCH and the transfer of the Rumyantsev Museum to Moscow, as well as the "Spiritual Testament" of P.M. Tretyakov, in which he speaks of his intention to create a museum of Russian painting in Moscow, it was Soldatenkov who voiced his desire to "create a gallery of only Russian artists" ^[20].

            The collector's interest in national art is not ignored by his contemporaries, who give a broad assessment of his activities. Russian Russian art is perceived by Soldatenkov as a collector who supported national art, laid "a very solid foundation for the Russian school" ^{[21, p. 155]}, the owner of the "Russian Gallery" ^{[8, p. 225]}, a man who believes in "Russian artistic forces" ^[22]. However, if these reviews relate already to the 1880s-1890s and, as it were, summarize the long-term works of the merchant, then the status of the collection itself as one of the first Moscow private art collections begins to be talked about from the very beginning of Soldatenkov's collecting. At first it was called "a small but remarkable gallery" ^[23], which houses the works of I.K. Aivazovsky, K.P. Bryullov, P.A. Fedotov, L.F. Lagorio, S.M. Vorobyov, I.G. Davydov, N.P. Lomtev. Then, with the appearance of the works of A.A. Ivanov, F.A. Bronnikov, A.P. Bogolyubov, M.P. Klodt, E.S. and P.S. Sorokin – "a significant collection of works by our artists", "one of the best collections of Russian paintings in Moscow" ^[24], "collected with great taste and knowledge of the matter" ^[25], as well as "a very valuable art collection" ^{[26, p. 276]}, which since the early 1870s includes works by I.N. Kramsky, V.M. Vasnetsov, K.E. and V.E. Makovskikh, N.N. Ge, F.S. Zhuravlev, G.I. Semiradsky and other outstanding masters of the second half of the XIX century.

               However, the fact that the importance of the collector and the collection itself is recognized does not exclude the question of the nature of its functioning. Soldatenkov's private "gallery of Russian artists" is located in the living rooms of his mansion on Myasnitskaya Street: paintings and sculptures fill the spacious interiors, decorated in accordance with the spirit of historicism. Access to the works becomes possible only after receiving a recommendation through collectors and artists close to Soldatenkov, who at various times acted in some way as proxies – P.M. Tretyakov, P.P. Chistyakov, I.S. Ostroukhov. Art lovers, connoisseurs and craftsmen themselves, wishing to inspect the entire collection or see specific works, often turn to them with a request for assistance ^{[27, p. 31]}.

                 At first glance, the Soldatenkov assembly from this point of view really acts as only the property of a private rich man, who has no claim to publicity. Meanwhile, visiting merchant private collections on recommendation in the 1850s – 1870s is an established practice ^{[7, p. 230]}. Many of the collectors, including Soldatenkov himself, are not puzzled by the issue of popularizing their collections in the broadest sense of the word. Information about the latter is not contained in travel guides to Moscow, and replicated catalogues of collections are not published. However, the fact that visitors are allowed to "merchant art repositories" ^{[26, p. 372]} proves that collectors, although they draw an unspoken line between public museum and private art space, still strive to strengthen the role of their own collections in the cultural life of Moscow.

               It should be noted that in the circle of Moscow collectors, collectors naturally appear who seek to implement the idea of turning a private collection into a publicly accessible museum. In this regard, researchers have repeatedly mentioned the name of V.A. Kokorev ^{[28, p. 12]}, whose public art gallery operated in Moscow from 1862 to 1869 and included more than 500 works by Russian and Western European masters. The name of P.M. Tretyakov stands out, who consistently throughout his life carried out the idea of creating a museum of national art in Moscow, creating a gallery in Lavrushinsky Lane, which received the status of a city institution in 1893.

              However, although critics often put the Soldatenkov collection on a par with Kokorevsky and Tretyakov, and the names of Tretyakov and Soldatenkov have long been equalized in the minds of artists and art lovers ^{[29, p. 250]}, the latter does not seek to give its collection a museum status. According to the memoirs of the artist A.A. Rizzoni, who had been in close contact with the collector for quite a long period, Soldatenkov refused to build "a separate room at his place on Myasnitskaya for his paintings, no matter how many times the conversation about it came up" ^[22], assuming, as already noted above, to make it part of an already existing large-scale public museum after death.

               It seems that in the absence of an intention to create a public gallery, it is impossible not to see the peculiarities of the collector's self-presentation. Soldatenkov, having announced the creation of a gallery of Russian art earlier than others and having been collecting for almost half a century, at the same time does not seek to monopolize the art market, to enter into a kind of competition with other collectors. He retains the role of an art lover, a patron of the arts, closely involved in artistic life, but not separating himself from his collection. The very same "gallery of Russian artists" throughout the entire period of its stay in the merchant's mansion continues to be a space for those interested in the Soldatenkov collection – since its inception, the gallery has been "easily shown to those who wish" ^{[30, p. 116]}

             Of course, the importance of Soldatenkov preserving the function of his collection as a private gallery, as well as the general status of "private" in the artistic life of this period, is the subject of a separate study. However, it is significant that the Soldatenkov collection in the circle of various museum and exhibition sites in Moscow in the second half of the XIX century is consistently perceived as part of the cultural heritage, the house museum, known for its "excellent and long existence" ^{[31, p. 109]}, and its owner is an enlightened patron, one of the initiators of the revitalization of the artistic life of Moscow in the second half the nineteenth century.