The Face of an era. Four centuries of European painting
400 Years of European Masterpieces from the State Hermitage
Museum National Art Centre, Tokyo, Japan
25 April 2012 - 16 July 2012

On April 25th, 2012, the National Art Center in Tokyo hosted the ceremonial opening of an exhibit entitled The Face of the Era. 400 years of European Masterpieces from the State Hermitage Museum collection.

The eighty-nine paintings that make up the exposition will later been seen by the Japanese public in Nagoya and Kyoto. At the opening of the exhibit, Mikhail Piotrovsky noted that the paintings presented there illustrate the entire history of the Hermitage and the stages of the creation of its collection. "The wonderful artists whose works are included in the exhibit have been in the Hermitage collection for so long, that they have become icons of the museum; we say "our Titian." "our Rembrandt," "our Matisse."

The Face of the Era. 400 years of European Masterpieces exhibit consists of four themed sections, covering the period from the 16th to early 20th centuries, each of which is made up of paintings by great masters who became the symbols of their respective eras, among whom are Titian, van Dyck, Rubens, Rembrandt and Picasso.

The centerpiece of this exhibit was Henri Matisse’s monumental painting The Red Room, presented to the Japanese public again after almost thirty years.