On 7 June 2024, an exhibition of children’s pictures entitled “Pushkin Was Here” opens in the Rastrelli Gallery. At the heart of the display are works by pupils of the Art Studio belonging to the Hermitage’s School Centre.
In the year that sees the 225th anniversary of the birth of Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin, some special lessons were held in the Art Studio. In them, the youngsters remembered verses written by the great poet and learnt about his life. They then recorded their impressions in pictures made in a variety of different techniques.
Three groups took part in this creative experiment. The youngest (aged 5 and 6) drew with felt-tip pens, the next (aged 6 and 7) with red sanguine and charcoal, while the most experienced (aged 7– 8 and up) produced black-and-white graphic compositions with India ink, felt-tips and pencil.
The best 17 pictures can be seen in the exhibition in the Rastrelli Gallery. On display next to them, in a separate showcase, is a work by pupils of the “Original Doll in Historical Costume” studio – the doll “Pushkin with a Quill Pen”.
The display is supplemented by four videos produced by the School Centre. One of them introduces visitors to more of the Hermitage Art Studio’s “Pushkiniana” – pictures created this year and others that are kept in the archives. The three other short films feature youngsters who study in the School Centre’s groups. They recite Pushkin’s poems, The Song of the Wise Oleg and part of the introduction to the epic verse fairy tale Ruslan and Ludmila.
The exhibition curator is Irina Valeryevna Diubanova, head of the State Hermitage’s School Centre (Research and Instructional Methodology Department).
The exhibition can be visited by all holders of entry tickets to the Main Museum Complex.
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Pushkin is known to have been in the Winter Palace several times as well as visiting the Imperial Hermitage, and memories of him still live on in the museum today. The pupils of the Art Studio reflected on that background in the lessons devoted to the poet and it became the main theme of the exhibition.
The young artists depicted Pushkin in the hall with the Kolyvan Vase, by the Jordan Staircase and at a ball in the Winter Palace. Viacheslav Makarov (aged 10) drew the poet in the War Gallery of 1812, while Masha Khaziakhmetova imagined that Pushkin himself came to the Art Studio and even joined in the lessons.
The youngsters did not restrict themselves to a single theme, though. The youngest group found most inspiration in Pushkin’s family, the story of his children. That is what prompted 6-year-old Stefania Braulova’s drawing Pushkin and His Family Out for a Stroll. Pushkin’s fondness for autumn stuck in many of the budding artists’ minds. One illustration of this is a work by Tyoma Sokolinsky (aged 6): Pushkin in an Autumnal Park. The exhibition also includes pictures of Pushkin on the River Moika, Pushkin in the Summer Garden and Pushkin at Mikhailovskoye (the family’s country estate).
A separate group is made up of fantasy compositions that show the poet in the present-day city, in some fabulous city inhabited by masters of their craft or even in the world of his own fairy tales. That is where Yevgenia Krashenko (aged 8) placed her hero in the picture Pushkin’s Incredible Leap.
It was no easy matter for the teachers to choose the 17 best works, which is how the idea arose to supplement the display with a video selection of pictures that did not make it into the exhibition. On the screen, the children’s compositions alternate with footage of Pushkin walking around the Winter Palace, with one of the School Centre staff playing the role of the poet.
The exhibition was prepared by the State Hermitage’s School Centre (Research and Instructional Methodology Department), with the participation of Olga Vladimirovna Sakson, head of the Art Studio, and Olga Yuryevna Atamanova, head of the “Original Doll in Historical Costume” creative studio.
