Like the giants of the Renaissance period, Mikhail Vrubel (1856–1910) was richly talented, his creative quest and achievements in various forms of art were far ahead of the time. He created powerful images that we admire to this day. A major Russian  and European Symbolist and Art Nouveau master, he displayed his artistic abilities in various ways: he painted large-scale pictures and monumental panels, drew virtuosically, illustrated the classics of Russian literature and proved to be a talented sculptor and set designer; he was successful in his sallies into architecture, fashion design and printmaking. Full of sincere faith are his icons and frescoes for the Church of St Cyril in Kiev, sketches for The Virgin and Child, The Nativity of Christ, The Lamentation at the Tomb, The Resurrection.

In the decades when monumental painting suffered decline, the artist boldly turned to large art forms, and painted the triptychs The Judgement of Paris and Faust, the mural The Flight of Faust and Mephistopheles, Venice, Spain and Bogatyr. An elevated spirituality characterises the portraits that he painted of his contemporaries: Savva Mamontov, Nadezhda Zabela-Vrubel, Konstantin and Maria Artsybushev, Pyotr Konchalovsky, Tatyana Lyubatovich, Valery Bryusov, his self-portraits. His images of nature are full of innermost secrets and understatement (Morning, Lilacs, Into the Night). Vrubel, a classical Symbolist, was the author of many works in multiple forms of art that are permeated with antiquity and national folk mythology, classical literature and the musical theatre. His works reflected the outlook of many Russians of the time, seen through the prism of the experiences of a “fin de siècle” person. For about two decades (from the autumn of 1885 until 1902) the artist worked on the image of Mikhail Lermontov’s Demon in Odessa, then in Kiev and Moscow. He created impressive in psychological and dramatic depth series of paintings, drawings and sculptures The Demon (Seated), The Demon in Flight, The Fallen Demon, Head of the Demon. The artist took part in creating illustrations for a collection of works by Mikhail Lermontov that was published to commemorate the anniversary of the writer’s death. Vrubel, like many other Symbolists, was much inspired by the idea of the prophetic mission of the artist. He gave it a concrete form in wonderful, full of power of expression drawings and suggestive in colouring canvases Six-Winged Seraph and Prophet based on the lines of Pushkin’s poem of the same name.

The full of mystery canvas Pan, with the figure of an ancient and lonely patron of nature, equally owes its appearance to folk mythology and Anatole France’s story. Inspired by the image of Carmen, the main character of Georges Bizet’ opera, Vrubel painted The Fortune Teller, expressively conveying the dramatic exertion of the soothsayer of peoples’ fates. Viewed through the prism of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s music are the images from Alexander Ostrovsky’s spring fairy-tale The Snow Maiden; the characters of the ancient folk-legend of “the rich merchant guest” Sadko and Pushkin’s The Tale of Tsar Saltan. His inspiration can be sensed in the watercolours The Sea Princess and Farewell of the Sea King and Princess Volkhova, the paintings The Swan Princess and Thirty-three Bogatyrs, two series of polychrome majolicas based on the operas The Snow Maiden and Sadko (decorative plates Sadko, the half-length figures Sadko, The Sea King, Volkhova, The Snow Maiden).

A happy fate befell the master’s artistic legacy: though, at first the novelty of his style was unappreciated, quite soon it became a powerful influence on contemporaries, and it never lost its relevance over time. The paintings Girl with a Persian Carpet in the Background, The Demon (Seated), The Swan Princess, his illustrations to the works of Mikhail Lermontov and compositions imbued with images from Alexander Pushkin (Prophet and Six-Winged Seraph) have become part of the golden treasury of Russian culture.

The exhibition comprises about 200 works created by the artist in the 1880s – early 1900s. Alongside the well-known pieces from the collections of the Russian Museum the visitors can see the famous paintings and drawings from the Tretyakov Gallery. Last time such a comprehensive retrospective of Vrubel’s oeuvre was held 65 years ago.

Room 87 of the permanent collection of the Russian Museum exhibits the museum’s polychrome majolica collection, including Mask of a Lion, the high relief The Sea King, the fireplace Volga and Mikula.