Pyotr Shchukin

Pyotr Ivanovich Shchukin (1853 - 12 October 1912) was an art collector who built an important collection of Russian ancient art and artifacts and owned several impressionist masterpieces.

Pyotr Shchukin
Pyotr Shchukin
Born1853
Died12 October 1912
NationalityRussian
OccupationArt collector
Pyotr Shchukin

Early life and family

Pyotr Ivanovich Shchukin was born in 1853, one of ten children[1] of Ivan Vassilievitch Shchukin, a self-made Moscow merchant in the textile trade from an Old Believer[2] background who acquired a wealth of 4 million gold rubles, and his wife Ekaterina Shchukin, the daughter of Pyotr Konovich Botkin, a tea merchant and patron of the arts.[3][4] I.V. Shchukin and Sons became one of the largest textile companies in Russia.[5][6]

Art collecting

Shchukin built an important collection of Russian ancient art and artifacts and owned several impressionist masterpieces.[1] His younger brother, Sergei Shchukin, was also a noted art collector[7] while his brother Dimitri Shchukin assembled "Moscow's best collection of Old Masters" that eventually entered the Pushkin Museum. Another brother, Ivan, also collected art.[1]

He was a customer of French art dealer Paul Durand-Ruel[1] and accompanied his brother Sergei on buying trips to Paris.[8]

When Shchukin was blackmailed by a former mistress and needed money to pay her off, he sold his Impressionist paintings to Sergei rather than sell them back to Durand-Ruel for less.[1]

Death

Shchukin died on 12 October 1912.[9]

References
  1. "The man who loved Monet: Russia's greatest art collector" by Nancy Durrant, Saturday Review, The Times, 15 October 2016, pp. 8-9.
  2. "The revolutionary collector who changed the course of Russian art". Rosamund Bartlett, Apollo, 17 October 2016. Retrieved 23 October 2016.
  3. "From Russia" without love: Can The Shchukin heirs recover their ancestor's art collection? Jane Graham, Sports & Entertainment Law Journal, Vol. 6, Spring 2009, pp. 66-107.
  4. Sergei Ivanovitch Shchukin. Archived 2016-10-28 at the Wayback Machine Retrieved 22 October 2016.
  5. SERGEI IVANOVICH SHCHUKIN. Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts. Retrieved 22 October 2016.
  6. Spurling, Hilary. (2001). The unknown Matisse: A life of Henri Matisse: The early years, 1869-1908. Berkeley: University of California Press. p. 417. ISBN 978-0-520-22203-8.
  7. Sergey Shchukin and Others. Hermitage Amsterdam. Retrieved 22 October 2016.
  8. House of modern masterpieces: Shchukin at Fondation Louis Vuitton. Jackie Wullschlager, Financial Times, 21 October 2016. Retrieved 22 October 2016.
  9. Rewald, Sabine, & Magdalena Dabrowski. (2009). The American Matisse: The dealer, his artists, his collection: The Pierre and Maria-Gaetana Matisse Collection. New York & New Haven: Metropolitan Museum of Art & Yale University Press. p. 92. ISBN 978-1-58839-352-4.CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)


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