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If you did not have the chance to experience the most eagerly-awaited art exhibition of the year at the Royal Academy - From Russia - travel with us to Russia to see these spectacular French and Russian masterpieces at home.
Exeter International is offering a special From Russia twin-city break to Moscow and St Petersburg with private guided tours of four of the world’s greatest art galleries: the State Tretyakov Gallery and the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts in Moscow, and the State Russian and State Hermitage Museums in St Petersburg.
Our private tour includes visits to all four museums. Alternatively, you can opt for a shorter trip, three nights in either Moscow or St Petersburg. Prices start at £1,025 per person.
The full itinerary includes a guided tour of the vast Tretyakov Gallery which was founded by Pavel Tretyakov, a 19th-Century industrialist and art collector. It contains a dazzling collection of Russian art, including icons, mosaics, paintings and sculpture dating from medieval times to the 20th Century.
Amongst the treasures at the Tretyakov are icons from the Moscow School of Iconography, plus 18th-Century portraits, Impressionist landscapes and room after room of works by symbolists and pioneers of the avant-garde, including Chagall, Kandinsky and Kazimir Malevich.
Next stop is the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts. The Pushkin is best known for its collection of French Impressionist paintings, which were originally acquired by the Russian industrialists Ivan Morosov and Sergei Shchukin. According to Deirdre Fernand, writing in The Sunday Times, it was thanks to these two men that “Russia became home to the greatest examples of modern art”.
After the Revolution, Morosov and Shchukin’s collection was divided between the Hermitage and the Pushkin. Works by Picasso, Gauguin, Cézanne, Degas, Matisse, Monet and Van Gogh can all be found at the Pushkin.
After a first-class rail journey to St Petersburg, your private guide will show you the highlights of the State Russian Museum. Four times larger than the collection at the Tretyakov, the Russian Museum – once a palace owned by the Grand Duke Michael – is home to scores of masterpieces. We suggest you begin with the ancient Russian icons – don’t miss the stunning collection of Rublevs – and end with some of the most famous 20th-Century Russians, including Kandinsky. Of particular note is the rarely-seen Repin Collection, including Imperial portraits which were hidden from public view during the Soviet period.
A visit to the Hermitage is considered by many to be one of life’s great privileges. Your guide will walk you the short distance from your hotel to the heart of the city and the grandiose Palace Square (Dvortsovaya Ploshchad). Its architectural focal point is the Winter Palace, a masterpiece of Russian Baroque and home to all but one of Russia’s Emperors.
Your visit to the Hermitage will transport you to another era, when Catherine the Great commissioned whole buildings to house an ever-growing collection of the world’s finest art. The Winter Palace now spans almost every artistic period from Ancient Greek and Roman through Rubens and da Vinci, to Matisse. This majestic museum holds the largest collection of fine art in the world.
All our itineraries are tailor-made to individual specifications. However, as a guide, you might choose three nights in Moscow at the Hotel Baltschug Kempinski in a Deluxe room with Kremlin views, combined with three nights in St Petersburg at the Rocco Forte Hotel Astoria in a Superior Deluxe room overlooking St Isaac’s Cathedral.
This two-centre itinerary, including a full day’s guiding in Moscow, first-class train travel between Moscow and St Petersburg, two full days’ guiding in St Petersburg, all museum entrance fees, return economy flights with British Airways, and all airport and train station transfers in a private deluxe car, costs from £1,885 per person based on two people sharing a twin or double room.
All air and local taxes are included. We can also take care of all aspects of your Russian visa, with prices from £120 per person. For full details, phone 020 8956 2756 or email enquiries@exeterinternational.co.uk.
Alternatively, you may choose to stay three nights in Moscow at the Hotel Baltschug Kempinski from £1,135 per person, or three nights in St Petersburg at the Hotel Astoria from £1,025 per person. Both city breaks include return flights on British Airways, private guides and museum entrances as described above, airport transfers and all taxes. For full details, phone 020 8956 2756 or email enquiries@exeterinternational.co.uk.
Image credit:
Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin, Bathing the Red Horse, 1912, Oil on canvas,160 x 186 cm, The State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow, Copyright State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow
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