Saratov Art Museum A.N. Radishchev

In 1877, the Painting Professor, Alexey Petrovich Bogolubov (1824 — 1896), who lived in Paris, decided to give the city of Saratov its own art collection in order to establish a museum in the city, calling it in honour of his famous grandfather, A. N. Radishchev, author of the «Travels from Petersburg to Moscow», with the right to enter it freely for all those wishing to do so. To that end, he asked the city to provide «permanent, permanent, solid and decent» with a museum space.

The city only responded to the appeal a year later, but the museum’s foundation was not moved from the dead for many years. It was not until May 1883 that a new museum building was set up at Theatrical Square. On June 23, 1885, the museum was opened. In the first year of its opening, the museum, the first publicly available art museum in Russia, was visited by 62,000 visitors.

«The original collection of my collection was, of course, very small,» wrote the God — Lovers. His congregation consisted of 1,300 works of national and European art: paintings, drawings, watermelons, forts, scalaries, furniture, manuscripts, books, porcelains. There was widespread support for the Bogolubov initiative. He helped with the organization of the museum by the Ober-Prosecutor of the Holy Synod of K.K. Winners, and the future Emperor Alexander III approved the design of the building and gave a lot of towels from his collection.

The Emperatorial Academy of Arts, many collectors and public figures: P. and S. Trevokov, A. Bakhrushin, D. Rovinsky, A. Zvengorod, V. Stasov, A. Rubinstein; artists: F. Bronnikov, who gave the museum more than a hundred of his works, F. Zhuravalev, A. Harlamov. The descendants of Radishev and the brother of the founder of the museum, N. Bogolubov, have received family portraits and family relics of the family of the Radichev. The establishment of the museum in Saratov was an example for other towns of Povolzhia: after a few years, there were artistic and industrial museums in Kazan, Nizhny Novgorod, Samara.

For 17 years, in the rank of Meachman and Adjutant, a future artist sailed abroad, accompanying members of the king’s family name. He had a brilliant career as an officer of the sea, but the love of art prevailed, and for several years the Bogolubovs combined the service of the sea with training in the landscape class of the Imperial Academy of Arts. After completing his course with the Great Gold Medal, he resigned and went on a overseas retirement trip. He returned to Russia six years later, travelling almost all over Europe, participating in the workshops of Marinist artists Eugene Izabe and Oswald Achenbach. After the 1861 exhibition, the Academy of Bogolubova was awarded the title of professor of landscape painting.

His teachers named Silvester Gracedrin and French painter Camille Koro, whose influence is particularly evident in his creation. He became very popular as a marinist because of the sea bat paintings. His paintings «Gangutian Battle», «Seniavinian Battle», and numerous ethos and sketches characterize Bogojubova, an official artist of the General Maritime Staff, as an excellent historian of the domestic fleet. His paintings are illustrated in pen by one of the first Russian guides, «The Volga from Tveri to Astrahani».