From Russia.(Report from Europe)

At the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth centuries, the monied classes of Russia looked west for many of their cultural pursuits. They spoke French even amongst themselves and spent time in Paris, where they indulged their passion for art collecting. Among those in the forefront of supporting modem and contemporary art at the time were the Moscow textile merchants Ivan Abramovich Morosov and Sergei Ivanovich Shcukin, who acquired paintings by the French impressionists and post-impressionists, as well as by the new cubist artists. Shcukin became a patron of Henri Matisse and commissioned several works from him for his palace in Moscow, including the famous La Danse (illustrated at top right).

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But the flow of culture was not one way, as is demonstrated by the role played by the impressario Sergei Diaghilev. Best known now for his work in bringing Russian opera and ballet to Europe, he started his career as a promoter of all Russian arts and belonged to the group that founded the magazine Mir Izkusstva (World of art). The French and Russian artistic interchange was also reflected in the early twentieth-century work of artists such as ...