History of Things: Secrets of the Moscow Courtyard and Vasily Polenov’s letter

Every Sunday, we give background information on interesting exhibits from the Museum of Moscow archives in the series of articles called the History of Things. This article features a letter written by artist Vasily Polenov to a Moscow history expert Ivan Zhuchkov in November 1916. The letter refers to the Moscow Courtyard painting (1878), one of the artist’s most famous works from the Tretyakov Gallery’s collections.

In his letter, Polenov specifies the place where the painting was created – the corner of Maly Tolstovsky Pereulok (now Kamennaya Sloboda Street) and Trubnikovsky Pereulok, not far from the Church of the Savior on the Sands. In 1877, the artist had just returned to Moscow from Europe, where he studied painting with the local artists. He found himself next to the church while looking for a place to stay: he went to view a flat, stopped by the window to admire the view and took out his sketchpad right away. The study he sketched back then depicted the courtyard from a slightly different angle; it looked less radiant, too. In March, 1878, he painted the Moscow Courtyard, which was later purchased as an addition to Pavel Tretyakov’s collection and became part of popular culture. Reproductions of this painting were printed in magazines and on postcards. The Museum of Moscow has one of those postcards dating back to 1954.

Polenov told the Moscow history expert simply: “My painting depicts a Moscow courtyard in early summer.” That painting, however, allows us to see what the city looked like in the 1870s and how important the courtyards were to Moscow back then.

Starting from the era of Peter the Great, every construction project in Moscow was supposed to be approved by the office of the Chief of Police, but this law was often not observed. Contrary to the law, the facades of the buildings were facing the courtyards rather than the frontage line. Over time, streets in central Moscow abandoned the traditional courtyard planning, introducing spacious squares with building facades, formal gardens and public institutions dominating the new, straighter and wider streets.

But the courtyards did not disappear. They hid behind building facades, moved uptown and acquired their characteristic features: low wooden fences, garden greenery, children playing on the lawns, their parents busy with their everyday lives, and, of course, churches in the background. Every period in the history of Moscow was reflected in the way the courtyards looked. In the 20^th century, the Melnikov House, Moscow’s first skyscraper – the Nirnsee House, the famous House on the Embankment, the new buildings in Maryina Roshcha and Novye Cheremushki, all of them had their own unique courtyards. In the days of Vasily Polenov, Moscow’s courtyards were small, quiet, cozy, slightly sleepy.

The Church of the Savior on the Sands (or the Church of the Transfiguration of the Christ on Arbat Street) can still be found at the same place today. Church services are held there, too. As for Polenov’s courtyard, it is long since gone. In his letter dating back to 1916, the artist described the changes in the landscape, with the church being dark grey instead of white, and the house missing from the picture altogether.

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19th century Moscow cuppa

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Neglinnaya River and Voskresensky Bridge: Old Moscow as portrayed by Apollinary Vasnetsov