The museum was founded in the middle of the 19th century. Nowadays the museum has got one of the largest, most significant and broadest collections of Russian fine art and icons in the world.
Pavel Tretyakov, the founder of the museum, started to collect pieces of art in the middle of the 1850's when he acquired several paintings by Dutch painters. Already at that time P. Tretyakov decided to create an art gallery in Moscow. The Tretyakov family lived in their estate in the centre of Moscow and as the collection grew bigger the architects rebuilt the house several times in order to accommodate all the paintings. In 1881 p. Tretyakov opened his private gallery to the public, and the entrance was free of charge. A few years later the gallery was presented to the city of Moscow and the official opening took place on August 15th, 1893. The first gallery was called "Moscow city gallery of Pavel and Sergei Tretyakov". The collection numbered 1287 paintings, 518 drawings and 10 sculptures as well as 84 paintings of foreign artists.
In the period of 1900-1905 the facade of the gallery was reconstructed in neorussian style to the design of the famous Russian painter V. Vasnetsov.
In 1918 the Tretyakov gallery was nationalized and became the property of the Russian Federative Soviet Republic and received the name of "The State Tretyakov Gallery".
In 1928 the first reconstruction of the gallery took place. In 1932 three new halls were added to the gallery. During the first days of the Great Patriotic War the collection of the museum was ready for evacuation. In the middle of the summer of 1941 seventeen train carriages were evacuated from Moscow to the city of Novosibirsk in Siberia. Only in May of 1945 the gallery was again opened to the public.
During 1982-1996 the gallery was closed for capital reconstruction. Today the museum is opened for visitors. It has got its branches in different parts of Moscow.
Opening hours:
Daily from 10:00 till 19:30, the ticket office closes at 18:30.
Closed: on Mondays.
