When the bus stopped, we found ourselves facing a line of metal trees festooned with locks, a tradition we have seen in Paris, where a couple puts a lock on a bridge in Paris, or here, a metal tree, and throws the key in the nearby river.
But not really what we came for.
We came to see the Tretyakov Picture Gallery, housing the world's finest and most extensive collection of Russian art. Violetta was in her element, telling and showing us Russian spirituality and national values represented in Russian paintings from all periods, from ancient icons to impressionist works. We were astonished to see the masterful work of Isaac Levitan and paintings by the Peredvizhniki, a group of artists of the 19th century, including Surikov, Kramskoi, and Repin. Violette was so excited to show us this magnificent museum that her energy pulled us along from room to room, and era to era.
Photos of such wonderful pieces could not begin to do them justice, and most were not shown in such a way to be photographed well, but here are a few reminders of what we saw...
Many of the paintings reflected parts of Russian life unknown to us.
This piece is the idealized portrait of a nobleman and his serfs enjoying each others' company,
while this one shows the emergence of social conscience in the subject matter.
I don't think he took it.
Throughout our visit we saw the work of artists we had never heard of, every bit as fine as those known to us. Violetta explained that Russian art was cut off from the west during the cold war, and even now, it seldom travels.
But of course, there was one more pass by the Kremlin and You Know What.
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