SIGHTSEEING TOURS IN RUSSIA, ART TRAVEL: ABRAMTSEVO

Abramtsevo is an estate associated with many famous Russian writers and artists. The estate history can be divided in two periods. In the first two thirds of the 19th century it was owned by a well-known Russian author Sergei Aksakov. Under Aksakov, many other writers and artists, among them Ivan Turgenev, Fyodor Tyutchev and Nikolai Gogol, came there as his guests.
After Aksakov's death, Abramtsevo was purchased by Savva Mamontov, a wealthy industrialist and patron of the arts. There, he set up an arts centre. In the 19th century, the estate hosted a colony of the best Russian artists – such as Repin, Levitan, Serov, Vasnetsov, Nesterov, Polenov, Surikov, Vrubel and many others.
Abramtsevo was at the very centre of creative and spiritual life of that time. It hosted a home theatre. The visiting and resident artists produced scenes decorations for it and even performed in plays together with the Mamontov family members.

The artists in Abramtsevo sought to recapture the quality and spirit of the Russian folk art and crafts. They both collected old national folk art pieces and produced original artworks using traditional Russian imagery and themes. A workshop was set up there to produce handmade wooden furniture and various household furnishings with decorative carvings in the traditional Russian style. There was also a ceramic workshop, where the resident artists and craftsmen produced majolica figurines, tiles and vases. Some of those articles can be now found in several of the most renowned Russian museums. The glazed tile stove with a bench in the main house of the Abramtsevo estate was designed by Vrubel. A splendid tiled “bench with mermaids” at the Abramtsevo park is one of the best majolica works of Mikhail Vrubel.
Working together, the artists Vasily Polenov and Viktor Vasnetsov designed a picturesque church, with frescoes painted by the best Artists of Abramtsevo community. Vasnetsov also designed the wooden “House on Chicken Legs”, an abode of a witch from the traditional Russian folk tale.