The temporary exhibition "The Arzamas Academy. On the 250th Anniversary of the Birth of the Founder of Russia's First Provincial Private Art School, A. V. Stupin" opened on 31 July 2026 at NGSAM | Russian Art (Nizhny Novgorod State Art Museum) and will run until 15 November 2026. The project is dedicated to the artist and educator Alexander Vasilyevich Stupin (1776–1861), who founded the first private art school in Russia outside St. Petersburg and Moscow in Arzamas in the early nineteenth century.[1]

Exhibition Contents

The exhibition features approximately 100 works of painting and drawing: study sketches, portraits, landscapes, and genre compositions created by Stupin and his students across different periods of their careers.[1] The State Tretyakov Gallery served as a project partner, lending 20 canvases; the State Russian Museum and the Research Museum of the Russian Academy of Arts also contributed to the preparation of the exhibition. In addition to works by Stupin himself and his students, the exhibition includes pieces by the artist's teachers, friends, and contemporaries: Ivan Akimov, Vasily Shebuev, Alexey Yegorov, Alexander Varnek, Karl Bryullov, Jean-Laurent Mosnier, and Johann Lampi.[2][1] The core of the display draws on the collections of the Nizhny Novgorod State Art Museum and the Arzamas Museum of History and Art.[1]

Among the earliest exhibits is Alexander Stupin's work Nude Model (1801), painted during his studies at the Imperial Academy of Arts. The exhibition is arranged across five halls, each taking visitors in turn through different facets of Stupin's life and creative legacy and that of his students; the first hall is devoted to the artist's family and close circle, with its centerpiece being the painting Portrait of the Artist A. V. Stupin with His Students by Nikolai Alekseyev.[3] One of the latest and best-known works on display is Vasily Grigoryevich Perov's Hunters at Rest (1871), which recently underwent restoration that revealed new details in the sky and foreground. This painting greets visitors at the entrance to the exhibition.[4][1]

The Exhibition's Protagonists

The exhibition traces the journey of Stupin's students from their first academic drawings to fully professional works.[4] Alongside Perov, the exhibition includes works by Rafail Stupin, Nikolai Alekseyev, Ivan Gorbunov, Vasily Yegorovich Rayev, Pavel Vedenetsky, Nikolai Rachkov, and Yevgraf Krendovsky.[1] Over the sixty years of the school's operation, around 150 artists received training there, many of whom went on to work in the provinces, where there was strong demand for skilled professionals — including in the field of church painting.[4][1]

Significance of the Project

Natalya Sukhanova, Minister of Culture of Nizhny Novgorod Region, described the exhibition as an opportunity to reintroduce audiences to the story of Stupin and his school, which effectively created a system for training artists to serve the regions.[1] Tatyana Yudenkova, Deputy Director General for Research at the State Tretyakov Gallery and Doctor of Art History, called the anniversary a landmark event, noting that the history of art-school development in the Russian provinces begins precisely with the Stupin's Arzamas School of Painting, and that the current project is the first of its kind in sixty years of the school's history.[4]

Sources

  1. NIA "Nizhny Novgorod" — 20 Canvases from the Tretyakov Gallery on Display at NGSAM for the 250th Anniversary of Alexander Stupin
  2. KP — Nizhny Novgorod — An Exhibition Opens in Nizhny Novgorod for the 250th Anniversary of Alexander Stupin
  3. Vremya N — On the 250th Anniversary of A. V. Stupin: The Exhibition "The Arzamas Academy…" Opens at NGSAM
  4. GTRK "Nizhny Novgorod" (Vesti) — An Exhibition Opens in Nizhny Novgorod to Mark the 250th Anniversary of Alexander Stupin