Russia and the Arts: The Age of Tolstoy and Tchaikovsky, National Portrait Gallery, London, until 26th June 2016

Modest Mussorgsky by Ilia Repin, 1881
Copyright: State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow
The staging of this important exhibition is thanks to the fact that Moscow’s State Tretyakov Gallery is like the National Portrait Gallery also celebrating the one hundred and sixtieth anniversary of its foundation.

Anna Akhmatova by Olga Della-Vos-Kardovskaia, 1914
Copyright: State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow
Twenty-two of the twenty-six Russian portraits on show have never been seen in Britain before. They are hugely important paintings, depicting some of the key proponents of the Russian arts between 1867-1914, including Akhmatova, Chekhov, Dostoevsky, Mussorgsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, Rubinstein, Tchaikovsky, Tolstoy and Turgenev. It is an opportunity not to be missed.

Anton Chekhov by Iosif Braz, 1898
Copyright: State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow
In return for this generous loan the National Portrait Gallery has loaned works from its own collection to the Moscow Gallery for an exhibition entitled Elizabeth to Victoria: British Portraits from the Collection of the National Portrait Gallery