From June 20 to October 6, 2024 the Museum of Russian Impressionism hosts the thematic exhibition ‘Beautiful Life Magazine’, featuring ‘Capital and Manor’, the first Russian illustrated periodical of high print quality and diverse subject matter, the so-called 'glossy' magazine, issued from 1913 to 1917 and addressed to persons of rank; men and women of fashion. The exposition features works published or described on the pages of the magazine, which will make it possible examine Russian art in terms of the liking and preferences of the early 20^th century élite. The audience will see paintings and graphics by Isaak Brodsky, Nicolai Fechin, Alexander Makovsky, Anna Ostroumova-Lebedeva, and other artists.
The programme of the ‘Capital and Manor’ magazine stated: «The beautiful life is not available to everyone, but nevertheless, it exists». This life was revealed to readers as a kaleidoscope of balls, social events and country estates. Politicians, athletes, entrepreneurs, aristocrats, sophisticated debutantes and their high-status admirers, even pedigree pet animals, gazed from the centrefolds. These stories coexisted organically on the magazine pages with reports of previews and exhibition reviews, while the covers of all 90 issues were resplendent with colour reproductions of works by recognised old masters and contemporary artists.

Sections of the exhibition refer to different columns of the magazine. For example, an item provided by the museum Collection "Don Cossacks – Fodder Store men" by Eugene Lanceray illustrates the article "Patriotic Exhibition of Paintings 'War'" published in the 28^th issue (1915) of the magazine. The regular author Sergey Kondakov, consistently listing the exhibited works and their authors, mentions the sculptural part in the last paragraph: "Among the few sculptures, most of the works are dedicated to the cavalry feats of our Cossacks – works by N. Nikolaev, A. Snigirevsky and E. Lanceray".

The exposition features almost 100 works from 44 state and 12 private collections – the project has brought together a record-breaking numbers of art collections from Kaliningrad to Tomsk. The State Hermitage Museum, the State Russian Museum, the State Museum of Fine Arts of the Republic of Tatarstan, The S. D. Erzia Mordovian Republican Museum of Fine Arts, the museum Collection and others are participating in the project.

Congratulations to our colleagues – the team of the Museum of Russian Impressionism on the opening of this landmark exhibition!

On the cover: Composition “Don Cossacks – Fodder Store men”, Eugene Lanceray, Felix Chopin factory. 1877-1878