State Russian Musuem

I was again faced with the decision as to what I was going to do this Friday afternoon.  The reason it is such a decision is because it is the only day that after lunch I go out on the town and do things.  Monday through Thursday I am preparing for the classes that I will be teaching that day.  That and I don’t want to be in the middle of town and then not make it back in time to teach.  That would be really bad.

Today I wasn't interested in what the other teachers were doing and so it looked like I was going to spend the afternoon alone again.  I was going to go to the Hermitage again but then I remembered that I wanted to go to the State Russian Museum.  So I asked Jessica where it was and then I went.  I was waiting around the Pushkin Statue and there were the people dressed up in costumes so that you can take a picture with them.  I was working things out with Katie and stuck around there too long.  They targeted to and talked to me and asked to take my picture with them.  Long story short.  I got my picture taken with the lady.  She said that it would be 100 rubles.  Well I didn’t have 100 rubles.  I had 1050.  We took the picture and then when I went to pay them I said that I didn’t have 100.  They weren’t going to take my 1000 because they didn’t have change and so they ‘gave me a gift’ and only charged me 50 rubles.  Ha!  Think you can swindle me.  Didn’t work.  At least not like it was supposed to, and I still got the picture.

The Barge Haulers

I really liked the State Russian Museum.  Though the Winter Palace is more detail and intricate than the Mikhailovsky Palace I think I would say that I liked the State Russian Museum better than the Hermitage.  There were still some cool floors and the ceilings were awesome.  The other thing that I liked about the Russian Museum was that the paintings were HUGE!  There were some that took up entire walls.  20 feet tall and 50 feet wide!!  It was incredible.  I don’t know very many paintings but there was one that I did remember.  The painting was “The Barge Haulers” by Ilya Repin.  There was one more that looked familiar but I didn’t know where I saw it before.

The one I wondered where I had seen it

Use the lady in the picture as a scale as to how big this painting was

I also liked in the Russian Museum the exhibition “folk art.”  There were a ton of regional Russian art pieces.  There were toys made from bone and wood carvings.  There were also many pieces of pottery and ceramics.

Wood Combs

Pottery

The other exhibit that I really liked was “Art from the end of the 19^th and 20^th Century Art.”  There were a bunch of modern art pieces and some older pieces.  There were realistic pieces, abstract, and everything in between.