In 1887, on his way to Crimea, Polenov saw the Oka River from the window of a train and was forever enchanted by the charm of this marvelous river. “The places along the Oka near Serpukhov and beyond are beautiful,” the artist wrote to his wife. “That’s where we should settle.” A few days later, he returned to the thought: “I dreamed of a little house on the banks of the Oka, how we would arrange it, how we would live there, with a large room that would serve as a museum, gallery, and library. Next to it, a carpentry workshop, an admiralty, a fishing spot, and a terrace. Above all this would be my painting studio and your little study… Wonderful dreams—perhaps they will come true…”
The idea of building a house in these places, which had struck him with their beauty, never left the artist. Returning to Moscow, V.D. Polenov, despite the late autumn season, traveled to the Oka, which had so impressed him during the summer journey. In the “Chronicle of Byokhovo and Borok,” written in his own hand, he noted on October 12, 1887: “I traveled by steamboat along the Oka from the estate of Rochefort near Alexin and saw the areas around Tarusa and Byokhovo.”
Trips to the Oka resumed. In May 1889, together with his student Konstantin Korovin, Polenov returned to Byokhovo, where at that time an impoverished noblewoman was selling a small neglected estate.
The location of the estate did not appeal to either artist. Living in a purchased but still foreign house imposed its own lifestyle and rules and did not fulfill their dreams. But “Borok”—a high hill above the Oka—caught their attention with its stunning view of the river and the opposite bank. (“Borok” means “little pine grove,” which grew at the foot of the hill.) “Lately, I dream only of Byokhovo,” and “I keep imagining how we will live in Byokhovo, if only it comes true…,” Polenov repeated in his letters. Natalya Vasilievna also made plans: “My only wish is Byokhovo; all my hopes are pinned on it. And from time to time we’ll go abroad, but spend as little time in Moscow as possible.”
Negotiations over the purchase lasted nearly three years, and in the spring of 1890, the Polenovs became the owners of the estate and 80 desyatinas (about 216 acres) of land. They moved into a temporarily built one-story wooden wing with an attic, and this marked the beginning of their life on the banks of the Oka. Immediately, Polenov began efforts to exchange the Byokhovo land for the sandy hill. Though it was a wasteland, the land belonged to the peasant commune of Byokhovo village. The commune had no right to sell land, so Polenov arranged a trade: for one desyatina of the hill he so desired, he gave the peasants double the amount of arable land.
Now it was time to begin developing the estate that Polenov had long dreamed of. All those five years, filled with concerns over acquiring Old Byokhovo and the land exchange, his thoughts were consumed by the future estate and its construction. He already had a clear vision of what his home would be like—everything arranged according to his familiar lifestyle filled with work; a home that would be a center of art and a haven for many friends and students. “I’m sure that village life, as we understand it, would benefit us, the children, and many others. I feel we now understand each other better than before and could arrange our life in the countryside according to our ideals. You know I love you more than anything in the world, and I know you love me the same way, so if fate smiles on us, we’ll live happily together,” Vasily Dmitrievich wrote to his wife, Natalya Vasilievna.
Polenov undertook the realization of his plan himself: architecture had long been a passion of his. Polenov’s exceptional talent as an architect was noted by Ilya Repin in his memoirs: “He’s an architect—an excellent one! Even as a student at the Academy of Arts, he used to draft and refine architectural assignments for other architects, and they would win medals and titles…” His study of architecture and experiences from travels in Western Europe gave his architectural work breadth and individuality. Polenov designed all the buildings himself. He wanted his estate to reflect the features of the medieval Western European architecture he so loved. His architectural work stood in sharp contrast to the common estate styles of the time and foreshadowed, long before it became fashionable, the poetic style of Art Nouveau. His architectural style is best described as a “style of different eras,” or more precisely, the “Polenov style.”
On August 16, 1891, the house was laid out, and on September 30, construction of the walls began. By October 2, 1892, the family moved into the new, still unplastered, resin-scented large house in Borok. This date is considered the official founding of the museum. The house came to be called the Big House, in contrast to the temporary house from Old Byokhovo. Not everything inside was yet ready for the large family’s life, but in November 1892, Polenov wrote: “We’re still living in the countryside, we’ve moved into the new house and have been settling in; now we’re hanging paintings, arranging furniture—in short, already working on the artistic part of our home.” In 1897, the wooden structure of the Big House was plastered. The temporary wing was moved from Byokhovo and placed near the Big House. It housed utility rooms and a kitchen connected to the house by a covered corridor.
Construction at the estate began in 1891 and finished in 1904. The estate was enclosed with a fence made of local Tarusa stone. Over those thirteen years, in addition to the main building—the Big House—several utility buildings appeared: a wooden four-pitched icehouse, a cowshed, a chicken coop, a carriage shed, a hay barn, and a stable, as well as a one-story wooden house for workers, called the “Manager’s House.” Near the garden, across from the Big House, was a half-timbered shed used as storage and a carpentry workshop, where the talented carpenter I.M. Nikishin built boats for the Polenov fleet. At the end of the alley leading to the river, on the left side, stood a small white boat shed—“The Admiralty,” where boats were stored in winter and in summer it housed oars, sails, and fishing gear. At the far edge of the estate, closer to the river, stood a log bathhouse for the builders, which in the late 1930s was called the “Prokofiev House”—it was here that S.S. Prokofiev, during a summer stay, worked on the music for Romeo and Juliet.
The white brick building with a red roof, dubbed the “Abbey” for its architecture, was Polenov’s studio; opposite stood a small hut for the children. The utility buildings and the estate wall were all built from local limestone, which the artist valued and called “Tarusa marble.” The once-empty hill transformed completely: a young grove grew around the estate, where, thanks to the artist’s efforts, along with native trees—pine, aspen, birch, oak, and maple—there appeared thuja, American maple, cedar, and fir. In time, clearings were cut, and paths laid out.
Today, the museum grounds also include the Church of the Holy Trinity, built in 1906 to Polenov’s design; the cemetery in Byokhovo, where the artist and his family are buried; the “City of Craftsmen,” the Tourist Center, and V.D. Polenov’s school in Strakhovo.
