The Polenovo museum holds a large and extensive collection throughout the rooms of the house. From European furniture and local archeology to famous paintings and family portraits there’s plenty to see
The museum collection was accumulated along the XVIII- XXI centuries by the several generations of the Polenovs family. A big part of it is the European art – paintings, graphic works, applied art – brought as souvenirs from the various travels.
The second part of the collection is the Russian art of the turn of the XIX-XX centuries: paintings and graphics, as well as applied arts and crafts created by the Polenov’s circle of friends and followers: I.Repin, I.Shishkin, V.Vasnetsov, N.Yaroshenko, K.Savitsky, K.Korovin, K.Makovsky, I.Levitan, M. Yakunchikova, Y.Polenova, etc.
The Polenov family collection is the core of the museum collection: there are important artworks by Vassily Polenov, his sister Elena Polenova, his wife Natalia Yakunchikova, his mother Maria Polenova as well as a family archive, photographs, objects of interior design and a memorial library.
Also, the museum is entrusted to keep and to display a special collection of works by Maria Vassilievna Yakunchikova. It was donated to POLENOVO by her son S.L.Weber, a Swiss citizen, according to his mother’s will.
Archaeological collections were brought from Greek and Egyptian excavations by Vassily Polenov’s father and the painter himself. The paleontological collection was gathered by Dmitry Polenov, the artist’s son, at the banks of the Oka-river in the 1920s.
The largest part of the museum art collections is on permanent display in the Big House and our architectural and landscape collection is on view 24/7 for everyone.