State Russian Museum

Q: What are the most famous paintings at the Russian Museum?

Ivan Aivazovsky's The Ninth Wave (1850) is one of Russia's most loved paintings. Ilya Repin's Barge Haulers on the Volga is equally iconic.

Q: How is the Russian Museum different from the Hermitage?

The Russian Museum is exclusively Russian art, from medieval icons to the avant-garde. The Hermitage covers world art. Kazimir Malevich's Black Square (1915) is here, not at the Hermitage.

Q: What art movements are covered?

Everything from medieval icon painting through 19th-century Romanticism and Realism to the Russian avant-garde. Malevich's Suprematist works and Kandinsky's early experiments are in the modern galleries.

Q: Which Russian artists are best represented?

Ilya Repin has an entire room, including Reply of the Zaporozhian Cossacks. Aivazovsky's seascapes and Shishkin's forest landscapes represent 19th-century Russian painting at its peak.

Q: Where is the Russian Museum located?

In the Mikhailovsky Palace on Arts Square in central St. Petersburg. Built in the 1820s for Grand Duke Mikhail Pavlovich. It's about 15 minutes' walk from the Hermitage. Repin's monumental canvases are in the main gallery on the ground floor.

Saint Petersburg, Russia

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Visitor Information

Museum Address

Inzhenernaya Street 4, Saint Petersburg, 191186, Russia

Saint Petersburg, Russia

Ticket Prices

500 RUB (under 16 free)

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Featured Artists

13 artists in database

1Konstantin Korovin11 works 2Isaac Levitan7 works 3Valentin Serov7 works 4Vasily Surikov6 works 5Viktor Vasnetsov4 works

The State Russian Museum was founded by Tsar Nicholas II in 1895 to honor his father, Alexander III, who had amassed nearly 600 Russian paintings by the time of his death. Alexander believed St. Petersburg needed a museum to rival Moscow's Tretyakov Gallery and "turn a European capital into the capital of Russian art." The museum opened to the public in 1898, housed in the Mikhailovsky Palace. Initial holdings combined works from the Hermitage, the Imperial Academy of Arts, and the Winter Palace.

Today the museum holds over 400,000 works spanning Russian art from the 10th to 21st centuries, making it the world's largest collection of Russian fine art. Valentin Serov's portraits represent Russian Impressionism, while Wassily Kandinsky and Kazimir Malevich showcase the avant-garde. Ivan Aivazovsky's seascapes and Vasily Surikov's historical paintings fill the galleries. The collection expanded massively after 1917 through state confiscations. In 2022, the museum attracted 2.6 million visitors, ranking among the world's most-visited art museums.

Visiting State Russian Museum

Ivan Aivazovsky's The Ninth Wave (1850) is one of Russia's most loved paintings. Ilya Repin's Barge Haulers on the Volga is equally iconic.

The Russian Museum is exclusively Russian art, from medieval icons to the avant-garde. The Hermitage covers world art. Kazimir Malevich's Black Square (1915) is here, not at the Hermitage.

Everything from medieval icon painting through 19th-century Romanticism and Realism to the Russian avant-garde. Malevich's Suprematist works and Kandinsky's early experiments are in the modern galleries.

Ilya Repin has an entire room, including Reply of the Zaporozhian Cossacks. Aivazovsky's seascapes and Shishkin's forest landscapes represent 19th-century Russian painting at its peak.

In the Mikhailovsky Palace on Arts Square in central St. Petersburg. Built in the 1820s for Grand Duke Mikhail Pavlovich. It's about 15 minutes' walk from the Hermitage. Repin's monumental canvases are in the main gallery on the ground floor.

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Please note: Artwork locations and display status may change. Some paintings may be on loan, in restoration, or moved to different galleries within the museum. We recommend contacting State Russian Museum directly to confirm specific artwork availability before your visit.

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