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Along with the Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow, the Russian Museum (Russkiy muzey; Mon 10am-5pm, Wed-Sun 10am-6pm; $5) contains the finest collection of Russian art in the world. The museum, which celebrated its hundredth anniversary in 1998, also has three branch palaces with superb displays on selected themes. The exhibition begins on the upper floor with icons and paintings from the fourteenth to nineteenth centuries, including works by Russia's greatest icon painter, the monk Andrei Rublev (c.1340-c.1430). The lower floor begins with a demonstration of how Russian art came of age in the late nineteenth century. Portraits by Ivan Kramskoy (1837-87) and Nikolai Ge (1831-94) are exhibited near the socially conscious realism of Ilya Repin (1844-1930) and the vast historical canvases of Vasiliy Surikov (1846-1916). There is also a small display of traditional Russian folk art. From room 48 a corridor leads to the Benois Wing , which, apart from housing temporary exhibitions, presents the movements of the early twentieth century, from Symbolism to Analytical Art. There are also works by Mikhail Vrubel (1856-1910), whose impact on Russian art was comparable to that of Cezanne in the West, and the Suprematist Kazimir Malevich (1878-1935), but generally the display of Russian avant-garde art is disappointing, representing only a fraction of the museum's holdings. The Benois Wing also has its own entrance off Griboyedov Canal. At the turn of the twentieth century, the east wing, stables and laundry of the palace were replaced by a Neoclassical annexe built to house the ethnographical collections of the Russian Museum. In 1934, this became an entirely separate Museum of Ethnography (Muzey etnografii; Tues-Sun 10am-6pm; closed last Fri of every month; $4), with displays of folk art, costumes, tools and reconstructed cottage and hut interiors of the peoples of the former USSR.
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