Questions of collecting graphics in the correspondence of fine art experts and artists of the 1920s and 1930s

Abstract

The article examines the statements about collecting graphics contained in the letters of art historians and artists of the 1920s and 1930s. These sources rarely come to the attention of scientists, many of them have not yet been published. However, they contain extremely interesting information about the artistic life of those years, including how the collections of famous connoisseurs and researchers of graphics were formed, what principles guided the collectors, what materials they preferred. The purpose of the work is to identify the range of issues that were especially often raised in the correspondence of art historians and graphic artists, to clarify their positions on the key problems of collecting. The epistolary heritage of P. Ettinger, E. Gollerbach, A. Sidorov, V. Voinov and their correspondents is analyzed using a complex of source studies, art studies, and comparative-historical methods. The author comes to the following conclusions: private collections of graphics played an important role in the culture of the 1920s and 1930s; the creation of these collections was a natural continuation of the scientific work of the owners. Art historians-collectors sought to acquire works that were not in the museum collections, it was important for them to draw the attention of colleagues to small forms of applied graphics, to the work of the best modern masters of engraving.