160 years ago, on March 31, 1858, architect Roman Klein was born - one of the most sought-after architects in Russia. late XIX- beginning of the 20th century. It was he who built the Museum fine arts(now the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts), the Muir and Meriliz store (now the Central Department Store), Borodinsky Bridge and dozens of apartment buildings. From stylizations and eclecticism early works he subsequently came to the neoclassical style. Having opened a private practice in 1888, he actually turned it into a school through which many talented architects, such as A.Ya. Golovin, I.I. Rerberg, V.G. Shukhov and others. 
Roman Klein, 1890s
Roman Klein was born into a large merchant family. He was the fifth of seven children of Moscow businessman Ivan Klein. The house was large and hospitable - writers, musicians, and artists constantly visited it. The boy's personality was formed in a creative and culturally educated environment. He early showed an inclination for drawing and music, and the patronage and friendship of the famous architect Vivien played a decisive role in his choice of profession.
In 1879, Roman Klein graduated from the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture, and in 1882 from the Imperial Academy of Arts with the title of class artist-architect of the 3rd degree. Then Klein interned in Italy, studied European architecture, art museums and monuments. He started his practical work as an assistant to the architect during the construction of the Historical Museum in Moscow. One of Klein's first independent buildings was the Middle Trading Rows on Red Square, stylized as ancient Russian architecture. Their construction on a site previously occupied by many small dilapidated shops and warehouses was a striking event of that time.
If you mentally collect on one territory all the buildings built in Moscow by Klein, you will get a whole small town with its center. Klein remained in revolutionary Russia and was quite in demand by the new authorities, but did not live to see the construction boom of the mid-1920s.
From 1918 until the end of his days, he worked as a staff architect at the Pushkin Museum in Moscow, served on the boards of the Kazan and Northern railways, headed the department of the Moscow Higher Technical School. For the last four months of his life, he headed the design bureau of the People's Commissariat for Education.
Roman Ivanovich Klein died on May 3, 1924 in Moscow, where he was buried at the Vvedensky cemetery. In total, the architect built more than 60 large buildings in Moscow, it is difficult to show all of his projects, here are only 16 of them.
1. The neoclassical mansion at 14 Vozdvizhenka was built in 1886-1888 by architect R.I. Klein for the famous Moscow public figure, entrepreneur and philanthropist, owner of the Tver manufactory and representative of two famous merchant families, Varvara Alekseevna Morozova. This mansion was one of the first independent work R.I. Klein, then still a novice architect.
Morozova's mansion. Vozdvizhenka street, house 14. 1886
2. In 1887, the plot at the current address Olsufievsky Lane, 6 was acquired by Roman Klein. Here then were wooden house and several outbuildings. In 1889, the architect slightly modified this building, and in 1896 he added a second floor and placed a drafting workshop and a personal library there.
House of architect R.I. Klein. Olsufievsky lane, house 6, building 2. 1889-1896
From that time on, all subsequent architectural projects of Klein were created within these walls. Ivan Vladimirovich Tsvetaev, the initiator of the creation and first director of the Museum of Fine Arts, came to this house, on the project of which Roman Ivanovich worked here.
3. House No. 3 on Vspolny Lane - A.V.’s mansion. Edzubova, built in 1889. This very modest one-story mansion bears the hallmarks of Klein's eclectic style.
Mansion A.V. Edzhubova. Vspolny lane, house 3. 1889
4. The exotic Chinese-style building known as the Tea House was renovated by architect Karl Gippius under the direction of Robert Klein. The facade is decorated with stucco images of Chinese animals and other historical symbols, stylized as Chinese characters with inscriptions, and on the roof there is a turret in the form of a two-tier Chinese pagoda.
Tea house. Myasnitskaya street, house 19. 1890 -1893
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5. According to the design of the architect R.I. Klein in the center of Moscow in 1889-1893, the Middle Trading Rows were built. They were part of the architectural ensemble along with the Upper Trading Rows. The western façade faces Red Square. Currently, the building complex is under reconstruction.
Medium shopping arcades. Red Square, building 5. 1890-1893
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6. In 1893, with funds from P.G. Shelaputin founded the Gynecological Institute. The architect of the institute was R.I. Klein. The building occupied the corner of Bolshaya Pirogovskaya Street and Olsufievsky Lane. It has an L-shape. The Institute building faces Bolshaya Pirogovskaya Street with a deep balcony decorated with four light columns and an openwork fence. The corner is crowned with a glass dome.
Bolshaya Pirogovskaya street, 11, C1. Gynecological Institute named after. A.P. Shelaputina. 1893-1895
7. The building near the Krasnaya Presnya metro station was built by 1895 on the initiative of Professor A.P. Bogdanov for the bacteriological and agronomic station of the botanical garden of the Imperial Society for the Acclimatization of Animals and Plants. The architects of the building are considered to be R.I. Klein and A.E. Erichson. He financed the construction and research carried out by the station, the owner of the most famous pre-revolutionary Russia pharmacies - master of pharmacy, philanthropist and scientist V.K. Ferrein.
Botanical Garden station on Krasnaya Presnya. 1895
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8. In 1898, the then fashionable architect Roman Klein rebuilt an old building on Petrovka for the Depre family. The elegant house with elements of French architecture has been equipped with the latest innovations. On the ground floor there was a “Shop of foreign wines and Havana cigars, supplier to the highest court of C. F. Depres.”
House of the wine merchant Despres. Petrovka street, house 8. 1898
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9. The four-story building No. 19 on Kuznetsky Most is known in the architectural world as an apartment building with shops of Prince Andrei Gagarin, built in two stages: first by the architect Viktor Kosov, then by Klein.
Passage "Kuznetsky Most". Kuznetsky Most street, 19. 1898
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10. The house of the Vysotsky tea manufacturers at Ogorodnaya Sloboda, 6 was built in 1900 according to Klein’s design. Talented stylist R.I. Klein managed to combine elements of a medieval castle and a Renaissance palace in this house.
Vysotsky's house. Ogorodnaya Sloboda Lane, building 6. 1900
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11. The building in the neo-Gothic style with Art Nouveau elements, which now houses the Central Department Store, was built in its present form in 1908 according to the design of the architect Roman Klein for the Muir and Merilize company.
Muir and Meriliz department store. Petrovka street, house 2.1906-1908
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12. At the end of 1896, the founder of the museum, professor of the Department of Theory and History of Art Ivan Vladimirovich Tsvetaev, developed the terms of the competition for the architectural project of the Museum of Fine Arts at the Imperial Moscow University. The university board, according to the terms of the competition, had the right to choose any project for construction and invite an architect at its own discretion. The relatively young but famous Moscow architect Roman Ivanovich Klein was elected. Engineer Ivan Ivanovich Rerberg participated in the construction of the building since 1898.
Museum of Fine Arts. Volkhonka street, building 12.1898-1907
Klein developed the final project that met the requirements of the Board and the Museum Organization Committee.
Klein's project was based on classical ancient temples on a high podium with an Ionic colonnade along the façade. For the construction of the Museum of Fine Arts, Klein was awarded the title of academician (1907).
13. Klein’s notable work is the reconstruction of an ancient building on Ilyinka, building 12, commissioned by the Serpukhov City Society. The building is based on the house of the merchant Khryashchev, erected according to the design of the famous architect Matvey Kazakov in 1778.
Apartment house I.G. Khryashchev. Ilyinka, house 12. 1901-1904
Klein transformed the façade by making a number of changes. Three large arched windows on the second and third floors became the compositional center of the house.
14. In 1899-1902, the same Roman Klein built a large apartment building with a company store and large cellars on Petrovsky Boulevard for the K. F. Depre Partnership.
Apartment house. Petrovsky Boulevard, house 17. 1902
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15. In 1906, Klein built a mansion for entrepreneur Ivan Nekrasov. The house was built in best traditions English neo-Gothic, the features of which are reflected in the ornament of the upper bay window, the arches of the main staircase and other elements.
Mansion of I.I.Nekrasov. Khlebny lane, house 20. 1906
16. In 1912, a wealthy furrier A.P. Guskov ordered R.I. Klein designed a new type of building for the beginning of the 20th century - a cinema called the Colosseum.
Cinema "Colosseum". Chistoprudny Boulevard, house 17. 1914
True to its name, it was built using elements of ancient architecture. The colonnade enclosing the entrance platform is very successful. The restoration of the building is currently being completed.
If you mentally combine on one territory all the buildings built in Moscow by the architect Roman Ivanovich Klein, you will get a whole small city (so to speak, Klein-stadt) with its own center, which will house the Museum of Fine Arts, a university building, the Colosseum cinema, and a fashionable store. "Mur and Meriliz", Middle shopping arcades, buildings of banks and trading companies. Along the streets lined with poplars and linden trees there will be buildings of hospitals and hospitals, apartment buildings, vocational schools and gymnasiums, student dormitories and canteens. Numerous mansions will be located deep in the green courtyards, set back from the red line of the streets. The Borodinsky Bridge, thrown across the river, will connect the cultural and educational shopping center with the outskirts, where there will be a variety of factories and factories: Trekhgorny brewery (now named after Badaev) and sugar, cement and iron rolling ("Sickle and Hammer"), metal products (against Simonov Monastery) and a tea-packing factory complex (on Krasnoselskaya Street), cotton and silk factories (Deviche Pole), etc. Near this city there will be country mansions with the entire complex of outbuildings and a temple-mausoleum from the Arkhangelskoye estate.
More than 60 large buildings were built by Klein in Moscow - so wide was the creative range of the architect. Each of them is individual in form and marked by artistic taste, at the same time in line with its time, its traditions, its aspirations. Therefore, in Klein’s buildings we find stylization of ancient Russian architecture (Middle Trade Rows), and the Middle Ages (Trekhgorny Brewery and the mansion of V.F. Snegirev), and Gothic motifs (the Muir and Meriliz shopping building), and neoclassicism (Museum fine arts), and a tribute to the Renaissance (temple-tomb in the Arkhangelskoye estate). But the main components of a particular style are formed taking into account the new scale of the city, new ratios of volumes and architectonics of the surrounding urban development, new constructive ideas and utilitarian requirements. Klein was among the first architects of the Moscow school to use iron structures, concrete and glass in public buildings. His searches in the field of architectural composition are in many ways close to the searches of architects of the new style (modern) and neoclassical, although, strictly speaking, his buildings cannot be attributed to only one of these directions.
Klein's buildings have been preserved in Moscow to this day. They can be seen in the pre-revolutionary borders of Moscow - in the center (Red Square, Petrovka and Volkhonka streets, Mokhovaya and Kalinina Avenue), near the Kirovskaya metro station, near the Kievsky station, on Devichye Pole, etc. In the present, grandiose Given the size of the capital, these “islands” seem to gravitate towards the historical core of the city; they turned out to be closer friend to each other compared to the time of its origin.
It is interesting to compare two of Klein's famous buildings, the Middle Trading Rows (1890–1891) and the house of the Muir and Merilize Trade and Industrial Partnership (1906–1908). Seventeen years separate them. This was a period of intensive development of the architect's skill, a period of new trends in architecture that manifested themselves at the turn of two eras. The middle shopping rows are adjacent to the Upper shopping rows designed by the architect A. N. Pomerantsev and flank Red Square opposite St. Basil's Cathedral. In style they belong to 19th century. “In the Middle Trading Rows - between Ilyinka and Varvarka ... wholesale trade is concentrated - mosquito, candle, leather and other so-called “heavy” goods, as well as wines (“Fryazhsky cellars”),” noted in one of the guides to the pre-revolutionary Moscow. The construction of the large and complex building of the Middle Trading Rows on a site previously occupied by many small dilapidated shops and warehouses was the same event as the construction of the Upper Trading Rows; this happened almost simultaneously.
“The construction of the “Middle Rows” caused many technical difficulties due to the unevenness of the terrain and the diversity of soils,” it was indicated in a number of old guidebooks to Moscow. Main building The building is an irregular quadrangle, facing the façade and the 4 streets surrounding it, forming a courtyard, inside which the remaining 4 buildings are located. The main ring building has three floors, some with tents. The inner buildings have two floors and also have tents. The two internal buildings are separated by corridors covered with glass. External entrances to the surface of the yard are on three sides." "The area occupied by the rows extends to 4000 fathoms. The building accommodates more than 400 retail premises and, together with the land, is valued at 5 million rubles."
Seventeen years later, the static and closed system of buildings in the Middle Rows, built by the architect in accordance with the requirements and tastes of the customer - the Joint Stock Company of Shopkeepers, is perceived as outdated. The closed quadrangle of the main building, with its stone vaults, low ceilings, complex system corridors and passages, does not satisfy the changed requirements of trade, and comes into conflict with the main trend of city development, which gravitates towards open dynamic structures. In 1913, a project was even proposed for the addition of the Middle Trading Rows, replacing the stone floors with iron beams, changing the facades for better lighting of the interior, etc. (architect V.V. Sherwood). Already in these unrealized projects of contemporaries, preference seems to be given to another commercial building built by Klein for the company Muir and Meryl.
This department store of European wine with a façade designed in the Anglo-Gothic style was built on the corner of Petrovka Street and Theater Square. Erected on the site of the old Muir and Meriliz trading house that burned down in 1900, it, on the one hand, contrasted with the classical buildings of the Bolshoi and Maly theaters, and on the other, echoed the contemporary Metropol Hotel (architect V.F. Walcott, 1899–1903), located in Teatralny Proezd.
The construction of the Muir and Meriliz store was something of a sensation. “This building is the first in Russia, the walls of which are built of iron and stone, and the thickness of the filling of the brick walls, starting from the foundations, corresponds only to climatic conditions, namely: 1 arshin,” the report wrote. “Buildings made of iron and stone are especially common in America , where such a design is caused by the height of buildings of several tens of floors; when designing the building of the Muir and Meriliz Partnership, it was used in order to be able to make the walls thinner and, as a result, expand the area of the room ... to obtain sufficient illumination of the premises with daylight." It also indicated that the weight of the iron frame of the building, manufactured and assembled at the St. Petersburg Metal Plant, was 90 thousand pounds. The basement of the building is granite; facades are lined with marble mass; the ornaments are made of marble mass and partly of zinc, with copper overlay to match the color of old bronze. And there was another innovation for the first time in Russia - the installation of mirrored showcases on the level of the first and second floors of the main facade, or, as they said then, “a continuous exhibition of goods.” The total cost of the seven-story building was about 1.5 million rubles.
The admiration of contemporaries was caused not only by the external and internal decoration of the store, its size, but also by the new service system introduced in it in a European manner. “In the eyes of Muscovites... “Mur and Meriliz” is, as it were, an exhibition of everything that the capital trades in relation to the tastes... of both rich, high-society circles and the middle strata of the population.” Its significant role in the trade and business life of the capital remains unchanged today.
The main creation of R. I. Klein, which required the highest effort of creative thought and talent from the architect, fifteen years of work and tireless care, was the building of the Museum of Fine Arts on Volkhonka (1898–1912). It was not only a unique result of the architect’s skill, which brought him the title of academician of architecture, but also played a special role in his creative biography and personal destiny.
Roman Ivanovich Klein was brought up in a large family (he was the fifth of seven children) of a Moscow businessman. Artists, writers, and musicians, including Nikolai and Anton Rubinstein, constantly visited his house on Malaya Dmitrovka (Chekhova Street). The boy's range of interests was formed in this environment; he showed a penchant for music and drawing, and the friendly disposition of the architect Vivien towards him played a decisive role in his final choice of profession. After graduating from the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture, Klein entered the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts (1878) and graduated in 1882. In the next two years, he completed an internship in Italy - in Ravenna and Rome, in the workshop of Charles Garnier, the builder of the Parisian Grand Onera. Recalling later the beginning of independent activity, Klein pointed out as one of important points, which were for him “the first serious practical school”, for his work as an assistant to the architects A.P. Popov and academician V.O. Sherwood during the construction of the Historical Museum in Moscow.
By the time Klein met the founder of the future Museum of Fine Arts at Moscow University, Professor I.V. Tsvetaev (1896), the architect already had ten years of independent practice behind him. He built the Middle Trading Rows, the Trekhgorny Brewery, several mansions, educational institutions, the Perlov apartment building on Myasnitskaya Street (now Kirova Street, the Tea store) and a whole complex of hospital buildings on Devichye Pole, near the medical institutes of the architect K.M. Bykovsky. Here, by order of Moscow Klein University, taking into account the latest achievements Medicine built an institute for the treatment of malignant tumors named after the Morozovs (Malaya Pirogovskaya Street, 20), a gynecological institute for doctors (Bolshaya Pirogovskaya Street, 11). The operating rooms in these buildings were located in corner round towers covered with glass; the system of reception rooms, wards and baths was arranged comfortably and economically; Scientific libraries were located next to the front vestibules. In addition, nearby Klein built a university student dormitory, a classical gymnasium (Kholzunov Lane, 14), a vocational school, several factories, apartment buildings, the mansion of Professor V.F. Snegirev (Plyushchikha, 24) and a number of others. Right there, in Olsufievsky Lane, b, the architect built for himself a small house in the Tuscan style, the entire second floor of which was occupied by a drawing workshop and a library.
This complex of buildings, as well as wide circle The architect’s acquaintances and business connections with professors and scientists, with patrons of the arts and benefactors gave I.V. Tsvetaev the basis to call Klein in his first letter to him “an artist dear to Moscow University.” Along with other major architects, he was invited by Tsvetaev to participate in the competition for the design of the building of the Museum of Fine Arts, which was announced by the Academy of Arts in August 1896 and held early next year. As “Builder’s Week” wrote on April 6, 1897, at the competition “15 projects were presented under different mottos. The presented projects were considered by a commission) of members: V. A. Beklemisheva, A. N. Benois, P. A. Bryullova, N.V. Sultanova, A.O. Tomishko and M.A. Chizhova." The projects of academicians G. D. Grimm and L. Ya. Urlaub, the architect B. V. Freidenberg received cash prizes, the projects of architects R. I. Klein and P. S. Boytsov received gold medals, M. S. Shutsman, I. N. Settergren and E.I. Gedman - silver medals. The board of Moscow University accepted Klein's project for execution and invited him to the position of architect and builder of the Museum of Fine Arts.
But let’s return to the moment Tsvetaev met Klein. When the architect was just starting to develop the museum project, Tsvetaev wrote to him: “Meeting sunny morning, I am transported in my thoughts to your working studio and heartily follow the fast work of your creative pencil... The brilliance of the sun and the abundance of light should act in an exciting way on the creative mood - then the work moves faster, things get going... In 2 weeks, or as soon as you find it possible , I am waiting for your call to look at the Museum, which stands on the hitherto bare plan of the Kolymazhny Dvor square... I rejoice at your energy and applaud your flights artistic creativity. The building looks spectacular."
According to the terms of the competition, Klein was to design a vast museum building of “particularly graceful and artistically characteristic form,” with a colonnade along the main building, preferably in greek style(the columns of the Athenian Erechtheion were indicated as a model) and place it near the Kremlin, on Volkhonka, on the empty square of the former. Kolymazhny yard. The building was intended for Russia's first museum of the history of sculpture and architecture - from the ancient times of Egypt and Greece to the Renaissance. It was supposed to combine two functions - a university and an art museum, i.e., be at the same time a training and educational center, “open to everyone.”
The creation of the museum became a matter of life for Klein, as well as for its organizer, Professor Tsvetaev. Thanks to the energy of the latter, it became the center of attention of scientists, artists, and public circles not only in Moscow, but also in St. Petersburg, Kazan, Kyiv, Kharkov, Odessa, Warsaw, Berlin, Dresden, Rome, Athens, etc. In a word, its creation gained All-Russian and European scale.
Klein had to solve such complex artistic problems as decorating twenty-two halls in different historical (with all scientific accuracy) styles, developing projects of glass-covered courtyards - Greek and Italian - that were not previously provided for in the competition program - Greek and Italian, the main (white) hall, which he decided, like a two-tier Greco-Roman basilica, to repeatedly redo the main staircase, etc. Some of these tasks were caused by the need to place inside the building architectural fragments of enormous size (life-size corner of the Parthenon, etc.), which Tsvetaev acquired (the collection was formed in parallel with the construction of the building). Others, such as the change from the Ionic style of the main staircase to the Greco-Roman one, were explained by the fact that during the construction process the main patron of the museum, millionaire Yu. S. Nechaev-Maltsev, donated a huge sum to cover the building inside and out with marble the best varieties.
During his work, Klein repeatedly traveled abroad to study European art museums and monuments, consulted on the plan of the Moscow museum with the greatest authorities in the field of archeology and museology - V. Dörpfeld, A. Kavvadias, V. Bode, G. Trey and others, ordered in Athens models of the details of the Erechtheion, according to which he created the colonnade of the main facade ("the most extensive classical portico in Russia").
Over the course of fifteen years of construction, the architect had constant contacts with members of the committee for the establishment of the Museum of Fine Arts - architect F. O. Shekhtel, artists V. D. Polenov, V. M. Vasnetsov, P. V. Zhukovsky, scientists N. P. Kondakov and V.K. Malmberg, V.S. Golenishchev and B.A. Turaev, V.V. Stasov and N.I. Romanov and others. Joint work connected Klein with the military engineer I. I. Rerberg, architects G. A. Shuvalov and P. A. Zarutsky, artist I. I. Nivinsky, who painted interiors, etc. Klein maintained the closest contacts with the largest construction companies, both domestic ("Mur and Meriliz", "G. List", "Gautier", "Construction office of engineer A.V. Bari", "Chaplin and Zalessky", "Brusov", etc.) , and foreign, supplying marble and mirror glass, teams of stone cutters and plasterers. Brick walls The museum was erected by Tver and Vladimir peasant artel workers, the foundation was made of Finnish granite by St. Petersburg masons, the building was plastered by Italian workers, the marble parts were processed, and the columns were profiled by Italian stone cutters. White marble for facade cladding was mined in the Urals, colored marbles for interior decoration were brought from Hungary and Greece, Belgium and Norway. The museum building, according to Tsvetaev, “was built to last.”
No construction company with which Klein was associated knew such a scale. “I fully understand your passion for this great work of your life,” Tsvetaev wrote to the architect. “This is a wonderful building and the future art institution capable of mastering all the powers of the soul, constituting for its creator both joy and pride, and an object of the purest and strong love. I fully understand that you are leaving here, returning here from your other works, which are prosaic in nature compared to this circle of your poetic architectural dreams, flights and dreams."
In its main volumetric-spatial design, the museum building was built as if from the inside; from the outside, this technique was revealed by a system of “growing” into each other architectural forms. Constructive Understanding internal space, its dynamics and impulsive movement allowed the architect to impart mobility to the appearance of the museum, transform artistic image it depending on the requirements of the moment. “In architectural composition,” Klein wrote in his “Guide to Architecture,” “order is manifested in the arrangement of the building. At the same time, they start from the inner core, from the heart of the layout, bring the internal organism and skeleton of the building to development, dress the latter, outline in the inflections, in the main parts and dress up appearance through dismemberment and decoration. This technique leads to the integrity of the organism, to unity in architecture... we have before us not a conglomerate of separate, randomly piled up pieces, but an indivisible whole.”
In accordance with these general principles, widely used in construction practice by architects of the Moscow school at the turn of the 19th–20th centuries, the building of the Museum of Fine Arts was built.
“The last building,” the Academy of Arts reported, presenting R. I. Klein to the title of academician and awarding him a gold medal, “is due to its unusually extensive size, complexity and variety of architectural tasks, the severity of the classical (Greco-Roman) style appropriated by Moscow University and monumentality building materials will take one of the first places in Moscow, making it its decoration for a long time."
The construction of the building, which dragged on for many years, was caused not only by the grandeur of the scientific and artistic tasks, but also mainly on the financial side of the matter. The museum was created mainly with private funds from so-called philanthropists. In the total amount of its cost, which reached about 2.5 million rubles, the state subsidy amounted to only 200 thousand, and the contribution of the philanthropist Yu. S. Nechaev-Maltsev exceeded 2 million. Tsvetaev invested all his modest funds in the museum, right down to his “children’s” capital. Klein did not receive a salary for years, lived on income from his other buildings and also gave everything he could to the museum, experiencing the fate of this building as his own.
Here, for example, is how Klein described one of the misfortunes that happened in December 1904, in a letter to Tsvetaev, who was in Berlin at that time: “On the night... from December 19th to 20th, at 12 1/2 o’clock night, I was informed that the museum’s scaffolding was on fire. I immediately went to the construction site, and as I approached, the clouds of smoke became more visible and, finally, approaching the building, I saw flames from the windows of the antique hall. Entering the courtyard, I met the fire brigade. , which had just gotten down to business and, of course, began to do what was not necessary - to water the heated facade. I stopped this work, but it was too late, since the window casings had already gotten cracks. Then I went into the antique room itself. , where it was still possible to penetrate, but with difficulty, since the air was saturated with smoke and steam.
...The firefighters were in charge only of the drunken fire chief of the Tver unit, why did I make an order... to send 3 more fire departments. An hour later, the general fire was actually extinguished, but the packaging continued to smolder in the boxes, and the firefighters, without ceremony, pierced the boxes with crowbars and thus destroyed all the contents ( we're talking about about collections sent from abroad. - L.S.)… I was overcome with despair to the point of tears.
After the fire, the following picture emerged: the outside frames and marble lintels of the windows were burnt, the marble walls were smoked in some places, both under the colonnade and on the side facade: 14 iron frames were distorted and broken.
Inside, all the plaster of the antiquarian hall and library was damaged; All the plaster was burnt and the bronze was damaged. There was 8 inches of water on the vaults. Of course, at 27 degrees below zero, everything turned into a common ice mass... It seemed to me that Yuri Stepanovich (Nechaev-Maltsev. - L.S.) reacted most calmly to what happened... he reassured me, saying “The losses are small and will be limited to no more than 25,000 rubles, but I think they are more significant.”
No less dramatic are the letters from the architect to the main patron of the arts in the period 1906–1908, when the museum was threatened with financial collapse and conservation of the unfinished building inside. Then, due to the general economic crisis in the country, the enterprise lost almost all of its wealthy donors, and Nechaev-Maltsev sharply reduced the issuance of annual subsidies.
The construction of the Museum of Fine Arts was completed with extremely limited funds. Debts to foreign and domestic supplier-creditors reached large proportions, and they had to be repaid within several years after the opening of the museum.
Now State Museum Fine Arts named after A. S. Pushkin on Volkhonka, transformed after October Revolution, has world fame. Its interiors housed a rich collection art gallery, and in the white main hall the largest international exhibitions. The building created by Klein is invariably at the center of the spiritual life of the capital, its cultural and scientific interests.
During the years of completion of the construction of the Museum of Fine Arts, Klein led the restoration of the Arkhangelskoye estate, erected there, with the participation of the architect G. B. Barkhin, a temple-tomb of the Yusupov princes in the Palladian style (now the Colonnade); developed a project for the cinema building "Colosseum" for 700 people per Chistye Prudy.
One of Klein's most significant buildings of this time was the Borodino Bridge (together with engineer N.I. Oskolkov, with the participation of architect G.B. Barkhin). A competition for the construction of the bridge was announced by the Academy of Arts in connection with the centenary anniversary Patriotic War 1812 The new bridge was supposed to replace the pontoon bridge, along which the old road from Moscow to Smolensk passed. The design theme of the bridge is dedicated to the victory of the Russian army in the Battle of Borodino Field (hence its name and the main decorative motifs: inscriptions on obelisks, military trophies, helmets, pylons, etc.) - The construction of the Borodino Bridge resolved one of the important transport problems of the growing city - connecting its center with the Brest (now Kyiv) station (author - military engineer I. I. Rerberg).
The last major works of the master, carried out in 1914–1916, included the restoration of the old building of Moscow University on Mokhovaya Street (architect D. Gilardi); preparation for publication of the drawings made and all the details of the building and measurements and, finally, the construction of the building of the geological and mineralogical institutes next to it. The latter flanks the main building of the university and, decided in the same strict style, completes the university ensemble.
This is how the “ends and beginnings” of the creative destiny of the architect Klein came together. Its early construction - the Middle Trading Rows - completed the ensemble in the Old Russian style on Red Square, which included the Historical Museum and the Upper Trading Rows. Its later building flanked the university ensemble in Russian classic style on Mokhovaya Street, opposite the Kremlin. This was the architect’s tribute to the urban planning traditions that developed in the 19th century, in line with which the design of the center of Moscow took place.
The practical activity of the architect continued from the late 80s of the 19th century until the early 20s of the 20th century, from the moment when he headed the work of the drawing bureau, and until the time when he became a professor, first at the Riga Polytechnic Institute, then at the Moscow Higher Technical School. In general, Klein’s work, which developed in full contact with the progressive aspirations of the Moscow architectural school and in line with the general direction of the European artistic culture, was a noticeable phenomenon both in terms of the scale of urban planning problems being solved, and in the variety and complexity of architectural tasks, and in terms of the level of skill and interpretation of new ideas. The architect’s connection with advanced scientific and artistic circles, his commitment to educational ideas and, at the same time, as a rule, reverence for historical tradition placed him among the leading Moscow architects of his time. And it is no coincidence that one of Klein’s last, unrealized projects was the project to transform the Kremlin into a museum town.
In his best buildings, the architect sensitively implemented the new trend that has already developed in our time - “possibly rational, thrifty use of material and labor, perhaps meager, barely enough, dimensions of the building body,” wrote Klein. “We must take into account the direction of the present time; we can no longer act in our works through mass and size to the same extent as it was for the former builders. artistic periods... And if the latest architecture is the result of thousands of years of experience and continuity, then now science has acquired the full right to occupy the same place with them." In this statement, the master means, first of all, the "iron structure of the new time", which he quite successfully used not only in the Muir and Meriliz shopping building, but also in the ceilings of the Museum of Fine Arts, and during the construction of the Borodino Bridge. Even the inclination of future urban planning towards dynamic and open structures is also captured in such works of the architect as the Museum of Fine Arts, the Colosseum cinema and. etc.
During his long practice, Klein proved himself to be an attentive teacher and educator. His long-term assistants were military engineer I. I. Rerberg, architects P. A. Zarutsky, G. A. Shuvalov, P. V. Evlanov, who later built many remarkable buildings in Moscow. The future academician L.A. Vesnin trained under Klein’s leadership, and the future academician G.B. Barkhin worked for several years, who later wrote with great warmth about this period in his “Memoirs”, paying tribute to the correctness, tact and taste of his mentor, calling him "the largest builder of pre-revolutionary Moscow."
IN recent years During his life, Klein was seriously ill, but nevertheless continued to work hard, participated in numerous architectural competitions, and taught at the Moscow Higher Technical School. Architect G. M. Ludwig, who studied with Klein at that time, recalled his studies with him: “There was no case when Roman Ivanovich refused consultation or admission to a student. Being ill for a number of years, he gave us all his leisure time and holidays and even nights... During my performance thesis he gave me visiting hours on Tuesdays and Fridays from 2 to 4 am. Night hours were also assigned to other graduate students - and this was after persistent, intense daytime work. To be sincere in art and honest in life - that’s what Roman Ivanovich taught us.”
Summing up the results of my many years of practice and pedagogical activity, Klein wrote in his autobiography: “When performing architectural tasks, I have always pursued a close coordination of the principles of pure, strict art with utilitarian modern needs and with the constructiveness of the building, and I consider it necessary to put this principle into practice as a teacher.
During my long-term leadership of a construction bureau and during classes on architectural design with IV and V year students of the Riga Polytechnic Institute during the 1917/18 academic year, I developed a completely definite view on the method of teaching art in general and, in particular, architecture... For fruitful teaching it is necessary Close communication between the leader and the students is possible, namely their joint work in the workshop, and the leader not only gives instructions, but actually develops sketches and parts of projects in parallel with the students. Such a statement of the matter not only makes it easier for students to monitor the correct progress of the development of the problem, but also serves as a powerful impetus for the work of their imagination, for the development of their creativity and work techniques."
The architect had to deal with all kinds of clients, and he experienced first-hand the complete dependence of the performing architect on their tastes and requirements. He could treat some of them ironically, call them “fat fools” and allow himself bold experiments in the mansions built for them. This is how he treated one of the wealthy businessmen, in whose house, designed in the style of Louis XVI, he made coffered ceilings for his own practice before using them in the building of the Museum of Fine Arts.
Relationships with other customers were more difficult. During the construction of the museum, Klein sometimes found himself “between two fires.” On the one hand, Professor Tsvetaev demanded adherence to historical and scientific accuracy when developing details and design of the halls. On the other hand, the philanthropist Nechaev-Maltsev could accept or not accept one or another option, based on his own considerations and calculations. For example, in contrast to Tsvetaev, he approved of Klein’s solution to a white hall in the form of a two-tier basilica or a grand straight staircase, which the professor did not want to agree with for a long time, insisting on “a staircase with turns.”
Some customers turned out to be stingy, and then the architect, at his own expense, completed the finishing of individual parts with noble materials, so as not to reduce the overall aesthetic level of the building. This is what Klein had to do when completing the temple-tomb in the Arkhangelskoye estate, since Prince F. F. Yusupov did not allocate the necessary funds.
And yet, even in the most difficult relationships with clients, the architect knew how to defend his principled positions and never followed the lead of fashion. He wrote about this repeatedly and constantly warned his students against the path of easy success and quickly passing glory.
In a course of lectures on architectural planning, Klein not only summarized his rich construction experience, outlined the main ways for the further development of urban planning thought, and developed the problems of using new building materials. He constantly emphasized the moral side of the issue, the ideological basis of the profession of an architect-builder. He ended the "Guide to Architecture" with the following address to to the younger generation future architects: “So let us put our hands to work and concentrate within ourselves, but at the same time raise our voice to light and truth. If each of us can do a little alone, then all the more let the whole class, the whole generation, and what is started today will be on solid feet tomorrow. And we can hope for success, because this will no longer be a selfish impulse: we will embark on the path of purifying art... The taste for architecture has revived more than ever... We have an audience that accepts the living. participation in the development of architecture; a class of architects, full of dedication and animation, possessing extensive and true knowledge and skill; an abundance of auxiliary means of far-reaching technology; we have more wealth at our disposal than ever before; messages that bring us closer to the most distant countries - and will we really not be able to create our own art for our era with united forces and get out of the realm of eclecticism and fashion?
These words still retain their meaning today and once again speak of Klein as an artist who subtly and keenly felt his time, not so distant from ours.
Architect Roman Ivanovich Klein (real name and patronymic - Robert Julius) was born in March 1858 in Moscow into a Jewish merchant family who lived at that time on Malaya Dmitrovka.
When visiting his parents there were often such famous people, like composer and conductor Anton Rubinstein with his brother Nikolai, a virtuoso pianist, architect Alexander Osipovich Vivien and many representatives of the cultural community (artists, writers, poets and musicians).
Most likely, classes with Alexander Vivien determined future choice specialty of Roman Ivanovich.
Next was his studies at the Imperial Academy of Arts in St. Petersburg, which Roman Ivanovich graduated in 1882 with the title of “Class Artist of Architecture.” To improve his skills, he was sent on a pensioner (boarder) trip to Europe from this institution.
There he was lucky enough to work with such a master of architecture as Charles Garnier, who then participated in the construction of buildings for the Paris Exhibition, held in 1889.
After his return to Moscow in 1885, the architect Klein worked as an assistant in the architectural studios of Vladimir Sherwood and Alexander Popov.
Since 1888, Roman Ivanovich began independent practice. The first building was Morozova’s house on Vozdvizhenka Street. It is thanks to Varvara Alekseevna that the young man meets representatives of the Old Believer merchants - the Shelaputins, Prokhorovs, Morozovs and Konshins.
The architect Klein devoted twenty years of his life to one of his most significant creations - the Museum of Fine Arts. Alexandra III(now - the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts).
Roman Ivanovich is also recognized as a specialist in industrial architecture. According to his designs, industrial buildings were erected for Moscow industrialists - Yuli Guzhon, Albert Gubner, the Giraud family and many others.
The architect made a great contribution to the appearance of the southern part of the Kitay-Gorod district. There, buildings of several banks and the Middle Trading Rows were built according to his designs.
After the revolution of 1917, Klein remained in Russia and continued to engage in architectural activities, but did not manage to create anything significant. In 1924, Roman Ivanovich died. The master was buried at .
Houses and buildings by architect R.I. Klein in Moscow
Photo 1. Cinema "Colosseum" on Chistoprudny Boulevard, 17
Photo 2. Apartment house of Countess Miloradovich on Povarskaya, 22
In the 1889-1890s, the architect Roman, already well-known in Moscow by that time, Klein is building a small house for himself on Olsufievsky Lane. He squeezed himself in the middle of apartment buildings built by the architect himself. The house was originally built in the Tuscan or neo-Greek style, the entire second floor was occupied by architect's drafting studio and extensive library.
Roman Ivanovich Klein was born in 1858, graduated St. Petersburg Academy arts, after two years of internship in Europe, he returned to Moscow and opened his own construction and architectural firm. Klein's first major building - the house of Varvara Morozova on Vozdvizhenka - brought him fame, making him a fashionable and sought-after architect among the Old Believer merchants. The famous Moscow merchant families of the Morozovs, Vysotskys, Shelaputins, Prokhorovs, and Depres became his regular customers. His students and masters took part in Klein’s buildings, such as V. G. Shukhov, I. I. Rerberg, G. B. Barkhin, A. D. Chichagov, I. I. Nivinsky, A. Ya. Golovin, P A. Zarutsky. It can be said that Klein built almost everything that the city should have– apartment buildings, mansions, a bridge, a museum, a cinema, a business center (public house), wine warehouses, a luxury store, a dormitory, an institute, a hospital, a college, a plant, a factory, a gymnasium and an almshouse.
And in his house, heavily rebuilt over the years Soviet power and after perestroika, settled unusual historical museum “Our Epoch”, based on the personal collection of one clergyman. The main part of the collection was collected over 50 years Archpriest Vasily Fonchenkov, professor at St. John the Theological University. He began collecting his collection back in Soviet times, risking his life and freedom, after he was visited by a vision of the last Russian Tsar, Nicholas II.
Roman Klein, 1910s
Roman Ivanovich Klein (1858-1924) – architect, academician.
Roman Klein was born into a merchant family on March 19 (March 31), 1858. Musicians, writers, and artists often visited their house on Malaya Dmitrovka. Klein showed an early ability to draw. While still studying at the gymnasium, in 1873-1874 he attended courses at MUZHVZ, in 1875-1877. worked as a draftsman for V.O. Sherwood on the construction of the Historical Museum.
In 1877 Klein entered the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts. After graduating in 1882, he received the title of class artist of architecture, 3rd degree, and was sent for an internship in Europe. After returning to Moscow in 1885, Klein worked for two years as an assistant in the architectural studios of Vladimir Sherwood and Alexander Popov.
In 1888, Roman Klein began working independently. Klein's first major building was the house of V.A. Morozova on Vozdvizhenka - brought him fame, making him a fashionable and sought-after architect among the Old Believer merchants. His customers were the Vysotskys, Shelaputins, Prokhorovs, Depres. The number of buildings built by him is large.
Roman Klein was a great stylist and organizer. This is probably why he became one of the most prolific architects of the time.
Roman Klein's life's work
The main work is the Alexander III Museum of Fine Arts. Klein led the construction, assembling a strong team of architects and urban planning engineers. It included both masters and students, who later became original professionals. Roman Klein lost the competition for the design of the Museum of Fine Arts building, announced at the end of 1896: first prize – G.D. Grimm, second – L.Ya. Urlaub, third – P.S. Fighters.
Klein's project was accepted at the insistence of I.V. Tsvetaeva, the initiator and organizer of the museum construction work. The final design was developed based on general plan And internal layout Boytsova. Klein and his assistants designed facades and interiors in the neo-Greek style. Construction began on August 17, 1898. The museum opened on May 31, 1912. For this work, Klein was awarded the title of academician of architecture. A little about the fate of the people to whom we owe the existence of the Museum.
A year later from heart attack Ivan Vladimirovich Tsvetaev died. Forty days later, Yuri Stepanovich Nechaev-Maltsev passed away, without whose many years of financial support there would have been no museum. Even earlier, in 1905, Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich Romanov, who, as governor general, supported the idea of building the Museum, was killed.
After 1917, Klein managed to remain in demand by the new government. He worked until the end of his life. He was a staff architect at the Pushkin Museum, served on the boards of the Kazan and Northern Railways, and headed the department of the Moscow Higher Technical School.
Klein's houses in Moscow
- Basmannaya N., 19. Khludov's mansion. R.I. Klein, 1884. Later, three floors were added.
- Borodinsky Bridge. R.I. Klein and engineer Oskolkov, with the participation of Barkhin and A.D. Chichagova, 1909-1912. In 1952 the bridge was doubled.
- Botkinsky 2nd, 3. Morozov Institute for Cancer Patients. R.I. Klein and engineer Rerberg, 1903-1912.
- Varvarka, 7. The building of the Varvara joint-stock company. R.I. Klein, 1890-1892. It was built on during Soviet times.
- Vozdvizhenka, 14. Mansion V.A. Morozova. R.I. Klein, 1886-1888.
- Volkhonka, 12. Museum of Fine Arts. R.I. Klein, 1896-1912, with the participation of Barkhin, Rerberg, A.D. Chichagov and V.G. Shukhova.
- Gruzinskaya B., 14. University dormitory, named after Nicholas II. R.I. Klein, 1900.
- Dmitrovka B., 23. Apartment building L.E. Adelgeyma. R.I. Klein, 1886. Rebuilt.
- Dolgorukovskaya, 27. House of the Prussian subject August Siebert. R.I. Klein, 1891.
- Zhukovsky, 2. Apartment building. R.I. Klein, 1912-1913.
- Ilyinka, 12. Russian foreign trade and Siberian banks. R.I. Klein, 1888-1893.
- Kolobovsky 3rd, 3. Wine warehouses of the Depres Partnership. R.I. Klein, 1899.
- Konyushkovskaya, 31. House for a botanical garden. The customer is the owner of Ferrein Pharmacy. R.I. Klein, 1895.
- Red Square, 5. Medium shopping arcades. Klein, 1901-1902.
- Kuznetsky Most, 19 C1. House with a grocery store. V.A. Kossov, 1886-1887; R.I. Klein, 1896-1898.
- Kutuzovsky, 12 C1, 3. Trekhgorny brewery. A.E. Weber, 1875-1904; R.I. Klein, 1910.
- Mokhovaya, 11 C2. Geological Museum state university. R.I. Klein, 1914.
- Mira Avenue, 5. The Perlovs' apartment building with a store, office, factory and residential apartments. R.I. Klein, 1893.
- Mira Avenue, 62. Residential building. R.I. Klein, 1905.
- Miusskaya, 9. Men's vocational school named after Shelaputin. R.I. Klein and Rerberg, 1900s.
- Myasnitskaya, 5. Köppen apartment building. R.I. Klein, 1907-1908.
- Myasnitskaya, 19. "Tea House" by Perlov. R.I. Klein, 1890-1893; Gippius, 1895-1896.
- Nagornaya, 3. Silk-twisting factory Catuar. R.I. Klein, 1890s.
- Ogorodnaya Sloboda, 6. House of the Vysotsky tea manufacturers. R.I. Klein, 1900.
- Olsufievsky, 1, 1 A. Panteleev apartment building. R.I. Klein, 1890s.
- Olsufievsky, 6. Own home architect Klein, 1889-1890s. Rebuilt.
- Olsufievsky, 8. Apartment house of the merchant Kuzin. R.I. Klein, 1895.
- Olkhovskaya, 20. Tea-packing factory "Tea Trade Partnership V. Vysotsky and Co." R.I. Klein, 1914.
- Petrovka, 2 / Neglinnaya, 3. Muir and Meriliz department store. Architect R.I. Klein, 1906-1908.
- Petrovsky Boulevard, 17 / 3rd Kolobovsky, 1. Apartment building with a store for the wine trading company Depre. R.I. Klein, 1899-1902. Added to it in 1932-1934.
- Pirogovskaya B., 11. Building of the Shelaputina Gynecological Institute. R.I. Klein, 1893-1895.
- Pirogovskaya M., 20. Morozov Institute for the Treatment of Malignant Tumors. R.I. Klein and Rerberg, 1900-1902.
- Plyushchikha, 62. Mansion of the gynecologist Snegirev. R.I. Klein, 1893-1894.
