New Hermitage, the first public art museum in Russia, was opened

On February 5 (17), 1852 took place a grand opening of the New Hermitage, the first public art museum in Russia. For the first time in the national history there was constructed a special building for preservation and display of the exhibits.

The relative date when the Hermitage collections started to be built is the year of 1764 when the empress Catherine II acquired 255 pictures mostly of the Dutch and Flemish schools. Up to the middle of the 19th century these collections could be accessed only by a limited circle.  

Following the example of European states, Nikolai I decided to create a new museum, accessible for public. Its building, constructed from 1840 to 1851 according to the design of a Bavarian architect Leo von Klenze, was named the New Hermitage. It adjoined the buildings of Grand and Small Hermitage.

The New Hermitage was the first museum in Russia professionally designed with special exhibit facilities for certain collections which had been systemized according to scientific principles. For the masterpieces of ancient art, and for each national school of art: Italian, French, Dutch, Spanish, Flemish and Russian, separate halls were assigned.

Klenze, master of museum ensemble, scientist, archaeologist, painter, developed a project of the museum based on the experience of European museum building of XIX century. According to the project, the first floor was designed to accommodate antique collections, ancient and modern sculptures, the exhibition of drawings and engravings, as well as libraries. Designing the first floor halls Klenze used the techniques of ancient architecture: granite and marble colonnades, ornamental painting. Second-floor halls were assigned for display of paintings and decorative arts.

In 1851 were developed the "Guidelines on management of the museum”, which dealt with all aspects of the Hermitage activity: it defined staff list, methods of exposure, procedure for admission of visitors. In 1863, new staff members were approved, a director was appointed to head the museum. The first director of the Hermitage was S. L. Gedeonov; one of his decisions was the abolition of entrance tickets in 1866. Since then, the popularity of the museum had grown, so that by 1880 its attendance reached 50 000 people per year.

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