Azerbaijan State Museum of Art

Rustam Mustafayev Azerbaijan State Museum of Art ( _az. Azərbaycan Dövlət İncəsənət Muzeyi) is the biggest art museum of Azerbaijan.cite book | last =| first = | authorlink = | coauthors = | title =Azerbaijan Soviet Encyclopedia| publisher =State Publishing House of the Council of Ministers of Azerbaijan SSR | date =1976 | location = | pages =1st vol, p. 144 | url = | doi = | id = | isbn = ] It was founded in 1936 in Baku and in 1943 was named after Rustam Mustafayev, a prominent Azeri scene-painter and theater artist. The museum consists of two buildings standing next to each other. There are over 3,000 items in 60 rooms on display in total. [cite web|url=http://www.azer.com/aiweb/categories/magazine/82_folder/82_articles/82_art_museum.html|title= Breathing Life Back Into Art: The National Art Museum|publisher = Azer.com|author= |accessdate=2008-04-06]

Seven of the rooms in the first building feature European art, ten Russian art. European art includes works of Italian (Guercino, Leandro Bassano, Francesco Solimena, Lorenzo Bartolini), Francophone (Jules Dupré, Gaspard Dughet, Pascal Dagnan-Bouveret, Benjamin Constant), Dutch/Flemish (Frans Hals, Michiel Jansz van Mierevelt, Adriaen Brouwer, Adriaen van Ostade, Justus Sustermans, Pieter Claesz), German (Johann Heinrich Roos, Fritz August Kaulbach) and Polish (Jan Styka) painters.

The second edifice built in 1885 houses the Eastern art, represented particularly by Persian, Turkish, Chinese and Japanese art. Russian art is encompassed notably by paintings of Karl Briullov, Alexey Venetsianov, Vasily Vereshchagin, Isaac Levitan, Vladimir Makovsky, Valentin Serov, Vladimir Borovikovsky, Vasily Tropinin, Konstantin Korovin and Ivan Shishkin. There are also restored samples of Russian avant-garde.

Among Azerbaijani artists presented are painters Mir Mohsun Navvab, Bahruz Kangarli, Tair Salakhov, Azim Azimzade, Salam Salamzade, Mikail Abdullayev, Togrul Narimanbekov and sculptor Omar Eldarov. The works of Sattar Bahlulzade fill one room entirely.

The museum also holds easel and book miniatures of 17th-19th centuries, lacquered miniatures of 18th-19th centuries and collection of sherbet spoons, made from mulberry tree.

First works were obtained from Saint-Petersburg, Moscow and private collections. The museum expositions were later exhibited in Canada (1966), Cuba (1967), Syria (1968), France (1969), former Czechoslovakia, Algeria (both 1970), Iraq (1971) etc. The museum is opened Tuesday to Sunday from 11:00 till 17:30.

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External links

* [http://www.bakupages.com/pages/museums/museum-of-art_en.php Overview (Bakupages.com)]