The paintings from the former collections of Ivan Morozov and Sergei Shchukin include works by Renoir, Degas, Cézanne, Monet, Gaugin, Picasso and Matisse, the last of which created a work shown in the exhibition on commission from Shchukin. The two collectors regularly opened the doors of their estates housing their collections to young art enthusiasts, perhaps shaping the taste of Russians at the time. But not for long. When the Bolsheviks seized power in 1917, Shchukin and Morozov left Russian and their collections were nationalised. First they were put on display in the State Museum of Modern Western Art, but the dictator Stalin saw them placed in the vaults of the Pushkin Museum and the Hermitage.
