Photographs

Interior view of the Faceted Chamber. From album "Interior views of halls of the Grand Kremlin Palace, terems and the Assumption Cathedral in Moscow". Moscow, last third of the XIXth century (1872-1881).
The collection of photo documents of Moscow Kremlin Museums numbers over 8,5 thousands photographs and photo-gravures of the tome from the second half XIX century to our days.

In 1860-s, the collections of the Grand Kremlin Palace, the Armoury Chamber (the Library division) and cathedrals’ vestries were filled up with the new type of art - photographs. These were photos of interiors of the Kremlin cathedrals and palaces, of reliquiae and artworks preserved in the Kremlin. All of them were made on the order of Moscow Palace Administration or Synods Office. Others, presenting sights of lands, towns, buildings and treasure-houses of Russia and other countries, were received as gifts or purchased. In 1920-s, the Kremlin Monuments Department, headed by N.N. Pomerantsev, played an essential role in the fund’s preservation and filling up.

View of the Chudov Monastery"s portico and the Twelve Apostles" Church. Moscow, early ХХth century.
Covered icon of Prophet Ieremia from the main iconostasis of the Assumption Cathedral. Moscow, 1882
The Moscow Kremlin was photoed by eminent Russian masters of light M.P. Nastyukov, I.F. Barshchevsky, M.M. Panov, I.I. Gribov, P.P. Pavlov and others. Pictures made during repair and restoration works are the major part of the collection. The earliest photographs of this kind present the opening of frescoes of the Annunciation Cathedral and icons of the main iconostasis of the Assumption Cathedral while 1882-1883 restoration. Separate views of other towns and lands, from the Solovetsky Monastery and Belovezhskaya Pushcha to Georgia and Tashkent have survived.

F.G. Solntsev. Russia, 1883
Two horsemen and a horsewoman in the Bois de Boulogne (Monsieur and madam Waddington and Count de Pontecoulent). France, 1882
The collection includes photo-portraits of famous painters and jewelers, whose works are presented in the museum - M.E. Perkhin and F.G. Solntsev.

It also possesses pictures by foreign photographers. The main part of them came from the Grand Kremlin Palace. The photo-album “A walk in the Bois de Bologne” presented to Alexander III in the year of his coronation from Parisian atelier “Photographie Hippique”, the pictures of which present beau-monde of Paris.

Empress Mary Fyodorovna with her daughter Xenia and grand-daughter Irina sitting at the table. Russia, late XIXth – early XXth century
Several amateur pictures of the members of the Imperial Family came from the Grand Kremlin Palace.

The photographs preserved in the museum that show events, buildings and objects later disappeared or suffered change either in the Kremlin or in Moscow and in all Russia, are an interesting historical source. Many of them are great works of the photographic art.